Argh Matey!

This is Jack giving his best Argh Matey.

And the only picture I could get of Josh not running through the leaves.

I made Maggie a super cute witch costume this year and she wore it to two parties, then for her school party and Halloween she wanted to be her last year's costume of Rapunzel.  I didn't even get a single shot of her in her witchy costume...oh well...maybe next year she'll want to be it.

Cutie patootie Sam wanted to be Harry Potter.  He was so into everything this year.  He was really involved in making his costume and could hardly wait to go trick or treating.  This is going to be a fun age for holidays...love it!

We had a really great Halloween this year.  The kids were all so into it and had really much fun at all the parties they got to go to. 

This year we hosted FHE for Halloween.  We decided to do a doughnut eating contest, and it was by far my favorite game to watch.  So funny!

 

   The kids got all hopped up on candy, and the cousins LOVED giving them more and more.  It's a good thing it's only once a year because they are still coming down from their major highs.

 This is the only picture of Jack as an actual pirate.  I didn't get very good pictures of any of the kids in their full costumes.  Oh well, we were too busy having fun.

 We also had a pumpkin contest.  I think this duck dynasty character may have won a prize.

 These were the prizes for the best costumes.  When I saw these on pinterest, I knew I had to have a party this year so I could make them.  We ended up making two batches of them for the two parties we were involved in so I got to have double the fun.  They make me laugh!

I'm definitely glad this season is over and now on to relaxing Fall!!!

It was feeling very Hallow-weeny!

We had a great Halloween day this year.  It was busy and crazy, but very fun.  Sam and Maggie were really getting into it, which always makes holidays funner.  We started the morning off with waking everyone up at 6:20 to take Kendall to school.  Then we came home snuggled in and watched Curios George.  Then breakfast and the process of getting everyone in their costumes.  This was our first school parade and I wanted to get their early for parking and a good seat.  I started gathering all the costume stuff and I could not find Sam's knight pants.  ANYWHERE!  I looked through everything and everywhere...no where to be found.  So 20 minutes later, I finally found them and now, know one is ready and we should have left 3 minutes ago!!!  ARG!  I hate when that happens.  Oh well, best intentions right?  We ended up leaving 10 minutes later than planned, but still got there plenty early and with a great seat.  He was so cute, and so excited!  (Crappy picture, but I was mostly videoing.)

 We picked up Kendall at 12:30 and went to McDonald's to get out some energy.  The kids played for an hour while we relaxed. After we got home we had a few grueling battles of Mario Cart...Kendall cheats!  Then off to Laura's for a trunk-or-treat.  Theses are the only pictures of the kids in their costumes...we've been to 3 parties, but this is all I got!

Miss Maggie is Rapunzel, Jack and Josh are cowboys, and Sam is a knight in shining armor. I only made Joshy's costume this year.  Sam and Maggie's are from Costco and I made Jacks for Sam when he was little.  So nice to have simple costumes!!!

  My mom came over and we had quick and easy pizza for dinner...I was supposed to put a roast in that morning, but forgot due to the searching for Sam's pants.  Then we did a little trick or treating around our neighborhood until grandma and grandpa Johnson visited. By this point, the babies were tired...yeah right...we were tired of keeping the kids all together...we almost left Josh at a neighbors.  The kids had all gotten candy and we started to leave and Josh had weazled his way back to the front of the line for more candy. My neighbor called out, hey, is this Josh!  Sad, but true!!!  So we put the babies down to sleep and my mom stayed and passed out candy while we took Sam and Maggie around the neighborhood.

They got quite the loot this year!  I love seeing them dump out all the candy and sort through it like we did as kids.  Maggie had them all lined up and Sam was just shoving it in his mouth!

By the time everyone was in bed...8:30-ish...we were exhausted.  What do you guys do on Halloween after all the kids are asleep?  We wanted to watch a scary movie, but nothing was on tv and all of the redbox ones were rated R.  We ended up watching Jurassic Park and fell asleep in the middle of it. Very exciting I know, but I think our energy suckers took the adult time fun out of Halloween.

It's gotten a little spooky around here!

 In September my front room looked like this:

 I don't think I've ever posted this painting.  I painted it last year and it now has a happy home on top of our piano.

 Now that it's October it's looking more like this:

 I made the witch and the never more crow last year, and I think they are my favorite Halloween decor this year.

Remember these from a while ago?  

Well I got them painted and I love the way Franky and his bride turned out!

I bought this witch at Swiss days last year and she still makes me laugh every time I look at her!

So how about you, what are your favorite Halloween decorations?  Do you go all out, or not so much?  

Another part of switching into fall mode at our house is we have a lot more of these:

My kid's love having candle light dinners.  I know it's kind of silly, but it absolutely makes their evening when they come in and the lights are off and all they can see is the flicker of candle light!  I usually have lots of good ideas and intentions of fun things I want to do with my kids; but time and laziness often sidetrack our plans.  This is super easy!  Pull out some candles; light them, and viola you have changed a normal every night dinner into something magical!  Seriously the kids will love it!  Plus, with the weather getting cooler and more soups and comfy food sounding good, cozy dinners are just a lot more fun.  What are some of your favorite fall traditions??? Fires in the fireplace, snuggling up with hot chocolate and reading a good book, fall drives up the canyon????