Happy Halloween!

I loved that Small Fry and Fawn were home from school on Halloween and we got the day to play and enjoy each other! Plus, that meant they weren't too tired from school to enjoy the afternoon and evening activities.

We started the day with pumpkin painting. While Small Fry was just too young to participate in carving, both boys (who are artistic and love a craft!) loved painting pumpkins on our deck. Small Fry painted two pumpkins and Fawn painted three. While they were occupied doing that, I finished our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pumpkins. (Okay, so I can completely admit that I went way overboard with the pumpkins this year...but it was fun!).

We spent the rest of the morning playing and doing laundry before I put Small Fry down for a super-early nap. We needed him to get his resting out of the way so we could head to Crestline and enjoy the Halloween parade. It was our first time going to the Crestline parade and we had a blast! We will definitely make it a yearly occurrence. We parked at a friend's house and walked down Dexter to catch the parade on Church Street. It was both boys' very first parade experience -- and they were spoiled because the costumes and floats were so cute and everyone was tossing candy and other Halloween goodies.

Waiting for the parade.

Our street party was a pizza party this year -- perfect for my little Ninja Turtles. We enjoyed some neighbor time and then the annual costume contest. Fawn won AGAIN. Fun, but now he thinks he should win every year so I'm bracing myself for the letdown.

Pizza!

Their favorite food (seriously).

Buck is thinking, "How in the world did she convince me to wear this?"

Turtle parents.

Costume contest. Really Small Fry? What costume? Fawn is serious as always.

And the winner is....with his first can of silly string. Big time!

Speaking of costumes, we decided that we would go as the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Fawn as Raphael, Small Fry as Leonardo, Buck as Donatello and me as Michaelangelo. Fawn and Small Fry both seemed so pumped about their costumes -- they would put them on occasionally in the afternoon and Fawn would sing the theme song while Small Fry shouted "turtle power." They did not like their turtle shells though. I didn't buy grown-up costumes, but instead made shells out of cardboard for Buck and me. And, I made everyone a mask out of felt (the masks that came with the boys' costumes were not comfortable at all!). In true toddler fashion, though, on the actual day of Halloween (when the costumes matter), Small Fry completely rejected his. It wasn't worth the fight, but sadly we do not have a family shot of the turtles. Oh well!

We still had a great Halloween and the threat of rain held off while we got some trick-or-treating done. Buck started off with both of the boys while I handed out candy (actually Halloween gummies this year). Then, I took Fawn to some extra houses because he was determined to fill his pumpkin to the top with candy while Buck and Small Fry held down the home front.

Fun Halloween with my best buddies!