Trick or Treating

Owen didn’t decide until the day before that he wanted to go trick or treating so his choice of costumes was limited… I didn’t even get a picture of Katie because so much was going on.

Olive loved everyone! She would wait patiently and wouldn’t bark or go crazy.

But she loved the attention.

Of course, Katie refused to wear her wig at the last minute, so Tom put it on instead. It looked epic.

And he and Anna made a cute couple.

Halloween 2021

Katie was supposed to be an inflatable T-rex but she had a meltdown at the last minute (somehow the costume “felt different” from when she last tried it on that morning) so after a MUCH drama, she’s wearing dino PJs.

Owen is some videogame character I know nothing about (Edgar from Brawl Stars)! Good times.

The best thing? They’re old enough to go out on their own so we sent them off while we sat at a fire in the driveway! (They went out first by themselves while we were waiting for Anna and David to arrive and then went out with the boys later!)

Our costumes were “glampers” — courtesy of Anna and David’s RV (it was in our driveway from the weekend—the kids had a sleepover in it)!!

It was a gorgeous day but it was windy and chilly—but at least it wasn’t raining or snowing! The fire was nice but could have been even warmer!

Maggie sat cuddled in a blanket on my lap for a good two hours).

That’s me and David. Anna was inside grabbing a snack. With a Katie photobomb.

We also had two adult drinks (Apple bourbon smash and rum punch) to hand out to friends but I didn’t get a pic of that!

Anna’s kids were tired after an hour or so of trick or treating but our kids went out again! Unfortunately I didn’t get the annual pic of their candy haul!

Harvest Fest

Today was Harvest Fest (aka Halloween) at school.

Costume choice #1 (Cruella) was scrapped last night because she couldn’t find the tank top I bought to go with it.

Costume choice #2 (2018’s Harley Quinn costume) was scrapped at 8am this morning because it was too scratchy, she couldn’t find a shirt to wear under it, and she lost all the accessories during her last sleepover.

So we went with a standby “costume” (MSU cheerleader) that she owns and wears regularly anyway.

Jack O’Lantern World

AN INCREDIBLE WALK THROUGH THOUSANDS OF HAND CARVED JACK O’LANTERNS (Link)

Of course they weren’t all real pumpkins since the exhibit lasts all month…but they were still hand-carved. It was definitely neat but something we probably don’t need to do again!

Most of the pics are Anna’s because mine didn’t turn out as good.

Trick or treating Covid-style!

We weren’t sure what trick or treating was going to look like because we knew a lot of people wouldn’t be participating but we told the kids we’d walk around the neighborhood to check it out.

Our treat table.

There were a lot of creative solutions to managing candy delivery. Most were just on tables in some way, but we saw a bunch of chutes, some spread in the grass, and one on a truck bed (below).

I think Halloween may be forever changed
after Covid Style 2020 Halloween. The general consensus among moms I talked to was that we kinda liked it more than usual Halloween! I loved not ringing doorbells or wondering who was/wasn’t participating (the city had delivered red and green signs for people to put up to show if they were participating or not and a lot of people used them so that was nice) but most people were outside watching anyway. There were no huge groups of kids. All kids we saw were being really respectful and gingerly taking a piece of candy or a bag or whatever. And we loved how creative a lot of the houses were!

The weather was also gorgeous! We started with our winter coats but they got unzipped pretty quick.

We were out for about an hour and then as we were almost home we saw some neighbors around a fire pit in their driveway so we headed over to say hi—they are the guys Tom has played poker with but we haven’t really met the wives so we thought it was a good time to hang out. So we had a few drinks and visited while we sent the kids on without us to hit more of the neighborhood. (It’s so wonderful they can be out on their own! They came back and checked in with us a few times but pretty much were on their own for two hours!)

Then we left there to go to a nighttime outdoor candy hunt at our friend’s house—which had been planned in case trick or treating was a big fail. We literally just threw candy in the back yard and let them hunt with headlamps and flashlights while we had mulled cider and s’mores and visited around the fire.

Halloween parade Covid-style

The Primary and Elementary schools had a drive by parade today—teachers and staff dressed up and parents could bring their costumed kids through.

Sounds nice and easy right? Whoa. It was a traffic nightmare. The school is less than five minutes away and it took us an hour round trip! I think the turnout was much larger than they expected PLUS they had both schools (across the street from one another) at the same time.

The kids also made me shake my head in frustration. I thought it would be totally cool to let them sit in the back with the gate open so everyone could see their costumes. Nope, neither wanted to do it. Like AT ALL. And once we got there Owen refused to put his mask on because he was afraid people were going to make fun of him. And I told Katie she could hang out of the window to wave and she refused. Ugh. Kids!!

Surprise! Another Boo!

Okay this is getting crazy. But oh my gosh we are having so much fun with this. Now the deliveries are trying to be super sneaky to avoid the cameras (most of us have Ring doorbells). So this time, I didn’t even know I had one—everyone was showing pics of their baskets and I didn’t see one on the porch so I thought okay maybe I missed being in this round (no biggie). And then I went outside and found this in front of the garage door!

We got Boo’ed!

So one night a few days ago the doorbell rang and we didn’t think much of it since Amazon always rings the bell and we get lots of deliveries. But the kids usually run out to see. Today Katie did and said she saw a kid running away—but he left a bag of Halloween goodies with a note that we had to pass it on! We looked at our camera feed and saw the kid but we have no idea who it is! Well the kids were super excited for TREATS! CANDY! SLIME! and definitely wanted to Boo other people.

Thankfully Tom stepped up and did it with them because while I did want to be a part of the neighborhood, I didn’t really want to do all of it. He took them shopping. He supervised the building of the baskets. My contribution was printing out the instruction. Then Tom took them to the houses where they successfully delivered the baskets without being seen!

 

Happy Halloween y’all from your Queen!

Happy Halloween! I had to get dressed early today because no one will be here this afternoon to help me zip into this dress and I have to be at Katie‘s school Halloween party at 1!! 😂

I also decided to have a little bit of fun with my eye make up today. It’s way outside my comfort zone (so I have more shadow on today than I normally do all week combined) but I think it turned out pretty well for not knowing what the hell I’m doing.

Halloween 2019

I got a new tiara… It’s for my Halloween costume, but still. Also, I obviously decided to dress up this year. Practice for this week when I am volunteering in Katie’s classroom for her party. It’s supposed to rain buckets today so fingers are crossed it holds off a bit.

Mal (from Disney’s Descendants) and Ash Ketchum (a Pokémon trainer).

(It ended up training right after we started out. We had umbrellas but the kids didn’t care. But they did tire more quickly and we only stayed out about an hour and a half.)

Check out my Halloween mask!

So as you now know, I had the Santa discussion with Owen this morning before school and my heart is currently broken. 💔 So, I needed to do something to take my mind off of that. It was either retail therapy…or makeup therapy. So in trying to conserve a little bit of money, I tried makeup therapy…copying something I’ve seen others do. So here’s my mask, done completely with SeneGence makeup!

It’s sooo not perfect but it’s way better than I thought it would turn out. (I learned there’s a very fine line between just pulling face fat and making it look like a mask. 😂) Also? If you squint just a bit, it looks even more mask-like.

What do y’all think? I’m not quitting my day job that’s for sure… 🥁

I was actually surprised by how many people thought it was a real mask! And this comment from my Sene-crush Siara made my day:

All around Halloween costume fail.

When you know you have a costume for your kid in the closet (that you bought at a resale shop last year) so you don’t worry about a costume this year and then you get it out and realize it’s a kid’s medium and you thought it was a men’s medium (because the picture on the package showed an adult plus the cardboard insert was folded so you couldn’t see the checked size box) and the tag just says Medium so now you have to buy or find a costume at the last minute (yes, this is last minute for me).

So you search Amazon and there really are no good kids costumes in the size he needs and men’s costumes are hella expensive so you end up spending $30 on a costume for him that is passable. Stay tuned.

More trick-or-treating!

The kids got a surprise second night of trick or treating, thanks to a neighbor who took them to Lake Bluff with their boys. They were thrilled with the free hot dogs and chips at the fire station plus the great candy at the big expensive houses. Owen’s first words were “I want to trick and treat there again!” Sitha, your husband rocks!

Happy Halloween!

🎃👻 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! 👻🎃 If you want crazy lips like this, I can hook you up! Beats wearing a costume all day!! 😂 Ironically I don’t get as many double-takes with the lip color as I used to. I guess black is mainstream now?! 😳 Don’t get me wrong I am not going full Blackberry anytime soon, but I think I kinda pulled it off today. Lie to me if you have to. 😝

This is what I dress up in… Bat leggings. The end.

Halloween 2018

I may have tried a SeneGence cat face… and pretty much failed. I am definitely NOT an artist (this took WAY longer than it should have)…but at least I know it’s not going anywhere. 😂 Also, I’m lame. I don’t even have cat ears.

Katie has known she wanted to be Harley Quinn forever. Owen had no real direction and this is a costume I picked up at the resale shop earlier this week on a whim (I knew he’d love it but didn’t think he’d wear it for Halloween).

The girls wanted to be twins. 💕 I think Katie pulled it off slightly better since she had blonde hair and the hair colors showed up better.

The weather was actually decent and the trees were gorgeous! I had to take a pic of me with one since we don’t have any nice ones in our yard.

Tom ended up carrying the girls’ weapons pretty much from the start.

Friends had come with us, and this is the boys heading home after a successful trip.

The haul!

And sorted…because I like to see what we got the most of… AND because you have to keep the chocolate separate from the candy otherwise it gets nasty.

I have to say at first I thought it was way weird having trick-or-treating on a Saturday afternoon instead of on Halloween night… But I like that it’s in daylight and when it’s over we still have time left to chill and eat candy without having to go straight to bed.

The good thing about this year? Since the weather was nicer, we went farther into the neighborhood and they got more candy! Last year we only hit a few houses and then came home…and then felt guilty so we took them out another night in another city. This year it is one and done!

Surprise! Daddy started a fire after trick or treating! Unfortunately it started sprinkling so the kids didn’t last long… But I did get a cute pic of Katie.