Halloween

Halloween is becoming more of an event around here with having school aged kids!  Jacob dressed up three times, and the girls both dressed up twice.  And we didn't even make it out of Catlin this year!

The kids and I finally made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch in Savoy, where we bought a ton of pumpkins!

Yes, we bought all of the pumpkins in this wagon!  Some were for church, some were for Grandma Teresa, and some were for us!  And we even got a butternut squash to make some baby food for Aleah.

We carved pumpkins for the first time as parents this year.  It was one of those things we just never got accomplished, but I'm guessing it will now be an annual tradition.  We also made pumpkin seeds that turned out pretty yummy!

I really love family themes, but I had to settle for two out of three this year.  Hannah and Aleah were Elsa and Anna from Frozen.  I tried to get Jacob to be Olaf, but he was not feeling it.  And he's always wanted to be Mickey, so I'll just have to say our theme was "Disney."  Does that work?  

I wanted to get Aleah one of those adorable one piece baby costumes, but I honestly looked and looked and just never saw one that I loved.  So we went with Hannah's idea of Anna.  She looks cute in anything, right?

Jacob always wants to be Mickey but always changes his mind last minute.  We didn't really like any of the costumes they had for sale, so we "made" this one.  He already had the ears, shirt, and pants.  So I got a pair of red shorts on clearance and used leftover felt circles from church for the "buttons."  The most expensive pieces were the gloves (which are Mario gloves) and Crocs.  Jacob loves Crocs anyway, so maybe he'll get some use out of them, even though they are kind of a ridiculous color!  

I think there must have been 8 million Elsas in America this year, and Hannah was one of them!  She loves the princess dresses!  Papa Steve got her this dress (with my help) for her birthday this year.  Perfect!

We had Trunk or Treat at church the Sunday before Halloween this year.  It was awesome!

Lily, Hannah, and Violet were all "Elsa" in their various colors.  

Grandma Teresa had a Salt Fork trunk this year!

Mike and Kristen had an Elf on the Shelf trunk.  How cute are they?

I got to be the room mom for Hannah's Halloween party.  I made these mandarin orange cups and had other moms bring other goodies.  Josh had the day off of work, so I got to go help in the classroom.  I loved it!

Here are some of our favorite door to door stops:

 The Strungas

 Luanne Kees

 The Yelenicks

 Cousin Hadley as Minnie Mouse.  This was not planned, but how cute are they?

 Roy and Rita Patton from our church; Hannah adores them!

Virginia Field, our sweet neighbor two doors down

Halloween was really cold this year, so we lasted about an hour going to door to door (with the van), and then we spent the rest of the evening at Grandma and Papa's!  It's one of the many times I really appreciate being close to family!  Mom always has hot food and yummy treats to end our night!

Aleah and her Papa Ed