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Halloween Day

(and also the number of times I've sat down to work on this post).

We had a lot going on this year with the new baby and the older kids different activities, so my mom stuck around through the holiday to help us get through it.

(Thank goodness!)

It started with Alex's costume party/sing along at preschool.

These princesses were all so excited about each others costumes it was the cutest!

Our little Snow White had lots of fun, in case you couldn't tell.

The next day we went to Noah's school to watch him in his character parade.

(Yeah, the poor kids can't even have a halloween party).

Noah was set on being something scary this year for Halloween - but that wasn't allowed at the "character parade" so he wore his Spiderman costume from last year for that event.

He loves his big muscles : )

A few days before Halloween we finally got around to carving Noah's pumpkin. He chose this design with 5 pumpkin faces, for the 5 people in our family.

Cute.

Sadly, the night before Halloween, someone came and stole Noah's pumpkin off our front porch and smashed it into bits in the road in front of our house. Seriously, who does that?!? Who wants to make some little kid cry on Halloween??? It made me cry too (hey, I'm post-partum) but not for the pumpkin, for Noah. He had been talking all week about lighting up his pumpkin halloween night so people would know they could get candy at his house. We knew he would be heartbroken, so before Noah even figured out what had happened Paul, being the good dad that he is, hurried to the pumpkin patch for another pumpkin. Of course then we had to explain things to Noah, but he and Paul set to work that afternoon carving a new one.

A couple of hours later, and it was time for trick-or-treating!

The Spooky Skeleton

and...

The Beautiful Snow White

In Minnesota we consider ourselves lucky if there is no snow on Halloween. BUT - it was FREEZING. Neither kid wanted to wear a coat over their costume (of course). We had them so layered up underneath I wasn't sure they'd be able to walk!

Turns out they could.

Although Alex didn't last long. Paul called me and had me come pick her up at the end of our street. She was already done. Noah and Paul - well, they kept going for a good long while.

(p.s. no, the baby is not in that stroller - it was just a precaution. Last year Alex made Paul carry her when she got too tired)

Even little Avery got into the Halloween spirit this year.

She probably looks like a boy with no bow on her head, but whatever. The kids were so excited to get her dressed in her "special halloween clothes" that morning.

(Thanks Grandma Gunn!)

They even insisted on posing for pictures with her

(my kids?!?)

Later that night we got out her "costume"

(Thanks Brooke!)

Our Little Pirate

And she stayed home and passed out candy with me and Grandma.

Happy Halloween!

(about a month ago)