Halloween Fun, Part 2

For the fourth year in a row, we spent Halloween at the Shondelmyers' house. I absolutely love this tradition of dinner and trick or treating with our best friends. We couldn't wait for the day to arrive. Katherine asked daily when it would finally be Halloween.

Saturday afternoon, the kids changed into their costumes and posed for pictures before we left home. Katherine had most consistently said she wanted to dress up as Mulan for Halloween, but on Saturday afternoon she called an audible and was determined to be a ballerina. There was no changing her mind once it was set, so we had a cute ballerina trick or treating with us. 

Since Halloween was on a Saturday, there was no rushing around after school/work to get ready, and we arrived about 4:00 to let the kids play and the adults visit before we went Trick or Treating.

We had chili and hot dogs for dinner. The big boys ate on the swing set. 

We had twelve kids in our group this year! It's so special that they make the same memories together every year. I can't believe most of the kids were Katherine's age when we started trick or treating together. 

The weather was beautiful. It was perfect! The kids had a blast trick or treating. It was our first Halloween without a stroller or a wagon, and our kids' stamina had increased dramatically. Brooke and I were laughing about memories from four years ago, when we got half way through the neighborhood and all the kids started crying that they were too tired to keep walking. We had to send Corey home to get a vehicle to come get them, ha! Things were very different and less stressful this year. 

There was no shortage of candy. Things were a little different- more houses just had buckets of candy in their yard instead of ringing door bells and passing out candy. Our kids didn't care, as long as they got candy, ha!

Katherine was so cute. She got so excited about every piece of candy and ran and ran to stay caught up with the big kids. She always has so much joy and excitement for any sort of activity. I love that about her!

Finally, when the kids buckets were overflowing (I'm not exaggerating), they decided they were ready to go home.

They got back and had to scope out all their candy. 

Elisabeth and Kaydence traded candy. Kaydence isn't a chocolate fan, and that's Elisabeth's favorite, so they swapped.

Katherine had so much fun playing with Kaylee on Halloween. They were adorable playing together. Katherine makes new friends everywhere she goes. 

We headed home with enormous amounts of candy, tired, sticky kids and happy, happy memories. It was one of the best Halloween's we've had. The kids are at such great ages for the fun, and the weather and friends were amazing. We can't wait for next year!

Halloween Fun, Part 1

We had a few fun Halloween activities leading up to the big night. On Wednesday night the kids had a Trick or Treat game night at AWANA. They all got to wear their costumes, and played games, got their faces painted, painted pumpkins, ate popcorn and hot chocolate and listened to a devotion. They came home hyped up on sugar and excited to talk about everything they did. 

Katherine chose a different costume for every activity, ha! On Wednesday night she was a cheerleader. Elisabeth chose a Jo Jo Siwa costume, and I had to laugh when I thought back about my guilty pleasure of watching Dance Moms before I had any kids. Never ever did I dream that I'd have a daughter dress up as one of the kids on Dance Moms a decade later.

Nathan dressed up as the Mandalorian and Samuel was Pikachu. There was no family theme this year, but they all loved their costumes. 

On Thursday evening we had another Fancy, Family Dinner Night, and this week we had a Halloween theme. The kids helped me pick the menu and prepare all the food. The girls helped make pumpkin patch dirt for dessert. 

We had candy corn fruit, mummy dogs, witches' brooms, and pumpkin patch dirt. 

It was a fun dinner!

On Friday morning, Katherine dressed up as Everest for her dance class. Cute! Cute!

On Friday afternoon, two other moms and I had a Halloween party for our friends who are doing school at home this year. The kids have been most bummed about missing the fun things at school this year- parties, assemblies, field trips, etc. I know they're not doing any of that this year (another reason we chose homeschooling), so we planned our own party. We invited our friends, and everyone said yes! We ended up with 19 kids at the party, which was bigger than any of us thought when we started planning. I think everyone was excited about some homeschool fun!

These Cuties both dressed in Zombies costumes- a cheerleader from Zombies 1 and a werewolf from Zombies 2. 

My kids have recently started watching Minute to Win It, and they have loved it! That gave me the inspiration to plan some Minute to Win It games for the party. We divided the kids into four teams and played a few games. It was organized chaos with so many kids, but everyone had fun!

We played Dizzy Mummy, Candy Corn Chopsticks, Cup Stack, M and M Sort, Spider Toss, and Cookie Face. 

After the games, we took a few pictures of all the kids in their costumes. We're really grateful to have so many friends on this homeschool/virtual/Epic journey with us.

These five Cuties were all in the same Pre-K class last year. It was a fun reunion with all of them after their fun Pre-K year got cut short. 

The little kids with big personalities- 

And the Big Kids :)

After our games and pictures, we headed upstairs for a door decorating contest. I am not crafty and never would have come up with this activity. That's why I'm thankful for friends. One of my friends organized it and brought all the supplies, and it was a big hit! The kids got so into and had so much fun! Thank you for crafty friends :)

We ended the party with snacks, prizes, goody bags and trampoline jumping

 

It was such a fun afternoon. Before the moms left, we started planning the Christmas party, ha!