Parties, Parades, Carnivals, & Costumes

I love Halloween. I love any excuse to dress up and wear costumes! And the boys love eating candy. So it's the perfect holiday for all of us!!!

Usually I have a big plan of what we'll all be for Halloween, and we get ready weeks in advance, but this year, the holiday seemed to sneak up on us. I knew we needed costumes for the ward Halloween party a week before Halloween, so we started looking for costumes a few days before the party. 

Jonah and Micah knew what they wanted to be, but I couldn't find the costumes of a werewolf or ninja anywhere. So we looked at the local Rags & Wags secondhand store for ideas. We found an army jacket, and Jonah decided to be an army guy. We found a black silky jacket, and Micah said he could use it to still be a ninja. Jonah already had an army helmet at home, and he used some camouflage pants. And there were already some black silky pants in the costumes box to complete Micah's costume.

Kanyon found items in the costume box to be a pirate. We added some tattoos to his arms from Jonah and Micah's pirate birthday party to complete his costume.

Ammon said he was too old to dress up for Halloween (he was 12), and I kept trying to convince him otherwise. For the ward party, he decided at the last minute to be a BSU Broncos fan, and he wore a BSU hat & sweatshirt, I found an orange pom-pom he could wear for hair, and I bought some face paint to draw on him, too. 

At the ward party, we ate dinner & dessert, the kids had a costume parade, there were several youth carnival activities for the children, and then we had trick-door-treating down the hallways at the end of the party. It was a fun night for all of us!

The actual day of Halloween was (and always is) crazy! During first recess, Kanyon got ready for his Kindergarten Halloween party. During last recess, I helped Jonah & Micah get dressed in their costumes and put make-up on their faces for the school costume parade.

After the costume parade, Jonah and Micah had a class party that I went to for part of the time. Their room moms had it organized so well, and the boys had a great time!

As soon as school was over, I picked up the boys and took them trick-or-treating down Main Street. I love that the stores in Salmon participate in the Merchant's Trick or Treating. It's a great way to see a lot of costumes, a lot of kids, and get a lot of candy in a short amount of time! As soon as we were done trick-or-treating, Josh and I took the boys to the school's Halloween Carnival.

We ate and played games there until the boys used up all their tickets. Then Josh took the younger boys home. Ammon went to a junior high dance and I volunteered at the Carnival for an hour and a half.  I was a Grecian this year and I wore my costume all day. The students couldn't figure out what I was; some of them thought I was mother earth, and a lot of them thought I was an angel!

After the carnival, Josh took the boys trick-or-treating to some of the neighbors' homes. By the time I got home that night, the boys had already examined all the candy in their buckets, and prioritized eating the best candy first. Josh had put our carved pumpkins on the front porch, and when I drove up to see them all lit up, it made me smile. I love my little family! Even though it was a stressful and crazy busy day, it was also a fun day, and I enjoyed being a part of it with my kids!