Halloween!!

So, I'm a little behind. I know that Halloween was two days ago, but man, oh man, did we party it up this Halloween! I just have to share.

We started celebrating a week out from Halloween...similar to Christmas, our Halloween holiday was prefaced with decorations, treats, and parties!!

First, we went to a special Halloween Story Time at the Ottawa Library (one or our favorite weekly events, turned scary!).



Parker had a super fun Halloween party at school...full of games, treats, crafts, and their first field trip to the University to parade around campus in their costumes! What a wonderful class, with such sweet kids and nice parents!!













We went to visit Grandma Elaine and had fun with all of the 'ladies' at Lexington Park: Polka Style!



Then we did some major cookie and cupcake decorating (this time, without the kiddos...and a little wine)!!



We were invited by our neighbor friends to go to the Elks Club Halloween Party...







We joined in on the Spook Parade and paraded with the likes of Captain America, Super Mario Bros, tigers, Thing 1 and Thing 2, as well as many other creatures, animals, cartoon characters, and super heros.





On Saturday night, Brandon and I had a fun date night with some of our best friends!! We headed to downtown Lawrence for dinner and...if you've spent any time at all in Lawrence...you know that there are some interesting people that hang around downtown. And, on Halloween weekend, it's especially interesting and it's difficult to determine if someone is in costume or if that's how they dress everyday!

Just for fun, we went into a costume shop....and Julie and I decided to pick up these two guys...



We went to church on Sunday and enjoyed a delicious pancake lunch after the worship service (a great fundraiser for Parker's preschool class), and then had fun at Trunk or Treat!!














And, then....well, then it was Monday. And, after our week long celebration, I thought for sure, my kids would be sick and tired of putting on their costumes, but man oh man was I wrong!



Parker and Andrew loved Halloween!



They got all dressed up, gathered up some friends, and while Andrew took in all of the creatures around him from the wagon, Parker and his buddy Julian, ran from house to house in search of MORE candy, only stopping when the front door was just a little too scary!!









We walked (or ran) from house to house with crazy, Christmas Grandma Robbie (who yelled out Merry Christmas to Parker...who laughed with delight and then informed her that it was Halloween), and our neighbor friends. We had fun ringing doorbells, collecting candy, and even stopping a Police Car along the way to ask for some goodies! And, while all of this trick-or-treating was MY favorite part of our spooky night, Parker and Andrew ended up having more fun sitting on the driveway, handing out candy to the princesses, frogs, doggies, cats, witches, super heros, monsters, and skeletons that came to our house.



This first Halloween, with all four of us, was full of creepy Halloween fun!!

I love my sweet, but scary bat....and my little monkey...ugh...monster (seriously, he's so stinkin' cute in both costumes, how could we ever choose?)!

And now that our Halloween holiday is over, Happy November!!! One of my other favorite months!!