Halloween

I know I'm a day late. I'm usually late. Oh well.

I have never liked Halloween. I hate dressing up. I hated it when I was a little kid. I hate drawing attention to myself. And I've never really enjoyed all of the spooky or pretend spooky/goofy things that go with the holiday. But then one day...my brother got married.

My brother's wife, Laura, LOVES Halloween. I don't get it. Last year I was just getting into the blog thing. I started reading her blog sometime during October. She wrote everyday about some fun aspect of Halloween. I found myself looking forward to the holiday for the first time. Wow.

Then this year, my sister, Brynn, and I were put in charge of the annual family Halloween party. Oh my goodness, I got so into the planning (and you all know how I love to plan!) that I couldn't help but be excited for the whole holiday. Let me share with you our Halloween adventures. These are in kind of a random order. Sorry about that.

• A week before Halloween, we went to a church trunk-or-treat party. The kids dressed up and they had a ball! Ammon was a robot. He has been planning and creating his costume since last Halloween. In the end it was made from cardboard and duct tape. He loved it and the other kids at the party thought it was SO COOL that he had made his own costume! Sarah was Sleeping Beauty. She likes to be princesses. Nathan usually has very specific ideas for costumes, but when it comes down to wearing them in front of people, he refuses. This year was different. He was Spiderman and has worn the costume almost every day. Bethie was also a little princess. She wore a new nightgown Grandma Suzie just sent. She thought she was beautiful.
• I thought that since we trunk-or-treated, we shouldn't have to trick-or-treat. Afterall, our neighbors were the ones who were at the party. There's no reason to beg off them twice. Plus I hate having that much candy in my house. Ick and double ick. I decided to have a Harry Potter party at home instead. We read Harry Potter as a family earlier this year and I finally decided to allow the kids to see the first movie. They were so excited about the party, they really didn't care about not going door to door. We had a blast together.
• On Friday, we had our extended family party. You know, the one Brynn and I planned. Oh boy, was it fun! I must have been missing my sisters-in-law, Laura and Cami, because I planned the party to remind me of them. Let me tell you what we did.
• We ate chili. I know, everyone eats chili at Halloween. But we used Cami's recipe. I don't like chili that much, but this was DELICIOUS!! Cami, you've really outdone yourself again.
• We played a bunch of silly party games. Everyone seemed to have a good time.
• We had a little storytime to entertain some of the kids while the others were still working on their Creepy Crafts. And the books we used? Ones Laura had recommended via Facebook earlier this week. (That's another story in itself.)
• During the costume parade, we played music. The music we used? Songs Laura had on her blog playlist. Thanks for your creative energies, Laura.
• On Saturday we made Halloween sugar cookies. We used my aunt's recipe for the cookies and frosting. Last year, we made those same cookies with Jacob and Laura. Their daughter, Naomi, and my Sarah have birthdays eight days apart in October. Last year, we met halfway between their birthdays for a cookie party. As we were making the cookies this year, I wished that Naomi and Sarah had had a cookie party tradition for six years instead of just one. And I wished that we could go to Iowa to decorate the cookies with Naomi and Boyce.
• One of our favorite past times this month? Watching silly Monster Mash videos. Laura and Cami both made e-cards with their family members' heads attached to different Halloween characters. I am having a lot of trouble explaining this. Anyway, they were funny videos and the kids have watched them over and over and over. I wanted to show them at the party, but there wasn't an internet connection in the party room.

I think this post is a little dull...sorry about that. Here, I'll get to the point. Halloween was fun this year! Largely thanks to Cami and Laura who live far away but still influence me.