Halloween 2014--Kori Edition

Your first question might be, why is the title of this blog "Kori Edition."  Well, because, I, Kori (obviously a fan of the comma) am writing it.  Now you might be thinking, well, duh, don't you always write the blog?  Why, yes, that is generally true.  But this time, Thomas and I are doing something fun.  We are both writing a Halloween entry, covering the exact same day.  We are going to offer our children (and anyone else who reads this) two perspectives on the same event.  Fun, right?  So, this is Kori's version.  We did some other fun Halloween stuff, like a family date night to Golden Corral (the kid's favorite restaurant) and a Haunted House.  Hopefully, I will remember to write about that in the future, because this blog covers only October 31st.  On to my version of events:

Last year at this time, we were on our Disney cruise.  This year, we got to hang around at home and enjoy trick-or-treating through our neighborhood.  Not exactly an even trade-off, but one the kids were happy to experience.

Halloween fell on a Friday, which I think is the best possible day.  The kids all had parties at school.  They were supposed to come dressed as their favorite book characters.  We found books that corresponded with their Halloween costumes.  I thought it was kind of a "wink/wink" sort of thing, that the school didn't really expect them to come as book characters and that it was just pretext to let the kids have some fun, which I certainly appreciate.  When we went to the character parade, I saw that we were in the majority, but there were actually a good number of kids who came as legitimate book characters--lots and lots of Harry Potters, for example.  But, I am getting ahead of myself.

Thomas' grandmother gave the twins a lion costume way back in 2007.  They wore it for some pictures, but were too small to trick-or-treat.  I can't remember why Kara didn't wear it in 2009, maybe I forgot we had it?  Regardless, I came across it when I was looking for clothes for Luke and I built a whole theme around it.  The older kids were excited--Jack was going to be a Scarecrow, Kara was going to be Dorothy and Anna was going to be Glinda.  I figured I could wear a wicked witch costume and Thomas could be the Tin Man. Alas, it was not meant to be; one by one, the children changed their minds and my vision of a coordinated Halloween has been forever vanquished (they are getting a bit too old, I figured this year was my last shot).

Jack decided to be a Revolutionary War soldier.  We found a great costume online and ordered it.  Well, we thought it was great, but a lot of people thought he was a pirate.  There is a picture of George Washington at his school wearing an extremely similar uniform, but I think his 6/7 year-old classmates are more familiar with pirates than 200+ year old uniforms.  Regardless, he was happy.  And, his costume was legitimately based on one of his current favorite books.  He said he was the only one in his class who chose nonfiction.

For the past couple of years, Anna and Kara have chosen their costumes by going to Target and browsing the shelves.  That is what they wanted again this year.  Kara chose a peacock costume and Anna chose a cute witch.  I really liked their choices.  For school, Kara used our book, "Three Peacocks and a Hen."  For Anna, we borrowed a book from a neighbor that featured witches, I don't even remember the title. 

I signed up to send in juice boxes for all their classes, but told their teachers to let me know if anything else was needed.  I ended up making cupcakes for Jack's class and sending carrots in for Kara. 

Everyone was very excited on Friday morning.  Even Luke.  Okay, not Luke.  The kids were out of bed early, dressed and ready to go.  It was fun bringing them to the bus stop and seeing all the fun costumes.

Before school photo

What a festive bus stop!

Thomas was off from work and we finished the cupcakes and then dropped the cupcakes off at school.  We had a peaceful morning and even went out to lunch.  After lunch, we headed to the school to see the character parade.  It is always interesting to see the kids with their friends.  Kara ran out of line to hug us, Jack waved enthusiastically for quite a while, and Anna, oh Anna, well, she refused to acknowledge us until right before they were going to go back inside, when she deigned to pose for a picture.  I have to admit that I worry that if this is 7, what is 15 going to be like?  Hopefully, she is just getting the snootiness out now!

Jack was fond of issuing this Revolutionary salute

Kara coming in for hugs

And, showing off her plumage

Anna and our neighbor Ryan, who incidentally loaned us her book

We were very anxious to hear about their day after school.  They were very anxious to tell us (even Anna, she is always happy to tell us about her day, which I appreciate).  They played outside with their friends until dinner. I had made crescent "mummy dogs," which were actually pretty good.  Finally, FINALLY (if you're the kids), it was time for the main event.  We decided that Thomas would take them down one street while I handed out treats and then we would switch.  Here's a little confession--I hate handing out treats.  I don't know why.  It just feels so awkward to me.  I don't mind when it's kids I know, but I just really don't like it when it is strangers.  But, I sucked it up.  Thomas had Halloween music playing, which was fun and I probably only had about 20 kids come in the 45 minutes or so they were gone. 

Yummy, mummy dogs

Ready to go!

Next year, we might just put up a sign with the candy and take the kids out together.  When it was my turn, we ended up walking with some of our neighbors (who are very sadly moving next week).  That was really fun for the kids.  They have an 11-year old daughter that Anna and Kara worship.  Thankfully, she is an awesome kid who is willing to play with her young neighbors.  We are going to be sooooo sad when they leave.  But, I digress.  The kids loved going door to door.  They were very polite--one neighbor told me that ours was the only group that had every child say both "trick-or-treat" and "thank-you."  So, I was proud of them. It was fun walking along in the dark.  This was our third year in this house, but the first year with the neighborhood complete, which was awesome.  My only disappointment was that the guy who handed out full-sized Hershey bars two years ago had his light off this year.  I can't say I blame him.

With one small street left to go, Jack had to use the bathroom, he ran home and then decided he had enough candy and he wanted to keep Thomas company.  It took us almost two hours to go to all 60 houses.  Luke was in the stroller and didn't make a peep the entire time (at least not when I was with him).  He fell asleep about 15-minutes before we finished, but I would call his first Halloween a success.  I hope his great-grandma was watching and saw that we finally put her costume to good use!

When we got home, as expected, the kids dumped out all their candy.  Thomas immediately removed all of Jack's nut-containing treats and the girls were happy to make trades.  We put them to bed shortly after 8 and turned off our light.  It was a very successful, fun Halloween.