Our Halloween activities stay pretty consistent every year and I really love our traditions! It’s not overkill (sometimes randomly Easter can be too much for us?!?!) but it’s just the right amount of FUN!
I love that our church hosts a Trunk Or Treat event this year and it was nice that it was located at the church building this year as it made it easier to work into our schedule with Spear!
G-Mama loves to come to every event she can. Zach and I talked about how it’s not that she comes for the kids…she comes to stuff because she truly wants to be there. Def #grandmagoals!
All the cars set up and the kids love going from trunk to trunk trick or treating!
This year there were pony rides AND snow cones (only in South Ga could you eat snow cones at Halloween time haha)
This year’s pumpkin patch visit was extra special having our entire family unit. I’ve always loved all of our family traditions but now that we’re complete? They are all even MORE special to me!
It’s so funny to me that Spear looks more like me than Kye did!
And now he’s SO GROWN. {Insert crying emoji}
Bros.
Cutest pumpkins in the patch!
We loved all the funky pumpkins and all agreed to skip carving this year and just get a unique pumpkin instead!
One awesome man leading…another one protecting. So thankful Spear has two incredible examples to look up to!
After our pumpkin patch outing we went to Pizza Hut for dinner and got ALL THIS FOOD for only $16! You guys with larger families know what I’m talking about…we were PUMPED haha!
For the last 5ish years Casey has hosted a Halloween party at her house! This year she and the boys have a new house and we were all excited to celebrate over there!
I like to bring a kid-friendly dish and something themed. These were a BREEZE.
Tessie and Carter just adore each other!
Spear was ALL ABOUT Cam’s little ride on!
These two got their grub on!
Just like her mama – here for the treats 😉
Everyone’s costumes were so cute! Casey went all out and MADE Carter an airplane and she and Cam were pilots! Too cute!
Mema
Aunt Meryl
Colt and Payton
Our Crew!
I don’t typically do anything special for holidays food-wise but saw some fun Halloween themed cereal and grabbed it!
I was SO EXCITED that for the first time ever the big kids were allowed to wear Halloween costumes to school! It kills me that the schools have all these themed dress up days all throughout the year but then the one day a year when parents ARE prepared with costumes for their kids they aren’t allowed to wear them. So dumb. And the kids were SO PUMPED to get to choose what they wanted to dress up like!
I found this cute Chewbacca one piece outfit at a kids sale…it was a little small but Kye rocked it anyway!
Our Moana!
Tess is in a routine of reading my blog books in the mornings and it was so funny that she happened to choose a book with a pumpkin patch visit in it where Britt happened to be wearing the same shirt Tess was wearing that day!
Loving that special cereal!
Along with buying a “funky” looking pumpkin the kids also decorated their own too!
When I was making Spear’s bear costume I saw this outfit at Target and grabbed it thinking I might use it instead of the homemade one but then Tess really wanted to match with him. I’m also not quite sure what animal this actually is?!?! I just stuck it on him for trick or treating!
I have LOVED our tradition over the last few years of inviting friends and family to come to our house a little before trick or treating time to eat a quick bite and visit and then walk the street together! It’s been SO FUN and something we all look forward to!
It’s also the one time a year we bust out the wagon haha
Spear did GREAT riding around and taking it all in. At one point we stood still for too long and he got antsy and totally jumped OUT of the wagon. He was FINE but it was funny seeing the reactions of random people standing near us. We were all like “it’s fine he’s the fourth kid, he’s tough” haha!
BFF Tradition!
First Halloween for Spear and my last day of being 33!
Carter was so cute with his big airplane costume…we kept joking that G-Mama should have worn a helicopter costume to match 😉 She followed him everywhere trying to help him manage the costume. He ended up taking it off!
Best Buddies!
Tess struggled this year. The big kids RUN ahead and she gets left behind. I had a big talk with the kids afterward about how we’ll do it differently next year. On the one hand I have great memories of RACING with my friends to each house, but on the other it’s really unfair to the little ones who WANT to keep up but can’t. And I explained to the kids that when they run ahead NONE of the adults can SEE them enjoying their night and we want to be part of things! There is a balance we just need to figure out. We ended up telling them they could only be one house ahead of us and that worked better. It also helped that Tess starting asking the older kids to hold her hand…it slowed down the pace and helped her speed up a bit 🙂
Sweet Lorelai!
The upside of the racing by the kids? We were done SO FAST this year. Usually we hit the spooky house when it’s super dark but this year? Still nice and light outside!
My favorite part of the night is to sit on the porch with the kids and pass out the candy…Tessie got to join us this year!
We had such a great Halloween season! Our first one as a family of 6 and it was a great one for sure. I love our traditions and the kids had so much fun this year sorting all of their candy and making trades with each other. Another fun memory I remember from childhood too 🙂
Emily, I had a great time tonight catching up on my blog reading. As usual, yours were so cute and filled with those adorable children of yours. Spear is really growing. I have always heard if you hang around a family for a long period of time, you begin to favor and look like them, seems to be holding true in Spear’s case. Those girls of you keep getting cuter each day and Kye, my goodness he is getting so tall and growing into a young tween too soon. I have not had much time to do any reading or anything much. My mom has been temporarily living with us. She is 86 and has always lived independently and still drives too. Most days she can work circles around me, but she has been having some dizzy, drunkness, and nausea for the last few weeks, (really since Michael blew through. I have taken her to her regular doctor, he hospitalized her for 2 days, then we went to her ear specialist for him to check her ears ( she has meneres and we thought perhaps the crystals in her ears had thrown her off balance and sick)…not so. She had an MRI and now is to see a neurologist on 12/26. Perhaps then we can finally find some answers or something that will help her. She also has macular dengeneration for which she takes shots in her eyes, so 2 x’s a month we are in Tallahassee at the eye specialist. She also lost her oldest brother last week and it was a shock. There are 10 of them and this is only the 2nd sibling to die, they lost a sister 2 years ago to lung cancer. Anyway you can see we have been busy. My twin sister came down the week after Thanksgiving and gave me a break. On top of all that, my 12 year old grandson is going to West Palm Florida on Thursday for surgery on his leg on the 17th and they will be there throughout Christmas. He has HME and this is probably one of the worst surgeries he will have. He has had 4 surgeries already. The last one was to take a boney tumor off his neck that was growing too close to the spinal cord, now this one is growing down his long leg bone, and causing him pain and without the surgery his gait will be messed up. I tell you all that to ask if you would be in prayer for my Momma and especially my grandson Alden. You know how at times you feel like your plate is too full and the contents are overflowing? That is how I feel at this moment. I am glad your blog was a distraction for me tonight but I also love reading about a family that is so happy and well adjusted and loving. God bless you all and one of these days I AM coming to Valdosta to meet you all. Hugs, and MERRY MERRY MERRY Christmas. GiGi