Halloween Happiness

The oh-so-creepy and exciting holiday of Halloween has come and gone once again. This year was another good one for the books. However, it was definitely not quite as exciting as the previous years.  Let me expound...  There is something about Halloween in elementary school that cannot be recreated anywhere else. Those kids are bursting with excitement! When Halloween was on a weekday, the kids came stoked to be wearing their costumes, having a class party, going trick-or-treating that night, and mostly, let's be honest, for the CANDY! The next day, all those kiddos would be in a sugar coma. Talk about night and day difference from one day to the next. I had such mixed emotions when teaching on Halloween. It was so darling to see the kids in such a heightened state, but at the same time, classroom management was SO HARD. I would have to put on my tough teacher pants that morning haha.

So since I am no longer teaching, I missed out of the craziness of Halloween at school. My holiday was pretty calm and mellow, all things considered. And you know, it was actually kind of refreshing to have a change this year. The past, gosh I don't even know how many, years have been full of parties, dressing up, etc. on "All Hallow's Eve", so it was fun to switch things up this year.

Our Halloween festivities started last weekend with our ward Trunk or Treat. Hunter was a dragon, and Eric and I had great intentions of coming up with a theme to go with his costume. However, lack of planning on our part put us in desperate need of a last minute costume. Thank you Pinterest for the idea.... we were salt and pepper. Easy and cute. We also decorated our little trunk and freaked a few kids out with the interactive chomping. You'll see what I mean. Eric was getting a kick out of it! :)

There was also a cupcake contest and chili cook off. I made a version of these cupcakes a few years ago for my piano students, but decided to improve them this year. Instead of a using a box and pre-made frosting, I got real domestic and made these babies from scratch. Frosting and all! They turned out delish. Want the recipe? I would too. :)

The next day, we celebrated with my family at the 3rd annual Bagley Family Halloween Party. My aunt Michelle is such a great party planner and is always finding a way for the Bagley clan to get together. I think it's so wonderful! Her home was decked out for Halloween...it was AWESOME! So we enjoyed a few little games, some delicious food, and some even better company until Hunter was too tired to be pleasant. Then he really did turn into a little dragon haha.

On Halloween, we enjoyed a lovely evening with our good friends, the Patrick's. They are the last of our cute little culdesac friends that are still living here. They will head off to (they find out where next week) in January to start their career. It is so exciting, but so sad to have to say goodbye to another dear couple that we just adore. Anyway, we had a great time with them taking our babies to the pumpkin patch and picking out pumpkins. This patch also had a petting zoo and a corn maze. Ir was so much fun! P.S. Halloween evening is a great time to go pick out pumpkins. There was hardly anyone there...including no owners. No one seemed to be in charge. So free pumpkins? Don't mind if we do. :) We then ate pizza, carved pumpkins, answered the door for an occasional trick-or-treater, and of course, watched a scary movie. A successful Halloween night in my book!

 Eric's costume is FaceBook. Get it?

 Halloween jammies for a Halloween night!

So Hunter's first Halloween was a great one. He, of course, will never remember it, but we sure will. Next year he will [hopefully] be walking and I'm sure Eric will try to convince me to let him go trick-or-treating. :) And then it begins.... years of taking the kiddos out door to door. So I'll enjoy this relaxing Halloween as long as I can. Until next year!

P.S. The best part of Halloween being over? Christmas music will now be freely flowing in our little house! WAHOO!

"Be someone else's sunshine. Be the reason someone smiles today."

-Author Unknown