All things Halloween

It seems like there are so many things to do around Halloween. Pumpkin patches, parties, tons of trick or treating opportunities. In an effort to save time, I am going to talk about all of our fun at once.

We started out our trick or treating festivities at Stephen’s office. Last year was our first experience at his work. Oh my goodness. It is so hard to describe how much effort goes into this event. Each area decorates and everyone dresses up according to a theme. The main theme this year was Children’s stories/shows. The IT department even participated this year. I told Stephen they were all stick in the muds and they were going to decorate even if I had to come in there and do it myself! They went with a Scooby Doo theme. Stephen even dressed up as Shaggy. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of their area. I didn’t take pictures of all the areas because I didn’t want to be “that” dork. Every area outdid themselves this year. A few of the themes were Toy Story, Cars, Under the Sea, Candyland, Snow White, Zoo, Alice in Wonderland and It’s a Small World. There were a lot more but I can’t remember them all. Emily, of course, loved Under the Sea. I thought It’s a Small World was pretty cool. They put the kids in wagons and pulled them through the different countries. Honestly, it was hard to choose who was the best. They always are over the top with the candy handed out. We really didn’t have to do any more trick or treating if we were just going on Halloween loot and candy.

Emily got to dress up at school. They did a little parade to show off all of the costumes. It was so cute to see all the kids dressed up. They got on stage and told everyone their name and what they were. I don’t think there were any duplicate costumes, which really surprised me.

On Halloween, we headed downtown to go to Trick or Treat on Main Street. This has quickly become a tradition for us. Grandma comes with us and we walk down Main Street and collect candy from the merchants. It’s always a lot of fun to see all the costumes. We never make it all the way around. Later that evening, Stephen took both kids out to trick or treat around the neighborhood for a bit. After they went to a few houses, Zachary stayed home and I took Emily around to a few more houses. We met up with her bff and they had a lot of fun running up to the houses.

So much Halloween fun! Way, way, way too much candy. I have a huge paper bag full of candy to get rid of. I think we need to cut some trick or treating down next year. It will be a lot different with Emily being in kindergarten that for sure. We really wanted to enjoy this last year of “freedom”.

Make a slideshow design

Halloween Festivities

In between birthday parties, we celebrated Halloween. I LOVE Halloween. I love decorating. I love candy and I love dressing up the kids. We had some fun festivities lined up this year. We attended a playgroup Halloween party, went on a scavenger hunt at Stephen’s work and checked out Trick or Treat on Main Street. We also went to Centralia to their Fall Festival and marched in their Kiddie Parade. And we can’t forget that Emily went trick or treating on Halloween.

What did Emily and Zachary dress up as? Stephen and I had no say in the matter. Emily had their costumes picked out back in March. There was NO changing her mind. She was going to be Princess Tiana and Zachary was going to be a frog. Princess and the Frog. They were super cute. Zachary did surprisingly well in his costume. He never complained about being green. Emily looked cute, as always.

The scavenger hunt at Stephen’s work was so much fun. This was our first event with his work since he started working there in April. I must say that his company is awesome. Not just because they had a cool scavenger hunt but that do neat stuff for their employees.  We checked in for the scavenger hunt and was given a map. The kids got to trick or treat on all three floors of the office. There were hidden treasures along the way where the kids collected special goodies and got a stamp. Some of the different cube pods were decorated in cool themes. There was Shrek, The Grinch who Stole Christmas, a beach theme and a jail, among others. Super fun! At the end, they showed their map and got a special treasure box for completing the hunt. Emily and Zachary had a blast!

On Friday, we met up with Emily’s best friend and her brother for Trick or Treat on Main Street. Emily and I have been going to Main Street ever since she was one. We love this tradition. It’s not all about the candy though. The atmosphere is festive and you get to see some really cool costumes. We got a bit of a later start so we got on the slow end of the line. It took forever to make much progress as there were just so many people down there. I am not even sure if we made it halfway before we crossed the street to head back towards the car. None of the kids minded. I think they were done as well!

On Saturday, we loaded up the car with our wagon, costumes and cupcakes. We were going to Centralia for their Fall Festival and to celebrate Emily’s birthday. In the afternoon, they have a kiddie parade. Tons of kids get dressed up and separate into different categories to have their costumes judged. Winners get some kind of prize. My sister and her husband made a cool wagon float. They made a Mystery Machine for the kids. In it was Daphne, Shaggy, Scooby Doo and a zombie. It was pretty neat. We actually barely made it for the parade! Emily had so much fun waving at everyone as she was being pulled through town in the wagon. She has the princess wave down!  After the parade, we walked back downtown and rode their miniature train and walked through the craft fair. It was lots of fun.

And then there was Halloween! After dressing up as Our Lady of Lourdes for Sunday School, Emily crashed. After her nap we carved a pumpkin. It was my first experience ever at carving a pumpkin. It was fun to have the experience with Emily. She wasn’t too sure about sticking her hands in and scraping the guts out though! After dinner, Emily and I headed out around the neighborhood to trick or treat. Stephen stayed back home to get Zachary to bed and hand out candy. Emily is really getting into the candy thing. Especially considering this was her third time trick or treating this year! I was pretty proud of her because I only had to prompt her a few times to say thank you. She was pooped by the end of the day. But not too tired for a piece of candy before bed!

It’s crazy how Halloween has turned into a weeklong celebration! I really didn’t even touch on the playgroup party or Emily’s preschool party either. We had so much candy it was quite disgusting. We did end up donating a lot of it. No one person should have that much sugar pulsing through their veins!

Our Lady of Lourdes

The zoo keeper. We lost the frog!

Halloween- looking back…

Memories…..

7 days old. First Halloween!

 

2007- our little pumpkin

 

2008- QUACK!!!

 

2009- Ariel

Halloween 2009

This was the most fun Halloween yet! Emily really had so much fun this year. She “got” it. And you could tell! She picked out her costume as soon as we got back from vacation- a princess. At first she was going to be Cinderella but then changed her mind as we were surfing the ‘net looking at costumes. She had to be “Ariel’s wedding dress”. We had that sucker bought before the end of the first week of September. Try hiding something from a 2 year old for almost 2 months!

We had a lot of fun. Stephen and I took turns taking her around the neighborhood. I took her down the court and Stephen took her around the block. That was plenty for a little girl. Now I just need to send all the candy to work with Stephen because this pregnant lady can’t keep her hands out of the candy jar!

Had to throw this one in! She actually ASKED to have her picture taken with her Daddy. He should feel proud!

Trick or Treat on Main, a tradition

We have been going to Trick or Treat on Main since Emily was one. Not a long time, but I think 3 years constitutes a tradition. We met up with Emily’s bffs, Chase and Slade, for lots of fun. We never make the whole circuit, either the kids get tired or the parents get tired of moving at a snail’s pace, but always end up with a huge amount of candy regardless. Luckily the rain moved out in time for the fun to begin!

Emily really got the whole “trick or treat” thing this year. She has so much fun. She would run up to the candy hander-outers and yell “TRICK OR TREAT!!!!!!” She was one of the most enthusiastic kids I have seen. She had to examine every piece of candy as well. Cracked me up!

I heart this girl!

Pumpkinland

Our second trip to the land of pumpkins. This place is more about playing than pumpkins though. And the kids LOVE it!

We met Emily’s bestest friend Chase and her awesome mommy Julie there earlier this week. The girls had so much fun. It is so cute to see them walking, holding hands and talking. I know I have said this before..I don’t know if you can have a bff at this young age but if you can Chase is Emily’s. These girl love each other and enjoy each other’s company so much. You can tell by their squeals when they haven’t seen each other in a while.

They had so much fun at Pumpkinland. Emily is such a daredevil and Chase is such a scaredy cat. I guess opposites do attract! Emily has really opened up recently and has no fear on certain things. She had no problem riding the zip swing thing or climbing up the bales of hay. She went through the maze, got lost and found her way through. It was so funny listening to her tell Chase about it while they were lounging on the tire swing. “It was dark in there! I got lost” Chase says “You found your way out though.” They were cracking me up!

Even though the day was overcast, everyone had a great time. Thanks for going with us Julie and Chase!

Spooky tree

Have been slowly working on some outdoor Halloween decorations and by slowly I mean one project. I am sad that my giant inflatable Scooby met his untimely maker. Or was it the Christmas one. I am really not sure and am too fat and lazy to figure it out. I really have nothing for outside now.

Ghosts. Tree. Ghost tree. I had an idea. I could make a ghost tree! I just had to decide how to do it. Think, think. That is a feat since I am pregnant as my brain has stopped working. Trash bags. Black and white trash bags. Not sure if ghosts are black but I had some junky black trash bags that I was willing to part with and only so many white grocery bags that hadn’t been recycled.  I filled the bags with other bags, pieces of the cut up bags and so forth. I even made one using a paper plate and an old cd. Eclectic. Different. Just plain odd. Not sure. You probably can’t decide by the pictures either but I’ll show you anyway.

Pumpkins!

Pumpkin farm??? Pumpkin patch??? I get confused…What do you call it? Other than fun?! We usually go to several during the season but due to the yucky rain we only hit 2. We had fun though so quality over quantity!

We hit our first farm/patch this past Sunday. Emily, Stephen and I set off on our adventure after church and lunch. Stephen and I have a “tradition” of going to the same farm for the past several years. In something like 6 years, we had only missed once. Until this year. apparently, everyone decided that Sunday was a wonderful day to go there. Only we didn’t get the memo. We drive over there and see that there is a line of cars about 15 deep just to turn on the road the place is on. No telling how long it would take you to actually get into the parking lot. How enjoyable would it really be if it was that crowded. So we decided to try another one.

And it was SO much better than the first one would have been. It wasn’t crowded and it was free also. There weren’t as many “picture-taking opportunities” but we had a blast. We crossed the troll bridge, walked the troll trail and even did the corn maze. Emily led the way in there. Needless to say, we made our own exit! It was a lot of fun. We found an awesome pumpkin as well. Before we left, Emily had to climb this HUGE haystack tower thing. She has no fear. I couldn’t watch her come down- I was so afraid she would fall!

Even though we didn’t make it to our “traditional” place, we had a blast. Maybe even more fun. The pictures show a happy little girl!

She’s so darn cute!

Walkin the troll trail

In the corn maze

Queen of the world…or is it princess?

Who knew??

That it would be 77 on Halloween??? So much for the white turtleneck that I bought to go with Emily’s costume! Poor girl was sweating buckets! Got to love St Louis weather!

We started our day out on Main Street. We got there a little later and we could tell! It was super packed!! We made it about halfway down one side of the street before we called it good and decided to walk to the park instead. You were walking at a turtle’s pace and the kids were getting ruder by the minute. Emily did a lot of walking but started getting a little pooped and was busy checking in her bucket every couple of steps. She finally decided that she wanted to sit in her stroller. It was kind of a mistake though I later realized as Emily had full access to her bucket o’ candy. We soon realized that she was eating tootsie rolls- with the wrapper on!! She wasn’t a happy camper when mommy took the bucket away. We did learn that she LOVES tootsie rolls, as that was what she picked EVERY time!

We came home for a dinner of chili (thought it was supposed to be chilly when we planned the menu) and then headed out for trick or treating around our ‘hood. The plan was for Stephen to take Emily around the block while I handed out candy. Emily wasn’t happy with our plan! She wanted Mommy to go with them. So Mommy took her around the block and then Daddy got a turn with her down the court. She loved all the decorations and doggies except Jake- the dog behind us. She’s only seen him from across the yard. He looks like a miniature horse close up! Emily had a good time and did pretty good saying “tick teat”. She was hot and sweaty by the time the night was over. We decided to let her have a few pieces of candy and she was in toddler heaven! She even got to stay up a little later than normal and help hand out candy.

It was a good halloween with my little duck! I can only imagine what next year will hold! My only question is what is she going to talk about now???

It’s a ducky day!

Happy Halloween!!

sugar overload!

As always, there’s more pictures in my Picasa albums!

A day early…

Emily spent all day with Grandma and Papa yesterday and she LOVED it! They were busy, busy! They played outside, made cookies, went to the park, had McDonalds, napped, carved pumpkins and watched It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Hopefully I’ll get some pictures of the fun day.

Stephen and I went to pick her up after dinner so Emily could go Trick or Treating at their house since we have so much going on Halloween day. She had it down pat! “Tick teat” and then walked through the front door! Hopefully she won’t do that tonight when Stephen takes her around the neighborhood.

Emily and Daddy heading up

“Tick Teat”