Happy Halloween

Our Halloween Festivities started last week at Baker Butler's Trunk or Treat.  We recently watched "The Wizard of OZ" for the first time with Jared and Lydia and since they loved it so much we decided to decorate our trunk with a "Wizard of Oz" theme.  We had never decorated our trunk for a trunk or treat and had a fun time.  We painted our rainbow, made the Emerald City and the yellow brick road for FHE on Monday (and tied in quite a few "gospel themes" from the Wizard of Oz) and then I made a quick stop at the dollar store for a few accessories. We were all pretty happy with how it turned out and would happily decorate our trunk again. We had been hesitant in the past because I often want to leave before the event is over because I want to get kids in bed.  This year it worked out well because Mark needed to be at the church for mutual and my Mom was here to stay with Jared and Lydia while I was at school and Mark was at church.  Next year they will be 9 and 6 3/4 so staying later really won't be a big deal. It would have been fine this year but this worked out really well. I also thought the event went from 6:30 - 8:00 and was pleasantly surprised to learn it ended at 7:30.  We handed out 351 pieces of candy (1 per child)!  It was a really good turnout and lots of fun.  It was pretty chilly but not awful.

  

We had plans to carve our pumpkins Sunday night so Mark could do it with us (this Monday/Tuesday were his first shifts at the airport so he was unavailable those nights) but totally forgot to.  So we did them Monday right after school. In Halloween's past Lydia has been all about cleaning out the pumpkin and Jared has been the hesitant one but this year they switched spots.  Jared was ready to work and Lydia was too grossed out.  This was the first year that Jared did a majority of his, especially the carving part which was awesome.  Lydia helped me clean it out some and helped poke out some of the design.  It was weird to not do it with Mark and I was glad my Mom was here to help out.  We got them done fairly quickly and were happy with how they turned out.  Lydia originally wanted a happy face then a Koala but when she saw this stencil she decided it was the one.  I was quite pleases with her selection.  We got it done really quick. It really was nice that Jared did so much of the work on his.   He did a really great job. 

Since my Mom was still in town we decided to go over to UVA for trick or treating this year.  We did not go last year and Jared and Lydia were happy to go this year.  It really is a fun cool tradition that UVA does. I don't know how popular idea it is for universities to host an event like this but its such a historic place it sort of adds a fun twist to trick or treating. We attended the spooky music organ concert beforehand and then walked over to UVA.  Parking still stresses me out so I decided to call the church where the concert was held and ask for directions to their building and if I could park for the concert and then keep my car there for trick or treating at the Lawn.  They said I could and gave me turn by turn directions, it was so great.  We picked Jared and Lydia up from school, drove to the church, ate a snack of Halloween sugar cookies and changed into costumes.  Easy. The concert was fun and spooky.  It was an easy 7 minute (or less) walk to the Academic Lawn where trick or treating took place.  My Mom Loved it!  I was so glad we took her there.  We got there right as it was starting and were able to miss a lot of the crowds.  I mean it was still super busy and crowded but less so than I remember from previous years.  Jared and Lydia had great manners which is always nice to see.  The weather was perfect.  Lydia didn't even need her sweater she was fine in her leotard which has short sleeves.  It was sunny, no wind and like 63 degrees.  Perfect! We just did one side of the rooms and then headed out. 

Waiting for organ concert. 

Lydia took forever when the students had boxes like this.  This girl was really nice and thought Lydia was super cute which she is. She decided about 10 days before Halloween that she wanted to be a ballerina instead of a koala which surprised me.  It worked out well as we already has the leotard but my lack of bun making skills really stood out.  She also hated having me attempt to do a bun but we powered through it.  She refused to do any turns or dance moves while trick or treating then danced all the way back to the car.  I guess she prefers not having an audience. 

This was so random, but fun.  This group was dressed as snowboarders and had this fun photo booth set up. Jared loved it.  He would have preferred the medal to some candy. 

 We stopped to eat dinner at Costco which was super easy and were home and done with the festivities by 6:15.  Once we got home Jared and Lydia counted and sorted their candy and then read some Halloween books.  It turned out to be a great, fun fairly low key Halloween. We missed having Mark with us. Last year I had to work on Halloween and this year he did.

Jared got 97 pieces of candy 

Lydia got 90 pieces of candy.

Luckily we sorted through it and passed a lot on to my mom and Mark.  Neither Jared or Lydia like Snickers or any candy with nuts really so that always helps.  There were a lot of Snickers tonight.  

This month has been so busy!  I'm happy to see the end of it, even if it is my favorite month of the year.  I just looked at my folder of pictures for October and we have over 350 pictures for the month. Having family visit, a baptism and birthday, plus Fall makes for a lot of picture taking!