Snapshots of Halloween

[This posting has a lot of photos!!! Beware. . . and enjoy]

It's all over, and so I'm taking this opportunity while all of my little goblins are sleeping to document the day. It began when my eyes popped open, but instead of waking the kids to get ready for school and snuggling back into my warm fluffy flannel sheets to snooze and wait for them to get ready for scriptures like I usually do, I saw visions of Halloween pancakes dance through my head! I jumped out of bed and flipped on the stove. I was cranking out ghosts and goblins and pumpkins (with little chocolate chip eyes and mouths) like a pancake flipping machine, in no time at all. My family wondered who this strange woman was in the kitchen, and what she did with their mother! As you can see, they were HAPPY!

Hunter and Mrs. Brown (hopefully she won't mind having her photo all over the web :)

It is fun living in a small town where you can still celebrate that old pagan holiday (or old religious holiday--you choose)--Halloween--in the schools in a non threatening and fun way. They don't have to make up names like "Fall Frivolities" or "Autumn Awareness" in order to celebrate it. It's just plain old HALLOWEEN. I don't know how long this tradition will continue before some extremest parent complains and sends the school board spinning into a PC downfall, but we shall enjoy it while we can.

The kids were able to pack their costumes in their backpacks and don them at a certain time for the party and parade, sans weapons, masks or heavy make-up. Parents were invited to come and help their child dress if it would take the child longer than 5 minutes. All parents requesting party attendance were invited and put to work! Much more conservative than other schools we've attended ;)

Connor and I headed to the school and had a lot of fun helping kiddos decorate cupcakes. Then we watched a nauseating blur of children parade by in a very short amount of time.

(Hunter is finally getting some teeth in there!)

As soon as the younger kids got home from school, we whisked them off to James' company's trick-or-treating party. Emily saw this Spanish dancer and was in awe of her costume. Of course, we had to snap a photo!

Hannah looked amazingly grown up in her Vampire attire. I had to do a double take when she came home from school. For a second, I thought she was someone else! She looked BEAUTIFUL, yet slightly evil.

Little Link. What a trooper! All day is a long time for a little guy to stomp around in boots that are too large! We went t-or-t-ing in our neighborhood. We actually got twice as far this year compared to last year before the complaints began. At the beginning of block three, the boys dropped down onto some one's yard, and began crawling, saying that they were too tired to continue, and wanted to go home. I forced them to finish block three, then we cut through the school yard and went home.

My cute little goblins.

Spanish Senorita. Thankfully not a dead Spanish Senorita as was previously planned.

This is the first year that Hunter was something scary. He actually could only stand the scary mask for a few houses before he got rid of it. Nothing could be cuter than a Hunter skeleton!

Just look at those baby bat wing ears poking out! He's still cute, even with the mask!

Hannah and her best Idaho friend, Mikaela. They altered their make-up for evening t-or-t-ing. It looks a little too KISSish.

And there it is . . . our 16th Halloween as a family. Life couldn't get much better than that!