Halloween

Despite wet weather, our Halloween was a great night.  We decided to host a party again this year since the weather is so unpredictable and the kids have all been feeling a little under the weather.  We keep it “simple” by inviting our friends the Heerma’s (affectionately known as Keyan’s friend Max and his family), my brother, sister-in-law, nieces, Jamahl had a friend, and than the 9 of us!  Simple is obviously relative!  It is a fun group and works out just great.  Before we get to the party though, I must fill you in on the adventure of the girls costumes.

This year, the girls really struggled to decide what to dress up as.  Some of them wanted to do a group costume, but they could never come up with an idea that they all agreed on.  At the same time, I didn’t really want to just walk into the costume store and have them just pick.  So, one Friday night, the girls and I left the boys home and we headed to one of our local consignment stores.  This particular one is HUGE!  We girls had so much fun!  For three hours they ran around the store grabbing items that they could use to dress up in.  They tried outfits on, changed their minds, started the whole process over, and all finally decided.  The interesting thing about the whole night was that my girls don’t typically get to shop like this.  They still like to dress like each other so that limits where we shop and what we buy.  Plus, just due to the nature of our life, I usually do most of their shopping online.  If I go to a store with the girls, they inevitably want the really cute, fashionable things that are just too expensive for our budget.  If I buy it myself, they always like what I buy partly because they do not know what they are missing.  Shopping for “costumes” was so much fun for them because they could pick most anything in the store and I could say “yes.”  Besides, what girl can resist an entire room full of shoes!  We had a great time putting their outfits together and even better yet, they went to school today in last nights “costumes”, repurposed as regular clothes!  How fun! So, without further ado, her is what they came up with!

     

Sidney picked this fancy dress out right away and decided that she would be a winter bridesmaid.  She loves dresses and fancy shoes and we just don’t have many of either one so this was perfect for her.  She was beautiful!

  

Keyan too fell in love with this shirt and so the other girls helped her decide to be a Hawaiian surfer girl.  She loved clopping around in the light up flip flops that she found and her dark hair made this costume the perfect choice for her.

  

McKenzy was drawn to the funky clothing and had the most fun choosing all the different layers and accessories of her DJ costume.  She was slightly distraught because the hat covered her new bangs up that she got cut earlier this week, but in the end, all was well….what a little personality on this one!

 

Abagayle had the hardest time choosing a costume because she just couldn’t make up her mind.  She ended up settling on this darling cheetah.  You have heard me say it before, but she is our very fashion conscious girl.  She loves putting outfits together and loves very random things. So, of course it would be her that needed the face paint and the fancy eye tattoos! She looked so cute and was very happy with her final choice.

 

No surprise to anyone…Jamahl was Tom Brady with the New England Patriots this year.  Did you know that when Tom Brady was young he dressed up as the quarterback for the New England Patriots???  Who knows what Jamahl’s future will hold but we think he makes an incredibly handsome football player.  The other picture is of him doing some last minute homework before the party. He is such a responsible kid!

The women at our party know how to have fun!  Firefighter Emily, I was a cowgirl, my hippie mom, and my hillbilly sister.  What a great group!  I should have gotten a picture of the men since NONE of them dressed up!!!  Emily says they were all nudists on strike, I say they are party poopers!

Most of our group….what a party we had!

 

Our nieces…Lucy and Aubrey.  I love these two “littles”…they add so much to our family!

We had tacos for dinner with cupcakes and monster ice cream sandwiches for dessert.  We made glow in the dark monster nights, played glow in the dark ring toss, ghost bucket bonanza, had a mummy relay, and trick-or-treated through the house.  The kids all had a ton of fun and ended the night with a ton of candy! Nothing better that that!  The best part?  My kiddos were so worn out from the excitement, that they were all in bed by 9pm!  Not too shabby!

 

  

Poor Dad was completely freaked out by my hillbilly sister-in-law.   Truth be told, none of us could look at her without cracking up.  She was in full character and we had such a blast with it!

October has flown by….and now onto BIRTHDAYS!!!!