Halloween Night

We had our awesome neighborhood Halloween Party last night! I love our neighborhood. They shut down a street and we all bring over food assignments and have soups, hot dogs, chips, cupcakes, drinks and the adults sit around talking while the kids play in 2 bounce houses set up in a neighbors driveway. It's so much fun and everyone looks forward to it all year long. Our street usually brings the apple juice and cups but this year I switched with a friend who wanted a break. So I made a soup (clam chowder) to share with everyone. There were about 8 crockpots full of soup and they were all empty at the end! We have fun families who all dress up as a theme and some families who don't dress up. It's a great time to see everyone and meet new neighbors and just have fun.

It was a crazy Saturday. We carved, or painted in Courtney's case, pumpkins in the morning and then we had soccer games in the late morning and early afternoon. Courtney's game was first and it went well. While she napped in the afternoon, Bryan and Ethan went to his game. Then Bryan took our soup over to the party set up while I got the kids in their costumes. Grandma and Grandpa Oman brought them over candy and took photos and then we were off to our party!

The kids don't go for the food until the bounce houses have filled up with people, so they were bouncing for quite a while. When they were tired of that, they ate a hotdog and then wrestled on a lawn with their friends. At this point we lost Courtney's socks and hair bow, but she didn't seem to care.

When things were winding down at about 6:30 or so, groups got together to take kids around the neighborhood trick-or-treating. Courtney's best friend, Hayley, sought her out and so they went together with Hayley's older sister and her best friend. Their moms were great to take them around! Ethan hooked up with a bunch of friends and they went around with another parent. Bryan stayed behind to help clean up and I went home to greet the trick-or-treaters.

I had bought 6 bags of candy (yeah, I know, last year we gave out pencils but I had a coupon and the candy was WAY cheaper than the pencils, so I decided to cave in) and it was almost gone by the time Ethan and Courtney returned home. They then took over the handing out candy duties and when we ran out Ethan had me give him candy from his bag to hand out!

We then turned off the outside light and began sorting through the kid's candy. They got to eat one piece and keep 5 pieces for later, then the rest was put back in their sacks to wait for the Halloween Fairy to take it away at night. (The Halloween Fairy takes the candy and leaves a toy in its place.)

Bedtime was late and they slept great! They loved their Halloween Fairy toys too! Great Halloween Night!!