A Two-Week Halloween

One of the different sides of living in Georgia versus living in Utah is that when a General Authority comes to town, EVERYTHING at church is affected. Well, that may be because our church building shares a parking lot with the Atlanta temple, and therefore it becomes the go-to building for out-of-towners, but still. Elders Dallin H. Oaks and Ulisses S. Soares (I think) came for trainings and meetings and firesides and...all that stuff, so our ward trunk-or-treat happened two weeks before the actual holiday.

 The costumes, all from things we already have. Way to save Mom money and effort, kids. Let's do that again next year.

Little Red Riding Hood

Cinderella

Tiger 

 

(His second year wearing it, after both girls wore it at least once, possibly twice also--Chris's brother Michael sent it to me after buying it at Goodwill on his mission. A gift that has served us quite well. Thanks Michael.)

The trunk-or-treat was impressively well-done, I must say. The evening started with carnival games and face-painting.

Following which was a chili cook-off and dinner, and last but not least, the trunk-or-treat itself. Whoever came up with the trunk-or-treat idea is seriously a genius. No real pictures, though, because I was busy chasing down three kids by myself in the dark.

Chris got a lot of attention for "floating" in the back of the van. He didn't even do it on purpose--he just wanted to sit while he handed out candy.


Halloween #2 was a playgroup party, complete with a sandbox completely full of corn kernels. Well, it started completely full. By the end of the party it was killer painful to walk out on the balcony because of all the kernels on the ground. And several came home with us stuck to shoes and clothes.


Halloween #3--The Costume Parade at the elementary school.

Audrey's class was very first in the line of the whole school, so she was in and out in a flash. And refused to look at me. Megan and Ben were surprisingly bored, so we left right after she passed rather than stay for the whole school.

And now, Halloween for real! The office for our apartment complex had treats and a coloring contest going, so after Audrey came home from school we all walked over.

I think we may have been the only ones who actually entered the "contest" but we totally won a free large pizza. Which is awesome.

Once Chris came home that evening, we all went trick-or-treating. We abandoned our own neighborhood since apartments are notoriously horrible for trick-or-treating and drove to a nice neighborhood of houses nearby. It was perfect--houses close together, lots of people home, good candy, and we made it up one side of the street and back down the other just as the kids were wearing out. Good times.

The festivities closed out with skyping with the grandparents and a simultaneous surprise visit from our home teachers and their families. Mild chaos for a while, but a nice end to the holiday.

Bonus picture: Just so you can fully participate in our Halloween adventures, here is a picture of Ben's head after walking around for a couple hours with the tiger suit hood on. I'll leave you to imagine the accompanying smell.