halloween 2016

i know, i know halloween is like so 4 days ago ;) believe me, i've been binging on trick or treat candy all week while listening to christmas music. i'm classy like that. 

can we all just agree that monday is the lamest day ever for halloween to land on? okay good. not that we get too crazy on any other day, but still. most of our halloween was pretty normal. azalea had school. her school is not really fond of celebrating halloween specifically (for many reasons), which is sort of a bummer, but not the end of the world. instead, her class had a "fall harvest party" where they were allowed to wear their pajamas to school and they ordered pizza and parents brought fruits and veggies to go with it. the kids had a ball! i even got to walk up there for the last 30 minutes of the school day to be a part of the party. (grandma cheryl stayed home with napping ashford). here is azalea at her party: 

i can't remember if i mentioned it here, but azalea is now taking a gymnastics class at a community center a couple miles from us. she absolutely loves it and the second week of it fell on halloween from 4:30 to 5:15, so i decided to have her go since we weren't meeting our friends for trick or treating until 6:30. i later realized it wasn't the wisest choice when we were wolfing down our dinner and throwing the kids costumes on to get out the door on time. oops! i tried to get them to pose in their costumes for me, but this was the best i got out of about a dozen pictures: 

"we're doing spooky hands, mama!" 

for the second year in a row, we went to the neighborhood of phinney ridge where my friend heather and her family live. it's much more single-family home oriented than our neighborhood, so easier for trick or treating. the group was heather's family (she has a 4 year old and a baby), and another family they know from their son's preschool. it was the perfect size group. the only downer of the night was it rained pretty steadily for most of it. but i guess this is seattle ;) 

ashford was a little unsure of the whole thing at first (despite it being his second year doing it), but he soon warmed up to it and was running faster than the speed of light to each house. it was so cute to watch! azalea of course was in heaven too. we trick or treated for about an hour and 15 minutes and they got a ton of candy! in fact, ashford's bag was so big and sagging on the ground, but he would not let us take any off his hands. it was so funny! 

when we got home, we dumped it all on the table and everyone ate a few (which is just as fun as the trick or treating, in my opinion!)

another halloween is in the books. enjoying the day through my kids' eyes is such a gift!