Happy Halloween!

Halloween has come and gone and Hermie is still inside! To be honest, I'm completely surprised this baby will not have an October birthday. I really thought he/she was going to be born early (just 5 days to go until the due date!). I had really wanted a Halloween baby when I was pregnant with Kaia but was then relieved when she was born October 23 instead. This time I really did not want a Halloween baby. I told Hermie on Friday night, "Baby, if you choose to be born tomorrow, just remember that you will have to live with that decision for the rest of your life." I'm totally fine with Hermie still being inside, as long as I don't go overdue! My mom will arrive on Tuesday, and I'll be glad to have the help.

Halloween preparations have kind of taken the back burner this year. We did finally carve a pumpkin according to Kaia's original design:


On to trick-or-treating...

Our kids were thrilled to finally wear their costumes for the real Halloween. We went to a parade in the neighboring town, followed by some trick-or-treating along the main street. We only made it one block of trick-or-treating when Kaia exclaimed, "We have so much candy - this is GREAT!" They each had about a dozen pieces at this point. They were happy calling it quits, so we headed back to the car. I had told the kids not to eat too much of their candy yet since we also had a ward party that afternoon. Kaia's response was, "I know! Why don't we each eat 3 pieces of candy and then save the rest?" And that's exactly what she did. I was very impressed by her self-control.

I was feeling like I should try to be a little more festive than I had been in recent weeks, so I had the kids help me make Halloween sugar cookies for our ward party on Halloween night. I was inspired by this guest post by my friend Lori on the blog Bloom. I have to admit that this turned out to be way more of a project than I had anticipated, but I was rather pleased that the sugar cookies turned out soft and delicious!

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture before these were saran wrapped, and then I learned that saran wrap and sticky frosting do not bode well for all those time intensive designs. They still tasted great!


We had the face painting crayons out so Kaia could get Native American designs on her cheeks. She took it upon herself to draw a propellor plane on Peter's cheek. She knows that he loves World War II, so she's already begun planning his World War II birthday party!