the spookiest kids of all

So, first things first - I have sat down to work on this post multiple times and one of my little someones has inevitably needed me at that.precise.moment for some dire need (ie. getting them a napkin and cleaning up the blueberry muffin they smashed into the floor...) Perhaps if I could just get nursing completely hands free - that would really up my posting - but alas, I just cannot figure that one out.  

In any case, we are doing well over here - moving towards the end of the rotten first eight weeks of newborn land (only two weeks to go!) and we are getting into a somewhat groove of a party of five.  And to kick off our new family status - we got to celebrate the spookiest holiday of the year.  

In the beginning of the month, the kids brought home pumpkins after enjoying hayrides, corn mazes, and pumpkin patches with their grandparents (thank you!) So, no pumpkin patch for us this year (oops!) but we did carve out some time (heh; cheesy pun) for some jack-o-lantern fun - pumpkin guts and all. 

We prefer to minimize mess by having the kids carve pumpkins topless - HAH.  Efficient Mum or Lazy Mum...it's such a thin rope to walk.    

After a few weeks of admiring his giant pumpkin which Greyson named "Big Jack," he was eager to carve out the same face in this year's favorite Halloween book:  The Spookiest Jack-o'-Lantern Ever!.  Brandon helped him, but he got to do some real life carving himself this year and was so proud.  Big Jack was the piece de resistance to our porch Halloween decor this year!

We also held our annual kid Halloween party at our house - it was our third annual this year!  I made a little paper chain countdown for the kids at the start of the week and by Friday morning when throwing the last chain in the garbage at 7am, I spent the rest of the day attempting to explain how time works and that our party did not start until dinner.  It was a long day.  

But f.i.n.a.l.l.y. Grey, Gem, and Violet donned their costumes; a skeleton, ghost, and ladybug respectively, and our friends arrived! It was  low key year, which was perfect but we were lucky to get to jump in leaves this year as it has been our first year with both enough daylight and warmth to go outside.

We played Pin the Heart on the Skeleton, iced cupcakes, played Flashlight Freeze Dance, and ate tons of pizza and cheetos (as per usual).  This year was so fun because the kids were all at the age where they didn't even really want any parental-led activities.  So we all sat around the dining room table chatting while they ran around the house and screamed like wild things.

Little Miss Violet slept the entire party and then woke up at the end to eat and start her own party.  Brandon, Lettie, and I spent our Friday night snuggling on the couch while the two bigger kids fell asleep early from all the playing and cheeto consumption.

Keeping with tradition, we headed to my parents' house for trick-or-treat night and had so much fun.  Grey was out-of-his-mind excited to visit each house and Gem was thrilled to get her hands on copious amounts of sugar - especially gum.  Good Lord, that girl and gum.

Violet was slightly less than thrilled - HAH - and she hung back with my parents to hand out treats to other kids.  B, Uch, and I walked through the neighborhood with our two little goblins laughing about how excited they were and also at what a bizarre national tradition this is - going door to door to get goodies.  It's hilarious and amazing. 

Brandon and I dressed up in whatever we could throw together before loading up three overly excited kids into the truck to head to my parents.  So, we spent the evening dressed as a Hunter and Fortune Teller.  Again, overly efficient or lazy...it's just such a hard call.

After just enough trick-or-treating to please them but keep them (mostly) walking on their own two feet- we headed back to my parents' house to devour 98% of the candy within a 30 minute timeframe.  Hey, whatever, man - it's a holiday.

The very next evening, we stopped to visit with Mimi and unbeknownst to us - it was trick-or-treating in her neighborhood.  So, the ever creative - Mimi whipped up some facepaint from her make-up and the kids hit the streets again, this time with their cousin, to score more bags of chocolate and sugar.  It was like the best two days ever.

We also tried to sprinkle in some kindness to our holiday.  We painted Teal Pumpkins to leave at Abba's house to let the trick-or-treaters that we had non-food options for treats (spooky tattoos). And we "Reverse Trick-or-Treated" to our neighbors, meaning we dropped off treat bags of candy and a Halloween craft that we made to them.

I am sufficiently Halloween'ed out this year and I'm joyfully moving on to my second favorite holiday of the year!  Although we do have a tiny hiccup that we haven't yet smoothed out...As the kids were helping me put Halloween decorations away, Grey told me that we forgot to put Big Jack in the box for the attic.  I explained that Big Jack couldn't get packed up for next year but that we'd find a good place for him in the woods and he will be food for the deer and other animals.  Then...

Grey (sobbing):  I don't want to put Big Jack in the woods!  I love him.
Mum:  I know Buddy, but pumpkins get rotten after awhile - we can't keep him, he will fall apart.
Grey (more sobbing):  I don't think the animals will eat him!  He's too scary, Mum!  They'll be too afraid of him.
Mum:  He is pretty spooky, but I think the animals will be brave.
Grey:  (continued sobbing):  I need your phone, I want to take his picture first.  I need to say goodbye to Big Jack.  He's my friend

After Grey hugged, patted, whispered to, and used my phone as a camera - he finally came back in and announced that he was in fact not getting rid of Big Jack and he's going to tell Daddy that too.  Big Jack continues to sit on our porch slowly rotting away looking ever more creepy as days pass.

Also, my camera roll looked like this: