Halloween!

This morning Matthew woke up really early, too excited to sleep because it was Halloween! Unfortunately for us, all of them were up by 6. Not sure how this is going to pan out when daylight savings time hits in a few days. Anyway, we started off our day by accompanying Matthew to school for his Spider Spook-tacular! The girls had a great time entertaining themselves in his classroom while the kindergarteners did different spider crafts. They made spider hats, ball spiders, paper spiders, and webs. Matthew couldn't wait to hide his spiders at home to scare Uncle Scott later. 

This year was Lily's first Halloween, and Caroline's first time really getting into it, so as soon as Brian got home from work we ate dinner and started getting ready to go trick-or-treating. They couldn't wait! This year Matthew requested a Captain Barnacles costume. Captain Barnacles is from the Octonauts, and of course they don't sell a Captain Barnacles costume so we had to make our own. I love how it came out! And it actually looks just like him! 

The entire time leading up to Halloween Caroline said that she wanted to be a butterfly. However, when the time came to put her wings on for dress up day at school yesterday, she cried like someone was sawing off her arms. Apparently elastic straps are just too much for her. So, at about 5:00 today I created costume option 2 - a pirate. This one went over much better, and she kept running around the house yelling Arrrr! and waving her sword. She wasn't a fan of the bandana I tried to get her to wear on her head, but she loved the eye patch and kept it on all night, even after trick-or-treating! 

Originally when Caroline was going to be a butterfly, we thought it would be perfect for Lily to be a caterpillar. And of course the very hungry caterpillar was way too perfect to pass up. The only very hungry caterpillar costume out there is from Pottery Barn for an exorbitant amount of money, so I decided to make hers too. I did some online research and managed to create her caterpillar body. Then I bought her some striped tights and borrowed an already created hat from a friend. To say she looked hilarious and adorable is an understatement! 

So once everyone was fed and ready we headed out. Every year we get attacked by mosquitoes in our neighborhood right at dusk, so we were hoping to finish before that happened. The weather was absolutely amazing, and for once the kids weren't sweating in their costumes! The first few houses we went to Lily couldn't understand why on earth people were giving her candy. She would stand there with it in her hand, lift it up and show it to us, then stare at it, and repeat. We kept telling her that it was hers to put in her bucket. I think she finally got the picture, but she definitely did not waste any time asking us to open every single thing that she got! Matthew and Caroline were a little shy at first, not wanting to stand too close to the door or say trick-or-treat, but a few houses in they got into the swing of things. Normally we only go to about 10 houses, but this year they were having so much fun that we went all over the place! And Brian and I really enjoyed seeing our neighbors and getting to catch up with them as we walked around. We probably would have stayed out longer, but those blasted mosquitoes showed up again! Even with the cooler weather and the wind. Grrrr. 

Back home the kids had a great time hanging out with Baba, Daideo, Uncle Scott, Aunt Catie, and Emmy. And Caroline became quite the candy distributor! Every time the doorbell rang she ran over, grabbed the basket, and greeted our trick-or-treaters. When it was time for bed I think she was more disappointed that she couldn't hand out candy anymore than she was about trick-or-treating being over! She asked me when Halloween would come again because it was so much fun.