A Week Of Halloween

Once upon a time, not too many years ago, Halloween was about me. I am Mad Grad, and in Madison they do Halloween big. One year I was Christina from her Dirrty video. If you don’t know the reference, don’t look it up. The costume was anything but classy, but thank god I did it. I have photographic proof that once upon a time my body was hot. Multiple c/s and a 12 pound baby later, photographic evidence is NEEDED! I would post a photo, but I’m afraid you would all desert me and this place would become a ghost town (ha ha…Halloween-ghost town, get it?). Y’all know you dressed up as a sexy something. It is like a college necessity.

Now Halloween is all about the kids and it is more fun than any Madison Halloween ever was. Cliche? Well it is true. They are so darn cute, and so darn excited and experiencing just about anything through your children is WAY better than experiencing it yourself. You with me?

We quite seriously, practically had a week of Halloween. It started on Saturday with Boo at the Zoo. There was trick-or-treating, pumpkin painting & cookie decorating.

Eleanor’s costume is actually a recycled one. Quinn wore this costume once upon a time.

Can you believe that little baby is my Quinn? I love these Old Navy costumes. We pick them up during the Labor Day sale when the whole outlet is 40% off. We have the lion, dragon, strawberry, and monkey. I love how warm and comfy they are. Perfect for trick-or-treating in Wisconsin.

In my community trick-or-treating was on Sunday. There are some surrounding communities that do it on Halloween, but we decided to trick-or-treat on Sunday. After Quinn ended up bundled up in his winter jacket for the trick-or-treating at the zoo, we decided to bust out an old costume so he could stay warm and still be dressed up.

Quinn was so excited to go trick-or-treating, which is funny, because he didn’t seem to crazy about the candy. Eleanor, on the other hand, didn’t know what she was getting into, but caught on pretty quickly. She skipped a few houses, because she just wanted to hang out in the wagon and eat her candy.

We trick-or-treated in my parent’s neighborhood and ended the night eating a chili dinner with my parents, two brothers & sister-in-law. On the short, 5 minute drive home, Quinn was out.

At preschool on Wednesday Quinn’s class was celebrating Halloween. I, of course, signed up to volunteer because I couldn’t miss his very first school Halloween party. Eleanor spent the morning with her Grandma and aunt Julie. There was pumpkin bowling (his favorite), a corn sensory bin, bean bag toss, pin the face on the pumpkin, cookie decorating,and a few arts & crafts projects. They wrapped up with trick-or-treating on the playground and a Halloween movie. For the party, Quinn was back to being a pirate.

On Wednesday night Quinn said, “We still have to carve our pumpkins mom”. Umm….why yes we do. So on all Hallow’s Eve we carved pumpkins while jamming to some Halloween music and sipping on hot chocolate. This, of course, was after we ran to Target to get a pumpkin carving kit (knife). Quinn thought it was awesome.

It really is quite incredible how the trips to multiple pumpkin farms, baking cookies, carving pumpkins & trick-or-treating events make the kiddos feel so special. This, quite literally, is what memories are made of. I absolutely love making memories with my kids.

Oh, and in case you are wondering….we’re still not done. Yes, Halloween is over, but we still had Halloween at story time. This morning I got the kiddos dressed up in their costumes. Quinn was back to being a dragon (his choice) and we headed to story time at B&N for some music, stories and trick-or-treating, of course.

Eleanor’s main concern: How to get that sucker out of the bag.

Now that it is November, we are already started on Thanksgiving traditions. Our gratitude jar is beginning to be filled and the table and dining room shelf are decorated. If you follow me on Instagram (@balancinghome) or Facebook you already knew this.

So did you manage to make Halloween a one day affair or did your celebrations span the week as well? Anyone else guilty of getting into the kiddos candy (because I would never do that)? What did the kiddos dress up as? Anyone else started on some Thanksgiving traditions?