Fall Festival and Halloween

Ok, so I'm a tad behind on posting our Halloween fun. Better late than never. It started with the Fall Festival. I am the Activities Committee at church and I planned to have a Trunk-or-Treat with carnival games and then a Chili and Soup Cook-off. It was a big hit and a lot of work. I'm so glad everyone had a good time! Our family arrived as the Big Bad Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood, and the 3 Little Pigs. Because I knew I would be busy with the activity, I started working on the costumes at the beginning of September. By the time Halloween rolled around, O, our third little piggy, barely fit in his!

Us with the piggies who strut their famous straw, sticks and brick.

Each table at the activity had a one of a kind display of fall nature.

We have always had fun with Halloween. Here's a look at last year.

Since it was the last year of the beloved book series, we decided to be Harry, Hedwig, and Hermione. I loved sewing these costumes!

On Halloween, we took a little stroll around our neighborhood for E's first Trick-or-Treating experience. Last year, she only went to a few houses and had no idea what we were doing. Ring the doorbell. Say what? They give me something. I say thank you. I leave. What? Another house? This year she was a bit shy, but enjoyed it and never forgot to say thank you to our neighbors.

We were on our route home when we had an unfortunate event. I was the look out for any questionable characters that may frighten the kiddos, mainly our first little piggy. I would give A a heads up if someone questionable was coming and he could turn E away or distract her until the coast was clear. Well, we were ambushed by two small, yet positively scary, black cloaked, white faced ghosts and before we could react the damage was done. E literally stopped in her tracks. She cried out in terror. As A tried to block her view, he explained that they were silly masks for pretend. I looked at the dad (or maybe it was a death stare) who was with the kids as if he might offer an apology or something. But no, he just stood there watching his kids swoop in like vultures towards my child. Needless to say, we were quite upset. As we were making our way home, E stomped her feet to a dead stop in the road. As she held A's hand, she yells out, "You can't get me you siwy (silly) monther (monster)!" She began to walk again, but continued her yelling. We were surprised. Wow. Empowerment. "Go away, you siwy monther! You can't get me! No!" It was one of those moments where you're flooded with more than one emotion for your child. At that moment, I saw growth in her. It was a happy moment. I was proud of her and how she was reacting. At the same time, it was oh so sad. I was thoroughly bummed that she had that horrible experience. I was also extremely surprised that she was making her voice heard (literally) because she is usually shy. I exchanged glances with A and we joined in as a chorus, chanting away the silly masks. I guess it was reaffirming to her that there was nothing to be afraid of and her evening was pleasant. We won't make the same mistake again. Next year, we'll make it home way before the creepy kids come out.

With that aside, we had a fun time. E collected quite a bit of candy, however, there just wasn't enough chocolate. She did get a few surprising treats- yogurt covered raisins, Doritos, Cheetos, a pencil, and stickers. Awesome.

Hooray for chocolate!