Spooks and shots!

Did everyone have a fun/spooky/enjoyable/full-of-sweet-treats Halloween? We certainly did. Just like last year, the holiday had a really nice feeling of "normal" to it, which is hard to beat. 

After a one-year hiatus, we hit Iron's Fruit for the ninth time. Always fun!!

Carved! The kids each picked a design. Brie carved her own jack-o-lantern because she recently had a tooth extracted. Samuel picked the Pirates of the Caribbean crest...Tony did a great job of it! And Sebastian wanted fall leaves and then pivoted to the Canadian flag. We do love maple syrup! 😉

The kids were as excited as ever to get dressed up...can you guess what they were?? They had their usual blast of a time going house to house and getting entirely too much candy. And why, I wonder, was Halloween 2021 the year of the full-size candy bar?! One may never know... 

A few months ago, Sebastian declared that he wanted to be Slenderman, to which I thought, "Ugh, I don't really want to buy that costume..." Luckily, Samuel and Brie remembered that a neighbor had been that character a few years back. One quick text and ten minutes later, the costume was on our front porch. I swear, friendship is faster than Amazon. He was thrilled and the dog was totally spooked! 😲

Likely inspired by our trip to Hershey Park in August, Brie wanted to be a Reese's peanut butter cup. As usual, she put the costume together herself. I love all the pieces she assembled, including the brown leggings with the built-in skirt (that we DID find on Amazon) that resemble the brown paper cup that the candy comes in. She even designed her own bag and had a costume partner-in-crime with Blossom (whose kerchief we DID buy at Hershey Park). That gift shop sold EVERYTHING.

And Samuel knew for weeks that he wanted to be a lumberjack. He had the flannel, the axe and the hat; we bought him the jeans at Old Navy (kids don't wear jeans anymore these days!). Another awesome neighbor lent us the beard. It all came together beautifully and he got lots of positive feedback from neighbors, including questions like, "Are you Paul Bunyan?" and A LOT of, "Are you the Brawny Paper Towel guy?" Ha! 

Brie trick-or-treated in the next neighborhood over with her bestie Paige who was dressed in Steampunk...pretty cool! They had a fabulous time, of course. 

Our neighbor Mr. Haunt went all out again this year...we never get tired of the show he puts on in his front yard. My favorite this year was a witch sitting in a chair who jumped up when you come close. 😬

Here's a sample of his Halloween magic!

Our own little contribution...Brie decorated our driveway with glow-in-the-dark chalk paint!

Taking inventory that night...

And then again after school. Ha! They got way too much candy and were thrilled about it. Tons of variety this year and not a lot of duds, if you know what I mean. 

Then a little post-candy coma snooze. Blossom is like...again??

These two! 

And these four! 

We may need a bit of a candy detox now, but what a great time of year. Only fun things to look forward to this month and next. AND...Brie and Sebastian finally got their first vaccines. Woohoo!! 💪💪