Happy Halloween

October was such a BUSY month for us that I was actually looking forward to Halloween so we could move on to another month! Between moving into the new house, going out of town, Josh getting sick, Eli's festivities at school, my festivities at school, and our festivities at church, Halloween was such a welcome holiday this year! I've lumped all of our Halloween festivities into this one post, so you could see all the fun we had this year!

First up, was Wild and Wacky Hair Night at church. I help teach the kids at our church on Wednesday nights, and the Wednesday before Halloween we all came to church with wild and wacky hair. To show my team spirit, I quickly used a wild and wacky hair technique that dates back to my high school days. I got one of Eli's cups and pulled my hair up all around it and twisted a ponytail holder around it. The result was an enormous looking beehive do that had all the kids wondering how I got my hair up so high. I wish I had a picture that showed a profile shot of my hair, but you'll have to trust me that it was WAAAY up there! 

Next, I flexed some of my creative muscles and made these pumpkin rice krispie treats for Eli's class at school. I saw these in a magazine, or maybe it was Pinterest, and thought they looked easy enough to replicate. I thought they turned out really cute!

Eli got lots of fun surprises leading up to Halloween. His first surprise was a card in the mail from Grammy and Pop. Inside the card was a gift card to Sonic for $10. WOO HOO! We'll definitely be using that on Fridays for some blue drinks-Powerade slushes. Fridays are usually the day we make a Sonic pit stop, but I could literally go every day during Happy Hour because this Momma runs on their drinks.

He loves to get mail!

Thanks for the sticker card and the Sonic card!

We also had the privilege of being BOO'ed not once, but TWICE at our new house. For those of you that don't know, the BOO process is as follows: You go to a friend's house with a pumpkin/bucket/bag full of treats. You run up to their door and knock. You place the bag of treats down and rush back to your car before they answer the door and see you. It's quite fun and Eli and I are going to participate more next year (this year we only BOO'ed one person). Eli got BOO'ed by Clayton and Cooper and by Hannah and Marlie. He loved all his treats!

Then a couple of days before Halloween I had a freak out moment when I realized that Eli's trick or treat bag, the one Grammy and Pop gave him for his very first Halloween, was missing. True, I could have just gone to the store to buy a new one, but I really wanted to find his Frankenstein bag. I vaguely remembered taking it to my parents house during the river flood crisis, so I called Mom on Thursday and asked them to look around up there. Thankfully, they called back and said they'd found it! Dad mailed it to us Friday and it arrived Saturday! Whew! Thanks again, Grammy and Pop! We were so excited when it arrived that I had Eli sit on our stairs for a quick photo. I have a feeling that he's going to be photographed a lot on these stairs growing up!

The Friday before Halloween, my school had our annual fall carnival. It was C-R-A-Z-Y because when the kids are out of uniform the excitement level goes up quite a few bars. All my kiddos were super cute in their costumes. I love Fall Carnival because all the teachers at our school dress up in costume, too. Last year, all the first grade teachers went as witches. This year we were a bunch of scarecrows (kinda fitting...we sometimes wonder where our brains went..haha!). We all have so much fun together and I'm so thankful to be where I am at my school. I love my first grade girls!

Halloween morning Eli's class went trick or treating around the school. All the preschool and kindergarten classes walked around to the high school and junior high school students and got TONS of candy. I took off yet another 1/2 day so I could go with him. I wouldn't have missed it for the world! It's amazing how much difference a year makes. Last year Eli didn't want to wear any costumes and this year he was all for it. He loved his Peter Pan costume! (Thanks again, Nicki, for letting us use it for a little bit!)

My little Peter Pan

Eli and Mrs. Paige

Eli and Mrs. Jody

I loved seeing all his friends' costumes. They were all so cute in them!

Eli's friend, Walker, and his dad, Adam

Scooby Doo, Jessie from Toy Story, and Peter Pan

Before we left to go trick or treating, we tried to get some pictures of all the kids in their costumes. Wow! Have you ever tried to get 15 three year olds to look at the camera at the same time...not an easy task!

I love Jessie from Toy Story in this last one :)

I understood how she felt!

After trick or treating around the high school and junior high, the kids came back to the classroom to have the rest of their party. Mrs. Paige was nice and let them pick two pieces of candy to eat right then and then the rest was put away in their backpacks. 

Eli chose two suckers :)

After they ate their two pieces of candy, the kids changed into regular clothes. Eli and his friend were pretty excited about having matching shirts. 

The kids sat down and ate their Halloween breakfast-muffins, doughnut holes, and juice-while the parents started prepping for the crafts. 

The kids rotated to three craft stations-a candy corn magnet, a door hanger they decorated with stickers, and then a ghost canvas made with their cute little footprints. I can't wait until next year so I can use this to decorate. I plan on adding some cute wording at the top and adding some googly eyes to my ghosts.

I picked Eli up from school and realized that in all the craziness we hadn't even carved a pumpkin! I was a little sad because that's an experience I love sharing with him, but we had just been incredibly BUSY! I grabbed one of the pumpkins I had sitting by my front door and we quickly carved the pumpkin. We had a little meltdown moment because Eli wanted to use the knife to cut the pumpkin,  but other than that it was fun getting to share this moment with my little man. 

Before

When Daddy came home, our pumpkin was finished and we were ready to go trick or treating at our church. 

After

I dressed Eli in his Peter Pan costume, snapped a couple of pictures of him on the stairs, and then we were ready!

We knew our church would have TONS of people wanting to trick or treat so we left early (or so we thought) but when we got there we still had to wait a long time in line. It was worth it though. We loved seeing all the different themes and all our friends dressed up. Normally, we participate in Trunk or Treat, but Josh and I opted not to this year with everything going on. We might try again next year :)

Walking to Trunk or Treat with Daddy

The line at the church to get in to Trunk or Treat

Eli's friends, Drew and Scott dressed

as Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat

Music minister, Stephen, and his wife, Megan

M &M gang

Jana and Jennifer

Swashbuckling pirates

(some of the youth at our church)

The Flinstones

Jordan, Logan, and Addi

Old McDonald

Heidi, Dusty, and Baylor

Eli and Molly

Eli and Peyton

Hayden and Eli

Whew! Good-bye, October and Hello, November! It was a whirlwind month full of wonderful events, but I'm ready to slow down just a little bit :) Happy Halloween!