Trick-or-Treat, Smell My Feet

Another Halloween has come and gone, and unfortunately for me, I wasn't quite in the Halloween mood this year.  Which for those who know me, is a HUGE surprise because Halloween is my favorite holiday.  Yes, even over Christmas.  I know, I'm a scrooge.  But this year, the totes and boxes of Halloween decorations in the basement were not calling my name like they usually do.  I'm one of those people that has to have all Halloween decorations up by October 1st!  But this year the first came and went and nothing.  I thinks it's because I don't quite feel like this home is "home" yet, I don't feel settled and comfortable yet.  So the idea of unpacking boxes upon boxes for decorations for 30 days just to pack everything up again didn't seem to agree with my psyche.  And by the time I did kind of feel in the mood for decorations, it was way to late to put anything up without looking like a complete moron.  So our house was bare and spookless.

However, the kids and I did enjoy the Halloween spirit, even if it was a little unconventional this year.  First we went to Earle May during their "pumpkin party" and we went through a maze, decorated sugar cookies, ate popcorn, and picked out and painted our pumpkins.  What little artists I have!

I was positive that Konner would want to be Lightning McQueen again this year, as he was last year, and I was pretty excited about it since that would mean I didn't have to buy a new costume...but I was wrong.  Ever since Toy Story 3 has come out, he has been over the moon with Woody, so when we walked down the aisle full of costumes, he immediately picked out the Woody costume.  I suppose it was a good purchase of $19 seeing as he has now worn the costume for almost 7 days straight!

And I was almost positive that Natalli would want to be a princess again this year.  The last three years she's been Belle, Snow White and Tinker Belle.  But imagine my surprise when we went down the costume aisle and of all things, picked out Jessie the Cowgirl as her costume.  She has also been in love with her since Toy Story 3, so I suppose it shouldn't surprise me, but I thought for sure she'd want to dawn a pretty dress and some high heels, since she is my little diva of a princess.

And well, Heath is still too young to pick his costume.  And honestly, I wasn't going to go for a "theme" Halloween, but since Woody and Jessie were already picked out, I thought, "how cute would it be if Heath was Buzz Lightyear?"  So I searched and searched and hidden underneath a bunch of Superman and Iron Man costumes was the very last Buzz costume in a size 2T, perfect for my little Heath.  So Buzz he was.  And he was quite happy about it too seeing as he loves Buzz and can actually say his name.  And he even left the hood on, what a cooperative little boy he is!

The weekend before Halloween we did our annual trip to Night Eyes at the zoo.  There's not a whole lot of trick-or-treating and I can see where it would be boring for older kids, but my kids are at the perfect age to enjoy it to its fullest.  Not all the animals are out and about, but the ones that are are eager for viewers.  The paths were decorated with lights, painted murals and tents filled with people anxious to hand out candy to little hands.  This year we were lucky enough to take my niece and nephew with us, as they were in town and I was in charge of watching them.  That's right, I took 5 kids to the zoo to trick-or-treat by myself!  *please enter applause here*

Natalli and Sadie even got their faces painted.  Natalli was so upset that she smeared hers by the end of the trip, but the lady was so nice she repainted the whole thing for no charge for her. 

Then came Halloween.  We were supposed to go up north for my nephew's birthday party and then trick-or-treating Algona-style.  But what do you know, the boys were up all night pucking the night before and I woke up feeling like the absolute worst.  It was like my body was rejecting the idea of Halloween altogether...bummer.  So my in-laws took Natalli up north for the party and trick-or-treating, while Greg and I stayed home with the boys.  To say that I was upset was a little bit of an understatement.  My boys are finally into the whole getting candy thing and they were going to miss it!  BUT....there was a light at the end of the tunnel!  Greg had gone out to get groceries and when he came back informed me that trick-or-treating was happening (I thought it was the night before, so I thought we had missed it).  The boys hadn't puked all day, so I pulled my "not feeling well" butt off the couch, got the boys dressed and went trick-or-treating.  It was so cute to see them jump out of the wagon when we stopped at a new house, run up to the door and say "thank-you" after grabbing a piece of candy (or in Heath's case, a whole handful because he didn't really get the concept of "one piece"), then run back to the wagon, hop inside and get ready for the next house.  It was so nice outside that most of the parents were sitting outside handing out the candy and there were soooo many houses handing out candy, kind of surprised me for being such a small town.  But seeing as we are surrounded by a lot of little kids, I guess it makes sense.  We didn't even visit that many houses and they got so much candy....we might have candy until next Halloween!  Natalli said she had a great time trick-or-treating up north....too bad I didn't get any pictures of her!

We even got home in enough time to hand out some candy from our house.  Konner really enjoyed holding the bowl as the eager kids threw their hands into it looking for some goodies. 

Oh well, there's always next year.  And next year I will be in the spirit, even if I have to force myself!  And we will have more than just our pumpkins lining our front porch as decorations!  ....I wonder what the kids will want to be next year....