Warner Spooks

Halloween has come and gone. We love Halloween around our house. It sure was busy this week with preparations and class parties and the LCS hot dog sale and all of the rest, but we had a great time. My favorite part of Halloween in more recent years has been answering the door for the trick-or-treaters. In the last few years, my kids have made their joy in getting dressed up and trick-or-treating the very best part. This year, they were all into it, and that made it even better.

Thursday night, we had an activity night and trunk or treat at the church. The Young Men, Young Women, and Primary were each in charge of some aspect of the evening. Being in the Primary Presidency, that meant I had some work to do. We, the Primary, did an old school fish pond activity. Crissy, our secretary, built an enclosure rather than just a curtain. Sister Dudley, who bought the prizes, sat inside and put the prizes on the fishing poles. For Jon, that was tied with the maze for the best part of the evening. He got a slinky and had to deal with his little sister asking him to "share" (which in Sami's world means hand it over) at regular intervals. Sami got sidewalk chalk, which has created hours of amusement and a very well decorated driveway at our house. The Young Men did a maze. They did it with cardboard boxes, which they lined with glow sticks. There were 3 entrances/exits, and the kids had a blast doing it over and over again to find as many different ways around as they could. Crissy's husband is the Young Men's President, and really the two of them made the night. Mandy, our Primary President, wanted to dress up but didn't want to be alone, so I was a good sport and dressed up this year as............................

Minnie Mouse. It was fun, and the kids loved it that I dressed up. I didn't have time to glue on my big fake eye lashes but oh well.

Yesterday we finally got everyone in their costumes and out the door. Sami was so excited this year. She had been waiting a long time for trick-or-treating, and it was obvious. I was glad that I am an old school mom who prefers walking the neighborhood and trick-or-treating, because the kids had a wonderful time. Right up until the end, Samantha ran the whole time from house to house. In between she would remark that she wanted to do more trick-or-treating. Ashley met up with one of her friends from 1st grade, and they stayed together the rest of the night. I remember how fun it was when it was just Tony and I or when I was older and went with my friends. I was glad she had that even if she still had her parents along.

Our clown. Turns out the big incentive behind choosing to be a clown was the shoes. She was very disappointed when we couldn't find any left at the Halloween store. Still, she was cute and had a great time.

Our princess

Jack Skellington aka the Pumpkin King. He was quite pleased with himself when he frightened a little girl out in the neighborhood. His costume isn't terribly scary, so I thought it was funny.

In action

After trick or treating, we drove down the road a little to a house that gets all decked out for Halloween. My kids call it the spooky house. Sami got a little too scared. Fortunately, there was someone in the driveway area with treats for the kids who didn't want to go all the way up to the porch.

After we got home and cleaned up, Ashley combined her stash from two nights into one.

Princess Samantha, new prize in hand, decided she'd had enough and fell asleep with Daddy.