Halloween 2011

It was an action packed Halloween weekend this year. I was glad for it though. I've been so pre-occupied lately with looking for a place to live that I haven't done anything fun with my girls- no Halloween crafts, no cookies, no clever Halloween meal, not even a trip to the pumpkin patch this year. We just got costumes, dressed up and did some trick-or-treating! And Madi and Elle loved every minute of it.

Madi just became obsessed with princesses this year, so I knew she'd be wanting to be a princess. It was picking the right princess that was the hard part. She originally wanted to be "Tangled", but then watched "Cinderella" for the first time just before we moved and fell in love. I found this adorable Cinderella dress on Amazon (an actually super high-quality dress) and it sealed the deal!

As for Elle, I knew she would just want to be wearing a dress, so before we moved I got into our Halloween box and pulled out the Dorothy dress that Madi wore last year. It ended up being perfect. Elle commented several times on her "beautiful dress" and how pretty she looked!

The ward trunk-or-treat was on Saturday night which was a prefect warm-up for Elle. She knew exactly what to say, but once we got there she froze! A lot of the cars had some pretty spooky decorations, and Elle didn't want anything to do with those cars. But after 3/4 of her way around the church, Elle actually said "trick-or-treat" followed by "thank-you". She probably said it on a total of 5 cars. Picture below is Elle at the start of the trunk-or-treat- totally shy and hesitant. But once Elle's basket started to fill up with candy she started to realize how cool trick or treating is.

The girls were excited to get home and check out all their treats.

It's hilarious how obsessed Madi is with smelling stuff.

Sunday was the primary program (see post below) and recovering from a late night with too much sugar consumption. Then Monday the party started all over again. Madi got to wear her costume to school which she was thrilled about. She promised me she'd be super careful and not get it dirty for trick-or-treating that night. I had to laugh watching her hike up her dress as she headed to class- such a princess.

Elle and I popped into Madi's class for their Halloween party the last hour of the day. Elle got to join in on the pizza eating and cookie decorating. It was just fun to meet the other moms in the class and watch Madi with her little classmates.

Pic below: singing their goodbye song

Then Monday evening around 6:30pm we headed out trick-or-treating. This was by far my favorite year of trick-or-treating as a mom. The girls were adorable- fasinated by all the decorated houses and porches, and thrilled with watching their baskets fill up and overflow with candy! Note to self: get bigger baskets or bags for next year- I was shocked with how much candy the girls got in just an hour. We did the full neighborhood loop in a little over an hour and got double the candy they got at the truck-or-treat. Madi would excitedly tell me how many pieces people were putting into her bucket- shocked with how many people handed out more than one piece. We got home a little before 8pm, let the girls check out their stash, eat a few pieces, then it was off to bed. Amazingly they went quickly and happily. Then us adults stayed up and watched "Hocus Pocus"- perfect Halloween movie and a great end to a fun day!