Happy Halloween

Holidays (and perhaps I use that term loosely in regards to Halloween) are so much more fun with kids.  The JOY and excitement they feel is contagious.  It doesn't hurt that Halloween is more of a month of sporadic fun events rather than just a day.  Plus, there are costumes involved!

On October 1, we started the month with our annual "boos".  We use empty milk gallon jugs, make scary faces with sharpies and put Christmas lights in the back.  They get a huge kick out of it and it looks cute (plus it's cheap).

I actually did not get a picture of this years' "boos"
but here's what they looked like last year.

We also love crafts.  We've had a dry spell of late with the crafts but I guess that's more of a bad weather thing anyway.  We bought these pumpkin crafts to do with some neighbors and wouldn't you know it, the girls played games outside while the boys dug into the crafts.

Pumpkin crafts.

We went to the Zoo Goes Boo again this year.  The John Ball Zoo totally decorates the zoo with all kinds of spooktacular decorations and has vendors handing out treats (mostly crappy plastic spiders, but still fun).  Many of the animals are done-ish for the year but we did get to see a pretty riveting fight amongst the chimpanzees.  They were yelling/ fighting / chasing / swatting at each other!  It was quite entertaining!

Zoo Boo!

Tyler and the scary witch!

Lukie.

Zoo Goes Boo Crew!

Does your neighborhood "boo"?  If not, check out Been Booed next year for some serious neighborhood fun.

We also have the Alger 5k Halloween Run that goes through the neighborhood and directly past our house.  Our neighbors have started a tradition of donuts and coffee/cider at their place for cheering on the runners (who dress up in costume, in addition to our kids).  It is a super fun and a great community event.  Tyler and Zachary (our neighbor buddy) ran up and down the sidewalk telling the runners to "RUN!".

The cutest cheering section.

Awesome neighborhood kiddies.

Superheroes.
Buzz (Lucas), Power Ranger (Zachary),
Batman (Tyler), and Spiderman (Sam).

 And finally, we arrived at October 31.  We put on our costumes at around noon (note for next year, 8am is fine) and they loved every minute.  When it was time to head out, it was chilly -- like 40 degrees maybe chilly.  We headed out at the same time as some of our neighbors and they had a riot running from door to door (particularly Tyler and his bud Zachary) Trick or Treating.  We have a fair number of neighbors that go all out which makes it a hoot for the kids (except when it's too good -- then the terrified tears come out).  After about an hour, we came home and had the kids hand out candy.  I'm pretty sure that was even more fun for them.  Specifically Ty.  He was in rare form -- shouting "we've got candy!" from our front stoop, running after trick or treaters to give them candy, and hollering at me ("Mom!  I've got a big load (of trick or treaters)!").  It was awesome.  They all had a fabulous day but I think Tyler had the best day ever.

Happy boys in costume.

Creepy neighborhood decorations.

More creepy neighborhood decorations.