One Last Halloween Post (Sorry): Hayes Turns Four!

I just got back from the most perfect girls weekend with some of my best friends from Lubbock. We headed down to Fredericksburg to enjoy the beautiful Texas hill country, eat some good food, do lots of shopping, and enjoy each others' company! These girls are some of my very favorites--they are very real, very encouraging, AND absolutely very hilarious (which is an important friend trait in my book)....they also make me miss Lubbock very much! 

I will blog about that trip later this week, but for right now, I wanted to go back in time a few weeks to share Hayes' Halloween themed birthday dinner. If you are over Halloween, my apologies!

Hayes is obsessed with Halloween and talks about it all year long, so it's very convenient that he is an October baby and can ask for a "Halloween" themed birthday dinner. He wanted everything "super spooky" so I pulled out every pieces of Halloween decor I had and went to town decorating.

We love this little boy! HOW IS HE FOUR?

My Mom, Dad, and sister were in town for the festivities and were wrangled into helping--Julie jokes that she can't come to my kids birthdays because she always gets all the grunt work. (Okay, it's actually not a joke! Muah-ha! Payback for stealing my clothes when we were growing up.)

We watched "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (because remember, I am a really great Mom) and hung around inside because, as usual, it was raining outside! (And Hayes evidently spent some time on Nonnie's iPad.)

Thanks to my brilliant mother-in-law for suggesting we freeze half of the cupcakes we made for Lily's birthday to use for Hayes' birthday! You are a genius. And good at making cupcakes.

I used the lights I had purchased to use outside on our patio for Halloween and we played "spooky" music (these were really the only decorations Hayes was excited about).

We had chill dogs and french fries for supper because the only thing Hayes loves as much as Halloween is a good hot dog.

Unfortunately, Parker Reed was sick and slept through most of the evening! Poor guy.

Hayes was loaded up on gifts with his favorite being, "Greedy Granny"--a very strange game where you steal cookies from a sleeping granny until she wakes up and spits out her teeth. I know, so weird. Hayes obsessively talked about it for weeks though and has since requested "ALLLLL the games" for Christmas. I laugh every time I think about how much this kid loves really random games.

He also got a scooter, which has actually become the hot commodity to play with (or fight over, if Parker is around) when we go outside.

So there's that!

And because I can't end a birthday post without a personal note to the birthday boy (you know, for him to read in 20 years)....

Hayes, you are SO LOVED and are such a delight to our family. You are smart, funny, brave, persistent, tender, compassionate, rough-and-tumble, and so very thoughtful. You are my snuggle bug, have my favorite kissy lips, and have the most mischievous (sweet) grin. I love to watch the way you laugh so big and so freely as you run around doing your thing--I hope that never changes! We love you to the moon!

More videos of Hayes' birthday on YouTube!

Halloween Wrap Up!

As promised, I am back to share our last few Halloween festivities of 2018.

On Monday night, we ordered pizza and watched the kids favorite Halloween movie, "The Nightmare Before Christmas", or "Halloween Christmas" as the kids call it (or just "HAWOWEEN!" as Lily calls it). I'm not sure how bad of a mom this makes me since, even as a grown up, I still think that "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is super creepy, buuuut, it is what it is, and the kids absolutely love it. We've also listened to "This is Halloween" approximately 391 times and Parker knows every word....(is this bad?)  So there's that, too.

Anyways! I don't have photos from Monday night but thought all of the above was worth sharing....

On Tuesday, we painted pumpkins while watching "October Kiss"---a Hallmark movie that is ALL about Halloween! If you are up for a bit of family-friendly cheese with your Halloween activities, I highly recommend...two corny thumbs up!

Parker the artist chose to paint "Angry Bird Red". He was so sweet and proud of his creation!

Hayes initially started out painting a jack-o-lantern face, but once he realized it wouldn't be a "real jack-o-lantern" he was very sad and suckered his Dad into carving a "real" one for him. (Also Hayes trying to say "jack-o-lantern" is extremely cute.)

I took over the painting of Lily's pumpkin and went with a classic witch with the help of my handy craft cabinet (and apparent Halloween craft hoarding skills!)

I thought she turned out looking pretty much how I have felt the last few weeks!

Haysie's cute REAL jack-o-lantern. 

The Frazzled Mommy Witch! (I can just hear Bryan's jokes as I type....)

And "One-Eyed Red", the Angry Bird.

We spent the rest of the evening outside (enjoying the amazing weather!) and decorating our patio/porch for trick-or-treaters. Our front patio is really more of a 12-foot long bricked tunnel and ever since we moved in I have thought it was made to be decorated super spooky for Halloween night!

Parker and Hayes chose where most everything would go and I set out hot-gluing and hanging and almost falling off the ladder a few too many times. ;)

Our door was covered in spider webs and spiders (Parker's request) and there are bats flying up the side walls but it's hard to see in the photo. Wah-wah.

I also bought one of those shimmering/moving spooky lights from Target and it's basically my new favorite thing---AND to top the look off, we hid some speakers behind the pumpkins and played spooky Halloween sounds. I am obviously very excited about this. I just love Halloween and finally living in a neighborhood that has good trick or treating!

Now to the grand finale: HALLOWEEN! 

Our day started out pretty normal---all of the kids had school, Bryan had to work, and I had Mom to Mom, so we didn't get to do much until later in the day. (Bryan and I DID get to sneak in a midday lunch date at Uncle Julio's though!)

It was raining after school (and the whole day), so we hung around and watched Hocus Pocus and had some very tasty chicken enchilada soup (a new favorite recipe!) with a side of come CUTE pumpkin cookies I ordered from one of our talented neighbors. 

It was a very exciting meal, obviously. ;)

Then it was COSTUME TIME!

Lily Mae was in a terrible-two mood for the first, oh, hour or so of the evening (as you can see below), but she eventually warmed up to the idea of her costume thanks to copious amount of candy and snuggles from her Daddy. (Fun fact: the Kiss was handmade by my Nanny and was also worn by both of my sisters way back in the 90's. Vintage!)

SHE'S SO FLUFFY THOUGH!

And now, I present to you: the WORST Halloween costume photos I have ever attempted to take. 

This is the best one (and it's not even good!)

The rain completely stopped at about 6:30 and we were able to trick-or-treat to our heart's delight (but really until Parker declared he was so cold he was about to turn into a popsicle). The kids came home happy and with the buckets FULL of candy!

We had one GREAT HALLOWEEN and I am already looking forward to next year!!! 

I am so tired I'm pretty sure I've made no sense while typing this post!!

I watched a Christmas movie today and do not feel bad about it!

YAY!!!

Trunk or Treat Smell My Feet!

Halloween 2018 is in the books!! I am so tired today! 

I love Halloween, it may be my favorite holiday....but it may be tied with Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and the 4th. ;) I guess I can't actually pick a favorite holiday.

Anyways! We have had a busy few days with all of our remaining Halloween themed activities, including Trick or Treat!

On Sunday night, we went to our new church's Trunk or Treat. The following should explain why taking group photos of my children is a stressful event (and one which I am usually waving my arms and being overly excited with little to no success). ;)

Did anyone just die laughing at Hayes' face or was it just me? 

Let me tell you, our church knows how to do up a good Trunk or Treat!! I think we only got candy from 2 or 3 actual car trunks--the rest included very elaborately themed games and props and were impressively creative! There were also A TON of people there and we were so happy to chat with new faces and friends.

I took two cupcakes from the Mad Hatter's Tea party (one for me and one for Bryan) and somehow lost both of them to my children who do not care that Mom and Dad get a few treats as well!

Hayes was not sure what to think of this set-up, but he made me chuckle at what a good sport he was willing to be. 

We found several other Bumblebees and for some reason they were all waiting in the same lines as our own Bumblebee. It was very confusing (one of them was even the same height and had on the exact same costume) and I legit worried we were going to grab the wrong kid and try to take him home!

Moana mostly did nothing but walk around and ask, "Open Dis?"

She is quite obviously a fan of the candy.

If you know Hayes, then you know he is obsessed with "ALLLLLLL THE GAMES" in literally any form, so he was a super happy boy throughout the evening.

I am feeling a little bad because my sweet Parker Reed also had a great time but I don't have any photos of him to prove this point! It's weird that he is big enough that we were able to just let him run around and do his own thing (which I personally love) but it really limits my photo opps. 

I am feeling very thankful for this new church we've kind of thrown ourselves into.  There are so many friendly families here and we have felt so welcome and really enjoyed running into new friends throughout the night! It was a successful evening for sure.

More videos of Trunk or Treat are on my YouTube Channel! You can see them HERE.

I will try and do our Halloween Wrap Up post later tonight before I head out for my GIRLS' TRIP to Fredericksburg tomorrow! FREEDOM!! 

Happy NOVEMBER! Is it really the end of the year?