Halloween Overload

We Halloweened like crazy this year.  (Yes, I'm aware that "Halloween" isn't a verb, but you can make anything a verb these days, so I did.)  The girls wore their costumes to no less than 4 separate events and got candy at each one, so we have a lot of candy around here, all of which is being consumed by the adults in the house (sadly, b/c I don't need any of it!)  Luckily the kids have forgotten all about it.

Sophie was Cinderella this year and Avery was a Unicorn.  Don't let this face fool you, Avery really did love her costume.  It was just really hot in it that day.  (I'm learning that in California you almost need two different costumes: one for the day and one for the night.  The temps have been in the high 80's all week.)

Our first event was a Halloween Party for MOMS Club.  Here are all the cute kiddos who were there, trying out their costumes for the first time.

We learned the hard way last year that you don't carve your pumpkins too early or they'll be a huge pile of moldy mush by Halloween day.  So we waited until the week of to carve them this year.

Sophie made us all have a different kind of face, and picked silly for hers.  She's demonstrating that well here, I think.

Joseph helped Sophie come up with a silly look and carve it, and I helped Avery do her scary face.

Avery just loved seeing them all lit up and could hardly take her eyes (or hands) off of them once they were.

The second time we donned costumes was for a Halloween walk down our main street where all the store vendors hand out candy.  Sophie was in heaven.

This was the view that most people got of Avery.  She was riding in the front of the stroller and I'd put all the candy behind her where I thought I was being smart, you know "out of sight, out of mind."  Not smart enough for her, apparently, because she knew right where it was and kept turning around and leaning over the seat back to reach the candy.

I wish I could say she didn't eat much, but that wouldn't be true.  Let's just say that there was a reason her white costume was orange, red, and brown by the end of the hour.

That night we attended our ward's Trunk or Treat and the girls got to walk in the costume parade which Sophie thought was pretty awesome.  Her hair accessories are all her idea.

For dinner for this party every year they have a chili cook-off, so this year I entered my white chili in it and was excited when it won the cook-off!  I was a little embarrassed to go accept my prize, but I have to admit it was fun to win, too.

For Halloween night our friends the Hyer's invited us to dinner and trick or treating after since we couldn't really go in our retirement-esque complex because no one gives out candy there.  After each house Sophie would say, "I've got a great idea!  Let's go find more candy!"  She seemed to really get the whole idea this year but I think she was still in awe that there exists a day (or several) where you can go up to complete strangers and they give you free candy, and your parents are totally okay with it.  She was really cute about the whole thing.

Joseph and I didn't dress up until Halloween night when we decided to be some Scooby Doo characters.  I went as Daphne and Joseph was Shaggy.

People go all out here to decorate for Halloween.  I'm used to a lot of Christmas decorations, but I've never seen Halloween done up so big as it is here.  Pretty much every single house has loads of cobwebs draped all over the outside and big blow-up stuff for the yard, like this horse-and-carriage thing.  It's pretty crazy and out of control.

We had a wonderful Halloween week and are very glad it's over.  (Can you see Scooby Doo peeking out of Joseph's pocket? :D)  Happy Halloween!