Halloween Recap!

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! We most certainly did. We went to a number of Trick or Treat events, and have so much candy that I'm truly not sure what to do with now. We let the kids change up their costumes a few times from their costume box + attended the trick or treat in Old Town for the third year in a row, which officially never disappoints. Tomorrow I'll be blasting holiday music, taking down Halloween decor, and trying to restrain myself from decorating for Christmas too early...
Happy Halloween to all + to all a good night :)
^^^my sweet little trick or treater, who kept saying, "i just love trick or treating!"
^^^why is isla the best?! i mean, steals the show, SO CUTE i can't stand it.
^^^she was also a champion trick or treater. all the stranger danger she usually sports was out the window for candy.
^^^my favorites. it's true that it doesn't get better than them for me. 
^^^i won't tell you what i said to get them laughing for these pictures! 
^^^halloween treats... because sugar was exactly what we needed more of... cute though!

Pumpkin Carving!

We officially carved halloween pumpkins for the season last weekend! Abel chose a standard spooky face, with triangle eyes + nose, and a zig zag mouth, despite the many other options we showed him haha, he named it "Scary". Lucy went with hearts for eyes and a big smile. So sweet. Each year they are a little more into it and a little more involved + I'm happy we've included carving into our Halloween traditions. 
All of the kids costumes have officially arrived, and we are gearing up for a few different Trick or Treat events over the next few days. I'm excited! I was REALLY excited for Halloween... and I am, but now that it's almost here, I'm realizing I'm actually moooostly excited because after it's over we can somewhat acceptably dive into Christmas music + the coziest time of the year... 
I mean, who's with me?!
^^^i love lucy's piggies, because she "braided" them herself + had me put in the hair ties.

Our Favorite Halloween Books

We have been preparing for Halloween over here since July-ish. My kids talk about halloween costumes for moooost of the year + we pull out the Halloween books September 1st. We have quite the growing collection + I wanted to share a few of our favorites here!
// Top two, forever favorites are Miss Fiona's Stupendous Pumpkin Pies + Room on the Broom. We got them while I was pregnant with Abel + they've been favorites for us and for the kids since day one. 

// It's Pumpkin Day Mouse! + The Itsy Bitsy Pumpkin are sweet + easy board books, meant for little hands + short attention spans, but our big kids still love them + so they made our list.
//  From Apple Trees to Cider Please, is a new one for us this year. The illustrations are so cute + it has a nice rhyming pattern, win.

// Ghost in the House is a precious lift the flap book that we scored last year at the grocery store of all places.

All of these books can be found on Amazon + would be sweet additions to your Fall Library, enjoy!

Over the weekend we...

...Went as a family to the indoor rock climbing gym here in town. 
It was a fun experience. We ended up taking Isla since it was a spur of the moment decision to go that day, so she + i were spectators, but it's something I actually want to try doing + so we will definitely be back. 
Abel LOVED the bouldering wall, and Lucy loved climbing with the belay (forgive me if that's not the proper lingo!) They were both really really impressing me with how far they went + I was super proud. I grew up always being fearful of things + so it's so important to me that we expose our kiddos to things while they are young. We want them to be adventurous + brave, and it's worth it to us to put in the effort to talk them through things even when they are nervous. They will typically try things at least once, which is a win to me, because they can then make a decision if they like something or not, having actually experienced it. All this to say, we tried something new together and all liked it! Hooray! A few photos from my iphone of the kiddos climbing.
Over the weekend we also... 
Picked pumpkins! I finally got some pretties for our front porch, and Abel + Lucy chose their own pumpkins as well. We really had the best weekend as a family. I am so thankful that Chris came home safely from his work trip + I'm so happy I get to call this family my own. There is really nothing better than being together. Have a great week!