An Un-Themed Halloween

For the past few years, I've themed the kids' costumes, but I just didn't have it in me to do it again this year. Instead, Perry and I took them to the Halloween store and let them pick out their own costumes. HD chose a policeman, JP picked out an army outfit, and Ms. Gail went with Minnie Mouse. The kids spent the afternoon playing in their costumes and then Ms. Gail lost her ears. We happened to go to Costco the next day and found an adorable Belle dress for her dress-up box and she immediately decided she wanted to be Belle instead.

 Her party at preschool was a few days before Halloween, and it happened to be after Perry started work in Oregon, so she wasn't used to not seeing dad. This made dropping her off at preschool really hard for her. She was excited to go to her Pumpkin Party until she realized it was at preschool. In fact, she was okay until we walked through the door. Then the tears came and didn't stop. It was heartbreaking! But we powered through and she had so much fun, like I thought she would.

 After school that night, I reluctantly took the kids back to school for pumpkin carving in the gym. I'm alway hesitant to take all the kids anywhere without help. But we survived. Towards the end, I didn't know if we would...

 We had carved pumpkins at Em's house a few weeks back and Aunt Em carved a cat into Ms. Gail's pumpkin for her, so Ms. Gail insisted we make another cat pumpkin. Girl is obsessed! (That's a cat sweater too!)

 Nanny and Papa joined Ms. Gail and I for the school parade on Halloween. There were a few policemen and a couple army guys, but it was easy to pick out my boys :) As soon as HD saw me, he sped up his walking so I'd miss a picture...

 Before heading home to meet Gage and his mom for trick-or-treating, we stopped by Grandma's office to see everyone during our last Halloween here. HD was tickled about Grandma's minion costume!

 This was Gage's first year here so I invited him and his mom to join us trick-or-treating this year since she wasn't sure where to go. The past couple years we stopped by Nanny's house and then hit up the neighbors so we stuck to that plan. 

The boys were anxious to get started and ran from house to house while Ms. Gail struggled to keep up. By the time we got to the end of the cul-de-sac, poor Ms. Gail was getting worked up because she was going to be late to the houses. The boys would be done by the time she got there so she'd hastily stick out her bucket and run off before candy could even be placed in it. I had to calm her down before I could catch up with the boys. JP was surprised when he trick-or-treated at his teacher's house, and she was delighted to see them too! 

I hope I meet someone that will take me under their wing next Halloween...