Halloween

We spent quite a bit of time getting Halloween ready around here-if you look closely, you will see little faces in the window exchanging Halloween gel clings. 

Real life: Anderson was "trading" his small ones for Max's better ones. This was at least 13 seconds of them not physically assaulting each other, so it was pretty nice.

Because if a pumpkin patch and Boo at the Zoo are not obligatory parts of childhood, I don't know what is. Luckily for us, some of the cousins came into town to hit up the Zoo with us. 

Reese. I know. 

Anderson's super elaborate Marine Biologist/Scuba Diver outfit turned out SO cute. Well, except for the fact that it was a million degrees and a wet suit is really, really hot. 

But, how AWESOME is that air tank?? 100 % of the credit goes to Brandon because he made the entire thing. 

High quality pictures are the only way to go around here. 

Also, my mom was genuinely happy. Only my mom is grinning surrounded by sticky, grumpy kids at the zoo. Love all of it. 

We made some Halloween cupcakes and Lily was a teeny bit disappointed by my offering of decorations. I had Funfetti sprinkles, icing markers, eyeballs, chocolate chips and other sprinkles, which is about my  max. She was so sweet because I could tell that she was trying to not to hurt my feelings when she told me that was good. 

Pumpkin picking, also in the 90 degree weather. 

GG took these boys to the Goddard festival and they had such a fun time. 

Max with his best friend at school, Marley. 

One of our pumpkins! This one was resurrected from the dead with a visit to Ace and time put in by Brandon. 

Grateful that carving pumpkins always falls into Brandon's realm. 

3 of our many pumpkins. After all of the painting, carving and patching adventures, I think we had at least 12. It was a bit excessive. 

In a super fun twist, Clare hosted our first annual Halloween party! She made super cute mummy food, spider web desserts and bone snacks! Not only does she cook, but she takes it to another level with the themed recipes!

I brought incredibly high quality Halloween activities. Watch out, Pinterest. 

Insert all of the sarcasm here. 

Just the girls!

Also, how cute is Clare's house all decorated for Halloween?

And....even more amazing, my goody bag from the party consisted of leaving Anderson there to sleep over in a tent in the backyard with Jack! 

Before Halloween, we crashed a church's "Trunk or Treat" with Noah where the boys filled up their buckets. One "trunk" was a S'mores station. HOW CUTE IS THAT??

Actual Halloween night brought out our SWAT guy and Scuba Diver in full force....for about 19 minutes. 

This* is how we spent much of the evening and I was ok with this. Anderson does not love Trick or Treating (flashback to last year when he was 5 and chose College football over festivities and candy) and has been preparing me for days about his desire to just go to a few houses. I told my teenager that we would go as long as Max wanted to and then go back him to hand out candy. Apparently their genes are more alike than we realize, because Max was done pretty quickly, as well. 

*Not exactly sitting. 

One of the perks of sitting on our porch was the sunset. Anderson & spent quite a bit of time analyzing the sky and I think I actually enjoyed that way more than candy gathering. 

Now, on to Thanksgiving!