"This is Halloween, this is halloween..."

Each year since we've moved to the desert our Octobers are always packed. There are so many Halloween events.  The university puts on a trick-or-treating and fun fair-like party on campus with crafts, snacks, bouncy toys, face painting, etc. The kids love it & it's always packed.

I love the two pictures of Seryn below.

Our ward trunk-or-treat seems to always be a hassle between getting the costumes correctly dressed on the kids, making the soup on time to take to the church, buying candy, decorating our trunk to look somewhat presentable, making sure all the annoying pieces of the costumes stay with each child, I could go on.  Next year I am determined to make costumes that are all sewn into one piece...including the headbands/wigs/hats.  This may be a task & I don't know if it will be possible, but dang it I'm determined!  Sailor had a wig on which she loved and kept on for our first Halloween outing, but with each following event she wore it less & less.  This meant I had to carry that yarn wig with me adding the weird looking thing to my ensemble.  At times it looked like I had a furry pet on my arm.  And then Seryn's little cat ears...I am surprised she wore them as long as she did.  She's never been a fan of having anything on top of her head.  If I put the ears on her head and then stood her in front of a mirror she'd leave them on.  She is in love with cats so I think that helped.  I'd tell her "you're a kitty cat, Ser" and she'd get shy and blush as she looked upon her reflection.  It was adorable.  BUT the times she didn't have a mirror she liked to throw them off and make me play the game "try to find the black kitty ears in the dark night on the dark, black street..." it's a tough one.

Then you can count on the festive mini-parties at playgroup & preschool. I opted out of dressing the girls up for those, & from the above paragraph you understand why.

On Halloween night we decided to take the girls out for their first time walking through a neighborhood for a little more trick-or-treating.    I am so glad we did! We went to a neighborhood that was full of people walking the streets and passing out candy.  Since the weather is incredibly beautiful right now (especially in the evenings) people sit outside their doors either in lawn chairs or next to their fire pits and have a great time.  Every house we went up to was occupied with such friendly people.  Most would yell, "don't forget us, we've got candy over here."  This was such a fun atmosphere.  And some of these people knew how to decorate, even Sailor was a little reluctant to go up to some of the houses.  This was Seryn's first time trick-or-treating as well and I have to say that I'm impressed she picked it up fast.  It didn't take her twice to know how to retrieve her candies.....and I lost count how many times I caught her hoarding chocolate bars in her mouth with the wrapper still on them.

Sailor & Addie.  It's sad, we planned to meet up and trick-or-treat together since these two wanted to go together, but then we met up at different neighborhoods.  Sorry Bass family.

 There was a walking Hot Dog, so we had to say hi!

Some of my great friends! Anne, our neighbor Kim, & Kayla who just moved into town. They're the best (& their kiddos are adorable).

All four kiddos are the same age. They were all too cute.

Evvie, Will, Lexi, & Ser

Sailor will be a great babysitter one day. ;)

Chase and I had a fun evening out with our girls and with our friends.  We love the memories we get to share with so many people we cherish....

especially these two:

Now it's November and the weather is incredible.  I can finally have our windows open all day long- this is easily the best thing about AZ.  Chase has finals next week (wish him luck) and then we have a 2-week break...bring on the turkey!