Halloween fun

 Our friends, Chris and Will Clark, bought a full size skeleton to use like "the elf on the shelf" for the month of October to spook their kids. Every morning the kids would wake up and find the skeleton doing something different...

Well, guess what our kids woke up to one morning in October? This guy-

 I had NO idea that Brian was going to do this. But I love the idea! He bought the skeleton at the CVS in the Pentagon, and had to slug home with it. Luckily it came in a (giant) box.

Early one morning before he went to work, he set him up in the kids bathroom, hoping to really scare them. Tate woke first, and went into the bathroom without turning on the light. He said he saw it, and immediately walked out. He came into my room, but I was already out of bed, apparently in my bathroom. Instead of looking further for me, he went into wake Macy. The two of them then came and got me, and I was so confused as to what they were talking about.

Tate named our guy Hades, and we had so much fun with him!

The Sunday before Halloween, the kids couldnt find him anywhere. I wasn't giving any clues either. Finally it was time to go to church, and they found him in the front seat, with his seat belt on, ready for a ride!

When we came out of church, there were teenagers taking pictures of our car! It's not every day you see a skeleton in a car in the church parking lot. 

Funny enough, when I went to the grocery store on Halloween, I looked out and saw that someone had a picture of a skeleton on their window-

LAME!

Brian set this up on Halloween morning, so when the kids went to the bus stop, this is how they found Hades outside-

Our school does an amazing "Monster Bash" to celebrate Halloween each year. Tate was the Storm Trooper on the left-

'Macy is Rey, on the right-

After Monster Bash, the kids each took two friends home for a slumber party.

Tate, Jacob and Alexander-

Katelyn, (a very tired) Macy, and Hannah-

Time for pumpkin picking!

 I decided when we have grandkids, I will want one of these little wine barrel pigs in my backyard. Wine and pigs- two things I love!

Macy finally got to ride a horse! Last time she was 2.5 and not so thrilled. Here she goes, in her dress!

 She was delighted for the little 10 minute ride on Arrow.



And the winner is-

Another awesome pumpkin by Team Daddy & Kids!

 I've never been one for going out with the kids trick-or-treating. I think it comes from the 2 years we were in Germany and I had to take the kids out without Brian, because he was back in the states for a conference that always fell over Halloween. I had a toddler, a baby, it was cold, dark, and I just didn't want to be in charge of all the chaos without him. Then we moved to California and we decided I would be in charge of passing out candy, and he would take the kids out. That worked for 4 years. Then last year my mom was visiting and she passed out the candy, and encouraged me to go out with Brian and the kids. I LOVED IT! Why? Our kids are not toddlers anymore! They aren't obnoxious, they don't trample over peoples lawns and gardens, they say thank you, they dont want to be picked up. The temperature here is just perfect- cold enough for some hot spiked s cider to take along, but no need for winter jackets.

So this year it was just us. First time ever! We usually have friends over, or grandparents visiting. I was delighted that it was just us. We had our annual chili dinner, and headed out. We don't get a ton of trick-or-treaters, so I left out a cauldron full of bags of pretzels for the kids that came while we were out-

I figured with pretzels, no kids were going to take them ALL! And if I had some left, they'd be great for the kids lunches all week. 

And when we got home, the kids each

 got to choose as many pieces of candy as they are old, and the rest we added to the cauldron and passed out to the trick or treaters. So note to the neighborhood kids- come to our house late if you want handfuls of candy! 

Storm Trooper- 

And Rey from Star Wars-

After we got done trick or treating, only one street because everyone is so generous saying "take 5 pieces!" We came home and put the fire pit in the driveway, and all passed out candy together. Macy ate 6 of her 7 pieces of candy and played charades with us, while Tate, who doesn't have a sweet tooth and only had 1 piece of candy, read his book by the fire