DeLappenings: Halloween 2018!

Oh. My. Stinking. Goodness.

These past couple of weeks have kicked my heiny!

So many wonderful things—hello, vacation, and grandmother visits—but also, lots of stuff to do and deal with—hello, prepping for vacation and grandmother visits, school events, sick Mama, sick kiddos, random Daddy work commitments, and...Halloween!

I mean, I’m kinda exhausted just thinking about the last 14 days or so—let alone catching up from it.

But instead of focusing on the 1,374 loads of laundry I still need to do tonight (hey, at least I’ve already done five loads today), and the kiddo that currently has a 101.4-degree temp (I mean, really, when doesn’t someone have a temperature in our house these days?), I’m gonna catch you up on the best of the crazy of the past two weeks, and worry about the rest mañana.

M’kay?

M’kay.

So...Halloween!

Honest to goodness, Halloween—and the general October/early Fall vibe—has pretty much climbed its way up the ladder so that it maybe, possibly, probably ranks as my second-favorite holiday (you’ll always be my first love, Christmas; sorry, Thanksgiving, you’ve been bumped).

I mean, there are no presents required, no grand feast to make, no out-of-town requirements, and it’s fairly universal for all to enjoy. It’s just good, spooky fun—and if our decoration kick-off on or around September 12th the past three years in any indication, my kiddos have totally hopped on m’Halloween bandwagon and are pumped when the witching season is upon us. :)

It was a decent bummer that it was pouring down rain this year (and that our inflatable vampire arch lost an eye, and thus, died a Halloween death; RIP), but we rolled with it, we got super-lucky with a cease in the rain right around 7 p.m.—and it was extra lovely to have not one, but two grandmothers with us this year. And that always makes the kiddos happy.

The day started with my Little Witch wearing her costume to school...

She was so stinking adorable—and so pumped for costume day that she was up and at ‘em before I even went to wake her. :)

Because I’m an awesomesauce and responsible Mama, I took the younger two to grab spooky donuts for breakfast. Because why wouldn’t you want to start Halloween with sugar and just pump it into your veins all ding-dang day???

Then—again, because I’m an awesomesauce and responsible Mama—I let them zone out to Halloween songs and animation on TV. Some of which might have been a tad too spooky. Whoopsiedaisies.

But we paused the screen time for a quick bat project they enjoyed...

And then got on our spiffy duds before Chicklet’s dance class...

But then we put costumes over the spiffy duds...

And went to dance class to enjoy the day with two Elsas, a Fancy Nancy, and a butterfly. :) And lemme just tell ya how cute and comical it was to see Chicklet trying to do her dance moves in her llama (that she called a horsey) costume. I mean...priceless.

Because it’s a lovely group of moms this year for Chicklet’s class, most brought goodies, and the girlies even got to do a little spiderweb cookie/icing pen project. Precious.

Then lunch, some downtime, and back to school to grab my Little Witch...

Around that time, the rain was really starting to ramp up again (it had been a monsoon around lunchtime, as well), so we decided to burrow inside and hopefully, carve a pumpkin together.

But.

After I failed to locate a giant pumpkin (we’d bought smaller, less traditional ones that weren’t quite right), and then I broke not one, but two carving tools trying to bust into the top o’ the pumpkin, we just abandoned ship and decorated a fake pumpkin instead, ha.

But I’m pretty sure the kiddos liked the stickers about as much. :)

Finally, after trying—and failing—to convince them to eat a decent dinner, despite their excitement, it was time to get ready for trick-or-treating!

So here come pics of a leopard, butterfly, Big Witch, Little Witch, Big T-Rex, Little T-Rex, and llama/horsey. You know, you normal motley crew. ;)

Cold, covered-patio pics were about all we could manage because of the rain. Sigh.

I love some of our hilarious outtake shots, ha...

And, of course, Daddy stole the show when he made it home and donned his 7.5-foot inflatable dinosaur, ha. (That’s what happens when he tells me he’ll wear whatever costume I order him, hehe.)

Of course, joke was on me because he couldn’t really help wrangle kiddos with those tiny T-Rex arms. Or do important thing like walk along darkened streets without tripping, hehe. But still. He was fantastic. And the kiddos loved it.

I think the sight of the kiddos enthusiastically trucking along through our neighborhood in the dark with their buckets at the ready will always be burned in m’brain. We’ve made the best Halloween memories in the last few years. It’s just as it should be. A little crazy, a little chaotic, a little stressful, and...a whole lot of wonderful.