Halloween Traditions

 And, as the kids reminded me many times over the last month, "where would we be without tradition??" 

So this month we tried to do all the Halloween things, starting with pulling out all of the super exciting decorations. 

And making cookies!

Which some were more interested in than others.

There we all are! (even Daddy, who is generally MIA this time of year)

I think this is the deathly hallows-

And this is a sad little Spookley, the mascot of all of our Halloween fun-

We've had several conversations about Murphey's law lately, and Leah was equally thrilled and devastated to see it in action with her cookie.

And pumpkin pancakes! Emma really was thrilled, she was just matching the face of the pumpkin. 

Halloween means packages!

Ha! Laney did get a new costume this year but the only picture I took of her was in her old one, which she clearly loves. 

We did attend our new ward's trunk or treat one chilly night as Lloyd from Ninjago, a shark, a butterfly, and village Belle. 

Adam's shark costume was a hit! And he was thrilled that he didn't have to wear a mask. 

We decided to have a "class party" on Beggars Night, and because we didn't have school that day we got to have all kinds of fun! 

We did a skeleton puzzle race, bingo, a creepy feely box, 

and a pumpkin rolling race!

We started with a small-ish hill, then tried a bigger one, and ended up at the biggest hill in the yard!

Which resulted in a smashed pumpkin, 

two lost pumpkin stems, 

and the discovery of a deer bone- how creepy!

We, of course had to do the annual donut on a string contest- 

Even Laney got in on the action!

Next up was carving pumpkins- an activity I'm always happy to skip but it didn't get forgotten this year. We've never crammed pumpkin carving in on Beggars Night before but it was a nice way to spend the afternoon. 

Espeically because the kids can do so much of the work themselves now!

Still, Daddy likes the artistic challenge and helped out a bit. We ended up with a happy jack-o-lantern, a bee in a hive, the beginnings of The Pug, and a Harry Potter pumpkin. 

The young women in our ward did a power tools pumpkin carving activity out here a few weeks ago, and Leah carved both sides of her pumpkin.

And then it was finally time to go trick or treating!

It was cold out, so everyone had to fit a coat in and around their costumes.  Adam opted not to dress up as the shark again so that he could actually eat some of his candy.  

And we were off!  To the backyard that is.  We opted not to go trick or treating in the neighborhood and did a candy search marked by lanterns instead.  

And then we all gathered around the fire and roasted hot dogs and talked about what an unusual year this has been, topped off with an an unusual Halloween night. My heart was a little sad thinking about our old neighborhood (friends were texting with enraged reports that the new owners of our house were handing out healthy snacks!) and the new neighborhood that we're no closer to getting to know and all that has changed since this time last year.  And then Emma declared that "this is the best Halloween ever!!" and I think she was right!  

And everyone still got plenty of candy- including their favorites!

It was different, yes, but this Halloween was certainly a very memorable and fun one!