Our Halloween

As stores stock their aisles with Christmas decorations, as Christmas commercials begin to play on radio and TV and as catalogs clog our mailbox each day, I am finally getting around to posting pictures from Halloween!  Better late than never, I say.

For others, Halloween might be celebrated only on October 31st, but for us, the holiday hoopla was spread throughout the month.  The twins wore their costumes several times, donning their coordinating character costumes to visit a nearby retirement community, to trick-or-treat at the zoo, to pose for pictures with their cousin, and, of course, for a night of trick-or-treating on Halloween. Will even wore his Olaf costume for comfort and fun around the house once or twice.  Maddie and Will picked pumpkins, painted pumpkins, and carved pumpkins, we watched Room on the Broom more times than I can count, and, of course, the twins collected as much candy as their buckets could hold.

Although they had fun celebrating Halloween last year, Maddie and Will went crazy for Halloween {and candy!} this year!  They were already planning their costumes for Halloween 2016 as they took their Frozen costumes off, and we've seen both of them melt down in fits for more candy.

If they weren't so excited for Christmas, Maddie and Will may never have moved past October.

A week before Halloween, we went trick-or-treating at Newcastle Place, a local retirement community, with the Mequon MOMS club.

We had some spooky fun with flashlights one night!

The twins chose the designs for their pumpkins and left the carving to me.  Will chose to make a one-eyed monster.

Will inventoried his candy collection after the first two trick-or-treat events that we attended.

Although she wasn't able to join us for trick-or-treating on Halloween, cousin Dakota slept over at our house a couple nights before, and played along with us as we "pretended" to trick-or-treat during a quick photo session.

I wish I could remember the exact words or phrases that I used to get all three of the kids to cooperate with the camera for these photos; I'm not sure that they will ever cooperate so fully again!

I mean...how cute are they?!?

Playing the part of the scary witch

Not so scary after all!

My adorable little snowman

My pretty princess

I must have told her that I was going to eat all of her candy here.

I adore the way that Maddie is looking at her cousin here!

Mouths full of candy corn :) 

Love these three!

On Halloween night, my mom came over to pass out candy while we trick-or-treated!  One of our first stops was our own house, where Grandma was waiting with a big bowl of treats!

It was chilly and damp on Saturday night, but at least it wasn't as frigid as it was last year!

Maddie and Will walked from house to house most of the night, only riding in the wagon and taking "candy breaks" between courts.

If my mom plans on passing out candy again for us next year, she better step up her costume game - we took candy from several adults dressed in costume!

Sorting and counting the loot several days later!