Halloween

We went to Kira's halloween parade in the morning and she was so excited to see us.  Parker was excited to see her and his patience quickly turned to wanting to go to the park.  We lasted just long enough to watch her walk with her class.   The below picture shows where he wants to go every day.  That child is full of energy and spoiled so we spend a lot of time at the park.  Then we went to Parkers preschool parade in the afternoon.  He basically walked to the next home and back with his preschool which was very cute.  Blake wanted to join in so he also got to be in a parade.  It worked out perfectly.  You realize that it doesn't matter how long or short...it is just the concept.  Scott wore a onesie for the day and Tyler went as Dustin to school and something scary at night.  Probably a zombie or something.  I got Kira a unicorm costume from the store but of course being Kira, she took the horn and made her own, comfortable, unique version of the unicorn.  I love her confidence and unique attitude.  It is such a gift!  I finally let my kids decide what they really want to be.  I got Blake  a costume before the cruise because they were going to have a parade.  He really wanted to be a jester but they didn't have jester costumes.  So when we got home and he kept talking about jester costumes, I got him a second costume.  It made him so happy and he was so grateful.  I used to be so cheap.  I am still not a spender, but feel like I have a perfect balance of spending and saving.  It made me so happy to see him so happy and realized that we only have a couple of years to celebrate being a kid and halloween.  Scott is almost out of the halloween stage if not out of it and it made me happy to see Blake so happy. 

Blake and Tyler wanted sticks to go with their jester costumes so they got 99 cent sticks, some craft tape and spray painted their goblin sticks or whatever they are.  They did a great job and it was a fun craft for the day.  so much better to make a costume and be creative.  We are not that creative or great at planning so I chalk it up as win for creating sticks.

The kids had a good time carving pumpkins.  Friends came over when they were carving so I sent them outside to clean them out.  6 year olds don't do a great job so the pumpkins lasted a day or two before making it to the trash full of fruit flies and insides that weren't cleaned out.  Perfect timing for the garbage man.  Kira went with a friend trick or treating.  Scott and Tyler went to pizza and trick or treating with friends.  Danny and I went with Parker, Hanna and Blake with the neighbors around our court.  Blake really wanted to go with a friend so he coordinated with a neighbor when they would go out which worked out simple and perfect.  We then went across the street and the kids enjoyed trading their candy loot the entire week. All in all a perfect week.  

I have seen a lot of people incorporating the day of the dead traditions into Halloween which I really liked.  Talking about or learning about a different ancestor.  I want to do that next year.  I think it would be fun to learn about 1 new ancestor a day leading up to halloween.  I want to put the kids in charge of researching one person and they can present a little something about them the day they are in charge of giving prayers.  I am really bad at traditions but that is nice and simple and I think we can pull it off.  I think this was the first year in many years that we carved pumpkins.  I chalk it up to not working.  YIPEE!!