Ghosts and Witches and Cheerleaders, Oh My!

Halloween this year was also different than usual, but still very fun.  Lately I've been really trying to simplify things because I am still adjusting to my new situation and I often feel like I'm just keeping my head above water with all my responsibilities.  The simpler, the better at this point.  That's why we only carved three pumpkins.  That's also why the girls each had one costume only this year, and not two or three (they usually request several things each year).  My policy on costumes is that the homemade ones are usually better than the store-bought ones, which just look cheap and fall apart in two seconds.  Plus it forces you to be a little creative with homemade stuff.  I'm not completely opposed to store-bought stuff, but if I'm going to get a store-bought costume, I prefer to buy it after Halloween on clearance.  Because I just don't think most of those costumes are worth $20.  They're just not. And speaking of costumes, here they are:

If you can't tell, Shaelyn is a ladybug, Evie a BYU cheerleader, Claire a witch, and Hallie a ghost. I think I spent a total of $8 on their costumes this year. 

Climbing on the haystack was way more fun than posing for a picture. 

Grandma Kelly and Baby Shae!

 The night before Halloween was our ward trunk-or-treat, which was actually held indoors.  (So technically, it wasn't a trunk-or treat, it was just a trick-or-treating party, but they called it a trunk-or-treat.)  It was kinda nice having it inside for several reasons: 1. You could actually see the kids' costumes since they weren't covered by coats, 2. No one was freezing cold, 3. We could let the kids go trick-or-treating around the perimeter of the gym without a parent, since they were in sight all the time and not in a parking lot, and 4. We got to have doughnuts, hot chocolate, and cider while visiting with other ward members.  It was really fun! 

One downside was that I was expecting to be giving out a lot more candy than I actually did, so I bought my standard $30 worth of Halloween candy (which is gone in a snap at the Green River trunk-or-treat), and I didn't even go through one bag of it! So now I have a lot of leftover candy.  Oh well, now I know for next year that one bag is sufficient. And that also means that my kids didn't bring home as much candy as usual, so hopefully it is gone quicker!

Ready to start trick-or-treating! 

I feel so blessed that with as insane as his work schedule is at this time of year, my wonderful Robert was still able to come to the trunk-or-treat and to be with us on Halloween for our trick-or-treating too.  He is the best daddy ever and so good at balancing all his responsibilities. 

Me and my happy baby!

Shaelyn's costume: Some black pipe cleaners and red pom-poms stuck onto a black headband, and some red netting cinched into a pair of wings with some black felt dots.  A little elastic, and bam! Ladybug.  We've used this costume in years past, and the wings have held up surprisingly well considering they sit in a costume box all year long. 

Grinning away!

Before school on Halloween.  Hallie is making her ghost face and Claire is making her witch face (which looks a lot like her smile...).  Hallie's costume: I made her a separate body piece and head piece so that she could take off the hood if it was bugging her.  This turned out to be very useful, since the kids wear their costumes to school all day on Halloween.  Also I first made her hood in the traditional "ghost" style of cutting two holes for the eyes, but it was just a little hard to see out of and a little too creepy for me not to be able to see her at all, so we cut out a big hole for her face.

Claire's costume: Bought the tights at Wal-mart.  Witch hat came from the Halloween bucket, green tutu came from the dress-up, black skirt and black shirt came from her normal clothes, and the green belt is a bit of ribbon that was leftover from a St. Patrick's Day craft.  Pretty cost-effective little witch costume!

Shaelyn on Halloween day.  I didn't put her costume on until just before we went trick-or-treating. 

Man, it just doesn't get any cuter than that!

I love Evie's "attaboy" pose.  So cheesy!

Shae was very intrigued by the hay and all she wanted was to grab it.

The Halloween parade at school.  Captain America there is Freddy, Hallie's best friend at school.

Hallie the ghost, and her teacher, Mrs. Sandlian, the pumpkin.

Claire's class and her teacher, Mrs. Potter, the witch.  Mrs. Potter is a hoot! She is so energetic and funny and great with the kids! Love her!

More haystack fun.  This haystack is right in front of our building.  You know you live in the country when...there's a haystack in your front yard.

Attitude! Claire accidentally left her green witch hat on the bus on the way home from school, so she wore this black one instead for trick-or-treating.  Luckily I've got a few extra witch hats lying around!

Evie's costume: White turtleneck, tights, and tennies, freebie pom-poms, and a BYU cheerleader dress.  I already had every piece of this one at home.  Best way to go!

Cutest little cheerleader ever!

Hallie leaping over a mud puddle.  This makes her costume look much more ghostly, don't you think?

Claire is way too cool for this picture.

Love my sweet girls! Shaelyn was taking a nap until right before we left, so I didn't get a picture of her Halloween night.  But don't worry, her costume looked the same as it did the night before. 

 We went trick-or-treating to a few neighbors (which we still had to drive to get to), and called it a night.  The girls were happy and we were happy to be done early.  It was low-stress, but high-fun! Happy Halloween!