Halloween 2016

October was a busy month for the Moore family and the last weekend of the month about did us in. I'm still getting my bearings!

Jack dressed up as Spider-Man for his preschool party. He was pumped because his best friend from preschool was also Spider-Man.

Saturday night we went to a neighborhood party. The kids were supposed to wear costumes, but it was just too hot. Jack settled for his fireman jacket and helmet, paired with shorts and boots. Isaac wore Jack's Ninja Turtle helmet and TMNT t-shirt.

Sunday we had Friends and Family Day at our church. No costumes for this event, but we did enjoy sweating on the annual hayride (more on Friends and Family Day in a separate post).

Halloween fell on a Monday this year. The whole month of October had record highs for this area of the country. We had a scheduled dentist appointment that afternoon and we all had on shorts and sandals!

That evening, we met up with friends for what has become our annual trick-or-treating experience. This is our third year to do this, and we continue to love this tradition. Our first time trick-or-treating, it snowed. Last year it rained. This year we sweated. I guess you never know what you are going to get in the south!

Jack was Spider-Man and Isaac was a version of a Ninja Turtle (we had a cow costume for him, but it was too hot). Our friend's kids were the Dr. Pepper guy, and the Signal Mountain Cheerleaders.

We walked a little over two miles (the kids did more than that running back and forth between houses). This was the first year we didn't walk up to the doors with Jack – how is he already big enough to do this without us holding his hand?!?!?

Isaac walked up to the first two houses with Daniel's help, and then spent the rest of the night in the stroller. We thought he would fall asleep, but that was not the case!

About halfway through our evening, Jack told me his feet hurt. I asked if he wanted to ride in the stroller and go home. To which he emphatically told me "No!" So we continued, with him walking the entire way.

We finished our night at the witch's house. This is the scariest house in our friend's neighborhood. The little girls refused to get close. Jack marched right up with the big kids, and told the witch he was not scared of her as we walked away. Last year he actually negotiated with this witch about which piece of candy he wanted. He cracks us up!

This year Isaac stayed awake until we got in the car, and then he passed out. He slept all the way home and stayed asleep when I carried him inside and changed him into pajamas!

I'm sure that next year Isaac will be marching up to all of the houses too.

*Be sure to watch the video all the way to the end to get Jack's reaction to the witch.

A Look Back at Halloween's Past: 
Cow in 2012 ⎮  Cow Part 2 in 2013 ⎮ Optimus Prime in 2014 ⎮ Iron Man and Stay Puft/Fire Fighters 2015

Halloween Festivities, 2015

The past week has been a whirlwind of Halloween activities, and we didn't even make it to a Trunk-or-Treat! I don't recall my childhood having this degree of celebration. Overall it has been a lot of fun, but like last year, Jack ended up getting sick on Halloween day. I guess all of the festivities are a bit much for an almost 4-year-old.

Our Halloween celebrations started last Saturday with a neighbor's dress-up birthday party and outdoor movie. Jack had so much fun running around and playing with the neighborhood kids dressed as Iron Man.

This was followed by Friends and Family Day on Sunday at our church. This included a potluck and then an afternoon hayride, devotional and outdoor movie, complete with kettle corn, donuts, hot apple cider and coffee. We managed to stay until the end of the movie, even with Isaac!

On Wednesday night our church had their annual Halloween costume parade. This was Night #2 for Jack as Iron Man. He had so much fun pretending to be a super hero with one of his best friends who was Wonder Woman. 

 

Isaac was dressed as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and received quite a bit of attention.

Thursday was Jack's Halloween party at preschool. On this day he was a fireman. He insisted that the fireman was his "real" Halloween costume.

Friday night our small group had our annual Reverse Trick-or-Treat night at the Martin Boyd nursing home. We take our kids, dressed in the Halloween garb, to hand out candy to the residents and nurses. 

This is the highlight of Halloween for me and it brings great joy to the residents – many who do not get a chance to see children celebrate this holiday. 

Jack was Iron Man for the third time and Isaac was once again the Stay Puft baby. Most people guessed correctly what he was, but we also had people ask if he was the Michelin Man or the Pillsbury Dough Boy – all of which are good guesses!

Friday Jack mentioned that he felt like he had a fever. He was right, but it was mild so we gave him some Tylenol and hoped for the best. He had been so excited for the real Halloween, we decided to let him rest all day and make the effort to go trick-or-treating.

On Saturday Jack seemed to be feeling better, so we bundled both boys up and headed out to meet our friends. On the way to our friend's house, Jack brought up the fact that we hadn't cut up our pumpkin... one of these years we will get around to everything!

Trick-or-treating with our friends is becoming such a fun tradition. Jack rode in the double stroller with Wonder Woman and had a wonderful time, even though he was a bit under the weather.

Both boys were fire fighters (it was too cold for Isaac to be Stay Puft) and Jack collected a decent amount of candy (which will be subject to the Parent Candy Tax). At one house a teenager jumped out from behind a tree and I had a good scare. 

At another house there was a witch with a smoke machine. Jack marched right up to the door. At first we thought he was scared because he seemed frozen on the door stoop... then we realized that he was negotiating with the witch over which piece of candy he wanted!

That wraps up our Halloween week. Both boys fell asleep as soon as we put them in the car. Jack has developed a pretty bad cough, so we are taking it easy at home today in an effort to recover. Until next year...

Previous Halloween Experiences:  2012  |  2013  |   2014

In This House...

Shortly after Jack was born, I was perusing Pinterest and got the idea for developing a family motto to hang on our wall. You have probably seen the concept: "In This House We..."

Daniel and I took this idea a step further and came up with a list of things that were specific to our family; then I put my graphic design experience to use and created a sign that hangs in our foyer where we can see it every.single.day.

Our motto incorporates our hobbies [we hike, camp and bike together], our core family expectations [we say I'm sorry, we forgive] and our faith [we love the Lord Our God, and we love others like ourselves].

As our boys grow, we are trying to make sure that we are raising them with this motto in mind, making the effort to follow through with the things we have clearly stated are important to us.

Lately we have been thinking a lot about our neighbors. We try to practice hospitality as much as possible – which can be hard with our busy schedule. In conjunction with this core belief, the church where we worship is encouraging us to meet our neighbors. Most recently this took the shape in the form of throwing a neighborhood block party, of sorts.

Yesterday was National Neighbor Day and we felt like it would be a good opportunity to get out and meet our neighbors – it's kind of hard to love your neighbors when you don't know them.

We invited those living around the perimeter of our neighborhood park to join us at the park for coffee and cookies. We were encouraged to meet four families we hadn't met before. We were surprised that they came out and stuck with us, even though it rained. 

We want to continue to get to know our neighbors. We want our boys to know our neighbors. We want them to feel safe in our neighborhood and we want to contribute to the safety of other families as well. I hope we continue to get to know our neighbors and have opportunities to show that we care.

I hope you had a Happy Neighbor Day and get the chance to know your neighbors as well... and if you didn't get to celebrate neighbor day, today is National COFFEE Day, so you could always invite your neighbor over for coffee ;)

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Luke 10:27