If you’ve been reading here for any amount of time, you might remember that we usually head to our church’s annual Trunk or Treat to celebrate Halloween. Last year we partnered with another local church to celebrate, but this year we didn’t host anything at all. There is a part of me that is so sad when established traditions screech to a halt, but this year we were able to squeeze our week with so many other fun things that we didn’t have time to be sad.
First up was “Tappy Halloween” at our dance studio. The competition teams don’t participate, so I didn’t get to watch Ella dance, but we did get to observe the little girls and have a special snack after class. Sophie was a mermaid for Halloween this year. We bought her costume over the summer at the beach and she has been so excited to wear it all year. Since it kind of looks like a ballet costume, it was perfect for class.
Can you tell she was happy to see me there? This is the cheeky grin I got almost every time I pointed my camera in her direction!
If you didn’t notice already, 7 of the 16 girls in her class were Elsa (if you haven’t seen the drinking game meme going around you should google that now). It was funny to see them all lined up in a row because NONE of those seven girls were wearing the same costume. Of course, we were in the car approximately 7 seconds after class dismissed when Soph asked if she could just wear her Elsa dress up for Halloween this year?!
We got to watch them do a few dances and activities before the party began. They did a cute routine to the theme song from Ghost Busters (which Soph is convinced says “Go Busters!”) and then marched in a circle to another cutesy song and got to show us a few ballet moves one at a time. Again with the grin.
These two were mostly excited about the candy. They barely said a word or glanced in our direction while they were scarfing down the goods. We did manage a few photos of them together, but you’ll notice that they rarely look at the camera AND smile at the same time. At least they are both looking in the same general direction this time. Fortunately, Jen got a great picture of them together and it only took us about 18 months to accomplish!
At school last week, it was drug free week (or something, I can’t quite remember what they called it) and the girls got to dress up every day. I wish I had gotten a picture of them every day, but since Josh gets them ready most mornings I didn’t always get to see them. Monday was crazy sock day, Tuesday they wore sunglasses, Wednesday it was hats, Thursday was camo day and on Friday they got to dress up as a storybook character (a.k.a. Halloween costumes). Ella has been saying she wanted to dress up like Dorothy for months. Gran made her beautiful dress and I found her sparkly red slippers at Walmart! We had a wig for her to wear (I was Dorothy several years ago), but she didn’t like the way it looked, so we just french braided her own hair. I didn’t want Sophie to wear a glorified ballet leotard to school, so we pulled out this pink costume and sent her to school as the owl in Hello, Harvest Moon. She wanted to be the pink owl last year, so it worked out great!
Then a cold snap came through and we realized that she couldn’t wear her mermaid costume on Halloween night either! She was just as excited about being the owl again, so we freshened her up, added some lip gloss and were good to go! I was so thrilled that both girls ended up in handmade costumes this year anyway, that’s pretty much my favorite thing.
We headed to the same local Trunk-or-Treat as last year and took pictures with some of our very best friends. This church is where Ella goes several Wednesdays a month for a missions class, so she saw lots of people that she knew.
Brother Cousin and his parents met us there and he was so much fun to watch! He was pretty enamored with the lollipops and a certain Halloween pencil. We were so surprised to see our Pop & Granmom hosting a trunk and they had some pretty special prizes for us to add to our buckets.
We tried our best to get some pictures of the kids together after we finished grabbing candy, but they were over-excited and hopped up on candy, so we weren’t exactly successful on that front.
These are some of my favorites, but they prove how difficult it is to get an 16 month old to hold hands with two stinky girls. Hey, at least they were all looking in the same direction!
I did manage to get one super good picture with my girls (thank you, K). I told Josh he was off the hook after our porch step photo op, so I didn’t even bother asking for a picture here. I generally make him pose way too many times over the course of a holiday, so I was trying to be kind.
After we had gotten as much candy as possible in one stop, we headed off to a Halloween party to finish off the night. Jennifer had joked earlier in the week that her husband was throwing a last minute party and it turns out he wasn’t kidding! Since we live in a pretty rural area, my girls had never been trick or treating door to door, so we knew they were in for a treat. Of course, the party was adorable and we spent some time around the fire warming our hands and melting marshmallows for s’mores. The real treat, though, was a hayride through a neighborhood a few streets over for trick or treating. There were about 10-12 kids on the trailer and we joked that the houses were going to start flipping their porch lights off when they realized how many kids were headed their way!
It was hard to get any good pictures, but we would drop them off at a house and then drive alongside them as they walked door to door. My girls were so enamored with the process and got way more candy than we know what to do with.
We had planned to hang out around the fire a bit more, but by the time we got back to their house these girls were so tired and Ella’s ruby red slippers were starting to take their toll. Josh and I stopped to get gas on the way home and this was the scene in my back seat. I joked that they were asleep before we ever got out of the driveway!
We usually eat candy before bed on Halloween, but they didn’t even wake up when we changed them into pajamas. They slept late on Saturday morning and it wasn’t until almost lunch that they remembered the candy. We sorted through it, tossed everything that we wouldn’t eat and put it all in one big bowl. We let them each keep one type of treat from their buckets before combining it, so they each had a ziploc bag full of Reese’s Cups that they didn’t have to share. We all had some candy for lunch and then E was so exhausted that she fell asleep in her bed before noon (this may have been prompted by a game on the iPad where her daddy beat her score handily). Not only did she sleep with her favorite childhood bunnies (background story here, here and here), but she slept with her candy bag close by. I’m guessing she was concerned Sophie might finish off her own bag and move on to Ella’s!
It was such a different Halloween for us this year, but we all had such a good time and I told Josh before bed that it might have been my favorite one yet. There isn’t much better than friends, new and old, and happy little girls.
