Five Days of Halloween

Halloween with kids is a week long candy fest. I am so disappointed that we even purchased candy this year because a) Jacob and Maddie came home with enough sugar to feed an army and b) nobody trick-or-treats on our street! Granted, we got home around 7:30 last night, but we only had 1 group of trick-or-treaters at our door and yes, I was prepared to dump our whole bowl of candy into their bags (let someone else's parents deal with the constant demand for sweets!)

But alas, we have (literally) pounds and pounds of candy. Not great for a mama that loves sugar and is trying to watch what she's eating. I've heard you can box it up and send it somewhere. I'll be googling that right after this post.

So our festivities began last Wednesday with a special Halloween playdate at Owen/Nathan's house.



This picture is FULL of "say cheese!" faces. LOVE IT. There were actually many more kids present but this is the best we could do when trying to capture a group photo.



On Friday, we participated in the Goblin Walk again in San Carlos. (This was the event where our picture was taken last year and them remarkably appeared on the cover of the SC Parks and Rec Guide). I had to get a picture of Jacob with his mustache on immediately as he could only stand wearing it for about .05 seconds.



Cover worthy?



You'll notice a trend with Maddie. In the majority of her trick-or-treating pictures, she is sporting a lollipop in her mouth. She couldn't stand having to wait to eat all the candy she was collecting. Lollipops are always her first choice.



How many Marios and Luigis do you see? Apparently, we are not original.



Mark was a super trooper. His costume was extremely too tight and the back of it (secured by ridiculously small pieces of velcro) would not remain closed.



Then of course we ran into our friends the Pirates (err, the Robins)



But unfortunately Nathan refused to wear his costume



But Owen sported his pirate suit beautifully!



Of course we had to stop and take candy-eating breaks



Then, there is always that moment when we realize that we are D.O.N.E. This was exactly that moment.



(This was only a fraction of the Halloween photos -- to see all that we took, click here).

On Saturday, the kids got to wear their costumes once again for a Halloween Party at Marcia's house (unfortunately I didn't take any pictures that day). The highlight of that day was when the kids got to dress their "mummy". I'll see if I can grab a pick from a friend's camera but Maddie and Jacob got to use toilet paper to wrap me up like a mummy. Those little fingers don't realize how strong they are -- they ripped the toilet paper with each wrap so Mark had to jump in and help!

On Sunday, we headed to Lemos Farm as a family. We've been to Lemos many times in the past but we had to make one more trip to take some Halloween pictures and capture the true Fall spirit. Jacob, as always, LOVES to feed the goats.



Maddie, however, will have absolutely nothing to do with it -- no matter how many times Daddy asks.



She will, however, pet a baby goat





And these cut outs are always a good time









Time for pony rides







And pumpkin picking





And "say cheese" faces







And it's not Halloween without more sugar





Mark was sweet and offered to take some pics of me and the kids since I seem to be the one always holding the camera. Of course it's impossible to get BOTH kids in a picture. So we took one with each.





Finally, we had to stop and measure ourselves on the way out



As always, Lemos was a great time for all! (Again, this was only a portion of our Lemos trip photos. Click here for the whole album.)

Finally, the "real deal" came on Monday night when we celebrated Halloween at Tyler and Sydney's house. They invited us last year and it's always a good time. We start off with dinner and play time at their house, then we all head out in one big trick-or-treating group in their beautiful San Carlos neighborhood (no hills!)

Mark and I opted to be comfortable and didn't dress up for this one, but the kids certainly didn't even notice!

Trying to get a group photo:



This picture pretty much sums up the chaos that ensued:





So much fun!



Every so often, Jacob made me take a picture of his loot.



I had to throw this in. Notice the lollipop?





Nathan was about to start hosing people down



Which I wouldn't have minded much -- as Maddie was clearly a sticky, sticky MESS.



(Click here for all of the Halloween night photos.)

Ahhh, as much fun as Halloween is, I'm always relieved to move on to Thanksgiving and Christmas! Especially as this year we'll be heading to Kansas AND Angel Fire, NM. Many more fun times to follow this holiday season!