Halloween 2012

First, I have to give major props to my awesome friend, Megan.

I was having serious blog issues and refused to start paying for storage,

and she found the solution.

See? Awesome.

Anyway, I'm SO behind on my blog! I can't believe it's almost December and I'm just

barely posting about Halloween.

It's shameful, really.

Anyway, we started Halloween out with a parade at the school. 

Sam was on year-round last year, and was off track for Halloween,

so this was his first parade, ever.

It was so much fun! 

 As you can tell, we had a Peter Pan/Jake and the Neverland Pirates/Pirate-y theme going on.

Have I ever told you that I love coordinating costumes?

I do.

Manuel thinks I'm crazy.

He's probably right.

Anyway, Sam and Mateo decided back in July that they would be Peter Pan and Jake.

Not loving any costume that was in the store, I decided I would

try to make my own.

Try is the key word here, because I had NO idea what I was doing. 

Sadly, Ben's costume was not homemade, but still cute. 

 I searched about a million and one blogs and diy articles trying to find the perfect tutorials.

I finally found one for Mateo's Jake costume HERE

and Sam's Peter Pan costume HERE

Then I had to tell myself about a billion times that I could make them.

 I have to say, I was really pleased with the results.

Instead of tights, I bought Sam a set of thermals and dyed them green.

I was talking to my friend, Krista one day and told her how I still didn't know

how the costumes turned out as well as they did.

She mentioned how amazing it was that Heavenly Father will help us

even if it doesn't seem like a big deal.

 Since it's important to us, it's important to Him.

What she said was so true.

I know Heavenly Father helped me

because those silly costumes were meant for some of my

most favorite people in the world,

and they HAD to turn out!

Who would have thought that making costumes would

also strengthen my testimony?!

The church is true, my friends! :)

 Halloween night, we went to our ward Trunk-or-Treat,

then headed home for our traditional Papa Murphy's jack-o-lantern pizza.

After dinner, we went to my mom and dad's house

where Sam insisted on going door to door 

to go "real" Trick-or-Treating.

Poor kid! We normally do the trunk-or-treat and call it good.

I guess he's been deprived. :)

 This year, we tried something new.

I really didn't want to deal with the kids wanting to eat candy for breakfast

for the next few weeks, so we came up with a solution.

My step-mom, Katie, had told me that she has a Halloween Fairy come to her house.

The Halloween Fairy takes away the candy and leaves a small present. 

I knew we needed something like that!

My kids love "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"

so I decided we would be visited by the Great Pumpkin.

We talked to Sam and Mateo about it, and they reluctantly agreed to the terms.

They were allowed to keep 5 pieces of candy, and leave the rest

out for the Great Pumpkin.

If they did it, the Great Pumpkin would leave them a small present.

I have to say, it totally worked!

The kids woke up the next morning to a Halloween gift bag that

had a small toy in it. 

They thought it was the coolest thing ever, and I didn't have to 

fight about candy! 

I'm so glad we had a successful Halloween,

and we'll definitely keep the Great Pumpkin coming. :)