Halloween, 2013 - Photo dump!

Let's be honest folks.... Halloween with three little ones is a bit stressful.  I wish I could (honestly) say... Oh, I love this holiday.  But, in reality it's kind of a pain in my back side.

Why - well for starters the costumes ... little girls want to be princesses and fairies and little beauties that practically wear no clothes.  In late October?? Hmmmm. I mean sure, there have been years when it's been warm and sunny, but most of the time it's cold and so their sweet little costumes get covered up by coats and hats and mittens .. which they LOVE.  Wink, wink!

Second of all - the SUGAR.  When you combine what you spend on candy to hand out to other people's kids who then turn around and give it right back to you I supposed it's a wash.  But, really ... I don't want my kids to have all that sugar.  Each year we've been participating in this silly little "holiday" we are in melt-down mode come dusk because of all that sugar.  I'm contemplating starting a new idea- just in my little neighborhood.

Here it is: Halloween falls in late August and we all hand out pieces of fruit, yogurt tubes or granola bars.  Still fun, but way less COLD and SUGAR.  Not a bad, right?

I digress.... anyway.... love it or hate it ... we're not getting around it.  The twins are already discussing Halloween for NEXT year.

Thank God we've got some time.

The twins decided about a week prior - they wanted to be princesses.  Thanks to a gift from Auntie G last Christmas... we had Cinderella and Rapunzel in the closet! Perfect, right?? Well, pretty much.  We had to purchase a few things, but costume cost was cut down because we already had the dresses!

Ms. A... well, what on earth should she be??? I happened (like 2 days before Halloween) to find a cute little Minnie Mouse costume at Target.  Yup - that's what she'll be!

So, two princess's and Ms. Minnie it was.

We tried a little "dress rehearsal" for the Halloween rookie!  What a ham!

Oh... and I honestly thank my LUCKY stars I have a hubby who takes on the task and title of "pumpkin carver".  You can say it's because he has special "surgeon" skills, but honestly -- the man is patient!! He and the girls spent the better part of 3 hours in the garage carving away.  

The results were remarkable!

Back to Halloween morning, the twins were up by 6am. Costumes on by 6:45 - no I'm not joking.  Things were going along well (we were getting ready for their school party) when Ms. K touched the HOT curling iron.  Cue the tears! Big tears and eventually big blisters on her hand.  That put a little kink in the morning -- hence no smiling pic of Ms. K --- but Ms. R obliged.

Here are Rapunzel and Cinderella eating breakfast -- Ms. K was trying to suck it up, but it was tough! Ouch.

We dropped the twins off at school, but later returned (with Minne) for their hour-long party.  Ms. Minnie was all over this gig!

As you can see... she bellied right up to the table and began crafting! Ha! And daddy was in charge of this activity.  It was precious! How many daddy's take the day off work on Halloween?? I was very grateful given how chaotic everything was!!

As you can see... Cinderella was MUCH happier come party time.  Her hand had settled down a bit, thank goodness!  What a beauty!

 More of Ms. A blending right into their classroom.  You should have seen the "scene" when it was time to take her home!

 Rapunzel in all her glory! Loved having her mom & dad at school.

Fast forward several hours later (and several degrees COLDER)... time to head out for the neighborhood T&T!  The girls lasted all of 2 minutes without bundling up.  Thank goodness they came to their senses!

 Ms. Minnie.... ready for her 1st official Trick & Treat!

And take a look at this! This was maybe 2/3 of the kids we meet up with each year.  Our neighborhood is full to the BRIM with little ones! We love it!

All in all - a fun year..... I'm probably being too "negative nancy" about the whole deal.  We were back home and "un-costumed" by about 7:30 and everyone crashed .... sleeping til 8am the next morning!

Now - that was my silver lining!!

With love,

Cuz I'm the mama!