13 Days of Halloween 2013

 Warning- lots of pictures :)

When we set up our Halloween decorations this year Eli asked, "Can we get out the Christmas decorations too?!" I'd have to admit that setting up for Halloween actually gets me excited to decorate for Christmas too, knowing it's right around the corner. In fact, tomorrow is Halloween and we just got our Christmas toy books in the mail today! The market must feel the same as me :)

 Although Brian would prefer to skip over the Halloween Holiday and head straight into Thanksgiving, this is what we did this year to celebrate the season I love with the kids:

#1: Halloween decorations-- Rarely does anything stay put where I like it too, Thanks to this cute little guy. oh well. I strategically plan to put non breakable things at his level, so I'm totally OK with it :)

#2: Monster game-- roll the dice to create your monster, very fun combinations!!

 #3: Ghosts-- one version of this or another seems to come back each year!

 #4: Decorate Halloween cookies-- a seasonal favorite. Of course more gets eaten then decorated! This year we enjoyed making them in St. George!

 #5: Movie Night-- We watched Disney's Monsters Inc. and ate popcorn

 #6: Pumpkin faces and Dress-up witch: Fun paper and sticker craft with the kids

#7: Neighborhood Boo-- neighborhood fun, leave treats with cute poem secretly on a doorstep. My kids love to doorbell ditch!

#8: Dress-up day-- The kids got out the box of Halloween costumes and had fun playing with them. Why not?! I love to let them use their costumes while they can instead of just the one night..

 #9: Haunted house-- Jackson and Zoey came up with this all on their own! Decorations, music and confetti to top it all off!

#10: Playing in the leaves-- we've had some beautiful fall weather, hope it sticks!

#11: Dress like a bug day at school! "I'd rather eat bugs than do drugs" is the theme at school, we made this bug costume for Jackson which he was proud of! The wings were painted blue like his bug eyes..

#12: Pumpkin Carving--

#12 1/2: Gray Halloween Party- we had the traditional Halloween dinner, went to Monsters University with all the cousins, went for a treat bag hunt in the woods, and costume parade (Grandpa and Grandma passed out stuffed monster characters from the movie). It was a fun-filled day!

#13: Trick-or-treating! The best way to top off the season. The kids want to get as much candy as possible this year. If the weather cooperates, we'll try to accommodate their wishes! It all goes to the dentist the next day in exchange for cash so they can get a toy with all their hard earned money :) The day is usually so busy I don't have time to snag a picture of them, but we got plenty of them in costumes already. But here are the kids at their school programs...

Happy Halloween!  

Update: 11.1.13

So Halloween was a blast! Grandma Gray came over in the afternoon and stayed with the kids so I could go to Jackson's Halloween parade. Afterwords we took teh kids to PG park for a trunk or treat. I made chili in a pumpkin and cornbread for dinner. once we had a good meal, we headed out for neighborhood trick-or-treating! After fininshing our neighborhood, Jackson wanted to keep going, so I dropped off the kids at home with Grandpa and Brian while the two of us set out again for the neighborhood behind our house. He loaded up with candy- which will be turned into money from the dentist! he kept saying "I love spending time with you mom! Thanks for taking me!" That was worth the extra effort! he was cute all by himself saying trick-or-treat and Happy Halloween at each door! Our little boy is growing up fast though!