In order to understand Halloween at our house, you have to understand my children's personalities. Robby hates Halloween. The first time this year that we walked into a store selling Halloween stuff, he sighed and said "Oh man, is it really Halloween again, already." He has hated dressing up since he was tiny. He told me he didn't want to dress up this year at all. However, once I told him he couldn't go trick-or-treating if he didn't dress up, he changed his mind. So for the last couple months we have been on the look-out for non-dressing up Halloween costumes.
Zoe, on the other hand, thinks Halloween is the greatest thing ever. She would dress up every day. She loves the costumes, the decorations, and everything else that comes with Halloween.
I decided to make Zoe a pumpkin costume. She was thrilled and has been telling everyone for months that she was going to be a "pumpkin dress" for Halloween. Robby finally decided that he would be a pumpkin too. He would just put a face on an orange t-shirt and wear it with jeans. We actually had a good time with it. We bought white t-shirts and died them orange (they didn't come out as bright as I wanted them, too much polyester), and made faces out of felt. Robby did his all on his own. He designed it and sewed it on. I decided I would go with the theme as well and made a pumpkin shirt for me. I couldn't just leave it there though, I had to buy everything orange that I could to go with my costume, leaving me looking something like a pumpkin clown.
Halloween started for us on Tuesday, when Zoe had a Halloween party at dance. She had a blast.
Robby's school Halloween party was on Thursday. I am the room mom so I got to help. It was a lot of fun. He had a good time.
On Friday, we went to our ward Halloween party. They had a chili cook-off and a carnival for the kids. Emily went with us (in her awesome Super-Hero costume we made the week before) so that was really fun. Zoe got her face painted, which she thought was very cool. Robby was not interested.
On Saturday, we went trick-or-treating. We weren't sure we were going to get to go because of a huge rain and hail storm that night, but by 6:00 it had cleared up enough to go. We ended up trick-or-treating for about an hour and a half. Zoe outlasted Robby and I think she would have gone all night if it wasn't bed time. She loved knocking on people's doors and being social, even more than the candy. Robby had a good time too though.
Then on Sunday, we went to Kirk's parents house to celebrate his dad's birthday. The kid's wore their costumes so that grandma and grandpa could see them.
All in all, it was a very busy, but fun Halloween. Four days of costume wearing was more than enough for all of us, except Zoe. Robby did say that he thinks he will dress up a little bit more next year. He felt a little left out I think. So we are already trying to think of costumes for him for next year. Our requirements are it needs to be more of a costume than this year, but no face paint, no hair coloring, no masks, and nothing too crazy. If you have any ideas, let me know.
Here are some pictures from the week.