Halloween 2013

Halloween is always fun!  This year the kids made it easy on us and chose to be the same thing they were last year.  So, pull out those old costumes and batt-a-bing.  DONE!  Dane was an astronaut ( I had to make his jet pack again) and Eliza and Emma were ballerina fairy…things.    

We love our garage.  I think the kids and I must spend 50% of our day in our garage.  We carve pumpkins, play in the water table, kids ride their bikes and scooters, sidewalk chalk, bubbles etc.  Living in the desert has it's positives and negatives.  One of the (I guess) negatives is the wind.  No problem- just open the doors halfway and the kids go out if they want or stay in.  Energy is expended with no mess inside.  Perfect!  Anyway………here we are carving pumpkins in our garage!

 I thought this was appropriate for the Halloween post.  This is Dane being a shoe monster.  He often chases the girls until they squeal.  I think it's funny.  The girls don't think so.

It's time to trick or treat!  We gave the kids a bath before we left- best idea ever!  They tricked and treated and then fell into bed.  Perfect!

 The base was the perfect place to trick or treat.  It was amazing to see how many families were out.  Honestly, throngs of people, kids, costumes, monsters, spidermen everywhere!  The kids loved it until Dane got sick Lizee was tired of walking.

 Luckily Dane perked up enough to eat some candy before bed.  Here is the loot.  We are still figuring out how we want to handle Halloween candy.  This last year we gave them one day to eat as much as they could (between the hours of 12:00pm and 4:00pm…tricky tricky- they are asleep for half of that) and then the candy was leaving.  Worked well.  They had a few pieces Halloween night and then a few pieces the next day.  They didn't even care that the candy was gone.  Now that I think of it I am pretty sure they spit out half of the candy they ate anyway, "what is that?" (usually after they tried DOTS.  Who likes those anyways?)

Matt and I sure think these kids are pretty great!  Nights like Halloween just add to our bank of really great family memories!  All the spills, cries, cleaning up, etc pales in how much fun we have with them!