Trick or Treat

It seems that every year Eliana's excitement for Halloween (or holidays/celebrations in general for that matter) outdoes the previous year's anticipation. She gets SO excited, I love it! What's even better is how contagious it is, especially when it comes to Olivia. They both were so excited for Halloween and were always asking anyone who would listen what they were going to dress up as and then share their costume ideas. Neither of them could wait to wear their costumes and go Trick-or-Treating!
A few days previous to the trunk or treat event our church put on we carved our pumpkins. Neither of the girls hesitated getting right in and cleaning them out, much to our surprise! We even had a baby pumpkin that I didn't plan on carving but Livi had so much fun she insisted that it needed carved, too. Eli wanted to have a scary pumpkin and found a mean, vampire-like face she wanted carved. Livi was too in to the pumpkin guts, or "slimies" as she called them, to care about a face, so we did a couple of simple, cutesy ones too.


They both couldn't wait for the big day to don their costumes . I like to let them choose what they're going to be and pick out their costumes; they are the ones that will be wearing them, after all (I know to some that may seem like an obvious choice but I can't believe how many parents are such perfectionists they can't even let their kids pick)! Eli knew right away what she wanted to be and had a rather specific idea in mind-she wanted to be a Unicorn Rider. Done. Livi was a bit harder, she wanted to be LOTS of things. I thought for sure she'd choose a monster costume since, as far as she's concerned, she's not Livi, but Livi Monster (she introduces herself that way and will correct you otherwise if called something else!). After showing her LOTS of different pictures and giving her different ideas, she ultimately chose to be a Green Crayon. We also let the girls choose what we should dress up like; I think they have as much fun coming up with something for us as they do for themselves! This year Sandy was told he'd be a clown and I was supposed to be a nerd. Not a stretch for me, haha!
We lucked out and had some really nice weather for Trunk-or-Treating and both girls' buckets were so full they didn't even bother going to all the trunks there. There were SO many kids there!! We passed out around 7-8 bags of candy (and some of those were the super-sized bags, and only one piece per kid!) and luckily ran out just as the event was shutting down. That meant the only candy coming home was what the girls got, YAY (although Sandy was disappointed the Swedish Fish and Sour Patch Kids were all gone).


Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year we had to make it fun for the girls that day, as well. After church (and my sugar CRAZY primary class) we made a day of Halloween movies and treats and, of course, had to have a fun "Monster Guts" dinner, any other day being Spaghetti and some Jello Jigglers. Olivia has been asking every day since Saturday if she can go Trick-or-Treating and, every day, is VERY disappointed she doesn't get to. I love having kids, the holidays are so much more fun, even Sandy's not such a scrooge anymore (he was as excited as the girls to dress up this year!!). So here's to the holiday kick-off! I love this time of year!