halloween

halloween is one of my favorite holidays now that

 i have small children to make it fun again.

brette told me she was going to be Buzz Lightyear, literally

since last halloween when she saw someone else with the costume.

she brought it up all year long...

december? march? july? 

she always said: buzz for halloween!

i had it all worked out. 

brette would be buzz and reid would be jessie, another lovable redhead.

perfect.

until sometime in september when brette changed her

mind and decided she'd rather be a ballerina.

then she wanted to be a super hero ballerina.

and then back to plain ballerina.

i told her once i bought her costume, that was it.

no changes.

and then she went and picked out a gymnastics outfit, but

still called herself a ballerina.

we just went with it.

whatever makes her happy.

i picked up a traditional ballerina leotard for reid,

along with some flower crowns and legwarmers and

called it a finished.

on saturday morning we went downtown lee's summit where

they have a costume parade and contest.

all the local shops give out candy and the streets are shut down,

so it's totally safe and super sweet to see all the littles in costume.

we didn't go last year since reid AND brette were still so young,

but i'm pretty sure this will be an annual event.

my parents dropped brette off to me at work around 10am so i could take her 

to school for an hour for their halloween party.

even though brette isn't normally at school on mondays, i still 

wanted her to get to go to her party.

i was sweating balls, but i think the kids had fun.

AND i might have had to regulate on some kid that

gave brette a dirty look and took her pumpkin.

um, no.

oh and i was the only mother in costume.

awesome.

but besides that - totally fun.

halloween fell on a monday, one of the two days i have to work,

so of course, i missed out on getting the girls dressed, which i hate.

 but after work, i met my parents and ronnie with the girls at my 

brother's old neighborhood.

i've never seen another neighborhood do such a good job

with making halloween awesome.

EVERYONE decorates.

and not just a pumpkin and a mum on their front porch (like me)

but there are lights, gravestones, ghosts, fire sticks, spiderwebs.

it's so cool and so kid friendly.

reid has been running a temperature for the last few days 

because of teething, so i was worried she'd hate life, but 

she actually did a great job of walking

around and keeping up with brette that went door to door.

and i was so surprised by brette! 

since she didn't have madeline and eden with her this year, 

i thought she might be too scared to go up to people, but

she was loud and proud with her "trick or treat!" and "thank you!"

i mean, someone still had to go with her, but 

at least she did her own talking.

once it started getting dark, we hit the road.

a three year old only needs so much candy (and her mom too).

which, yes, we ate for breakfast.

i'm excited to see what brette and reid will pick out for next year!

i'm already pumped.

hope you had a happy halloween!