Halloween Traditions

If you know me, you know that I LOVE traditions! I love any excuse to create some fun memories with my kids. And Halloween was full of fun traditions for us this year!

We started off celebrating at the Antelope Ridge Fall Festival! 

Nolan the X Wing Fighter Pilot trying to win us something yummy at the Cake Walk! (no such luck!)

Nolan LOVES "Blow Ups"!

 Playing some games...

Ping Pong Ball toss into Pumpkin trick or treat baskets

Bean Bag toss

Lolli Pop Tree

Ring Toss! Nolan scored and won 3 prizes! 

He also scored in this Spider Ring tossing game! He was quite proud of himself! 

Halloween Plinko

Feeling brains, eyeballs, and blood! 

We waited about 30 minutes in line for these balloon light sabers! They were pretty excited! And a balloon battle was the perfect way to end the night. 

My parents and sister always send the boys fun packages. The boys freak out when they see one of the front step! They seriously can not stand the excitement! We skyped my family while opening up their boxes of Halloween goodies. 

 

These silly moustaches were inside! 

And so were these fun glow in the dark shades! Stunna'! 

A couple of years ago, Mallory sent them these Pirate Mr. Potato Head pieces to use in a pumpkin. This is one of Nolan's favorite things to do each year. 

 And of course, we had to carve a pumpkin too! 

Nolan designed and drew the face. 

Then Mark did most of the carving, with a little bit of help from the boys. 

I scooped out all the seeds and roasted them. Yum! 

And here it is...

our "happy pumpkin", who, according to Nolan, does not growl at people, but says, "I love you!" Ha! 

My Mom & Dad sent the boys a DVD of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown a few years ago. So we always spend an evening before Halloween watching it together. 

This is how they often request to watch DVDs. On my laptop and then they want to sit right next to each other on the side of the couch. Silly guys. 

One morning while Nolan was at school, the two year olds and I baked sugar cookies together. Gotta keep them busy and focused or the arguing over toys and pestering each other just about drives me crazy! So I like to plan some fun activities to do with them in the mornings and our time together goes so much better! I love these two crazy kids! 

We baked them and sent some yummy treats home with Ella to share with her Daddy and Mommy. They were both so cute when we made them and kept saying, "This is fun!" 

 I saved some of the dough for Nolan to be able to make some that evening as well. 

Making cut out cookies is one of his favorite things to do with his Grandma, but I would have to make do for the night. 

He had so much fun and took his job very seriously. 

He liked the yellowish orangeish sprinkles the best. 

Heath wanted to help out some more as well. 

Nolan did every step all by himself and asked for very little help. He did a great job and was quite the baker, as you can tell from the way his hoodie looked when he was done! Here he is showing off his finished product...a green cat! (instead of a black one!)

On Halloween morning, we dropped Nolan off at school and headed over to Mark's company's Halloween festivities. They go all out! Each department decorates their area in a theme and dresses in costumes. They pass out candy and have decorating & costume contests. Mark's department's theme was the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. 

Here he is as a one man marching band. Do you notice the balloons flying above him? They won for their division and Mark even won one of the all around prizes for best costume. (Thanks to the Arapahoe High School Marching Band!)

Heath had fun walking around the building and checking out all the creativity. He liked Daddy's trumpet as well. 

 A couple of days earlier, Nolan worked hard on making these Halloween cards for all 12 of his classmates. 

He cut them out, 

signed his name on each, 

and helped me punch holes and put glow sticks through them. He was so proud of them and loved passing them out to each of his friends as they left school that day. 

They can't wear costumes to school, but they had a fun "Pumpkin Day". They had special snacks, made masks, and played "Pass the Pumpkin". 

He had a good time and was ready to go trick or treating the second I picked him up. Too bad he still had to go home, eat lunch, and take a nap first. Poor guy. He was so anxious! 

But we did have a super fun night of trick or treating...more on that to come.