My second-least-favorite holiday

Today Travis and I classified all the major holidays of the year and ordered them by most to least favorite. Unfortunately for Halloween, it came in at a unanimous second-to-last. Last place was also unanimous - Valentine's Day. For me, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the 4th of July are nearly at a 3-way tie. Easter is all right too. St. Patrick's Day might actually be elevated above Easter ever since 2014, when my darling youngest son was born on that day.

But I digress. Halloween is just a lot of work, at pretty much the most inopportune time of the year. And who needs all that candy? I don't! Yet who can resist it? I can't! But we are not actual monster parents, and so therefore we must do Halloween. I helped put on Brooklyn's class Halloween party, which means I whipped out my one and only class party craft, which is painting blocks of wood that the kids can decorate in some sort of theme to fit the season (usually snowmen for the winter party). For Halloween: Frankenstein, mummies, and pumpkins. Every year I think I'll just pull this off, and every year I realize this is a TON of work for very little output. I tried to simplify this year by not letting the kids do any painting at all. Instead we did everything in felt, and I pre-cut everything. I thought this was a great idea until the first boy who chose a pumpkin glued on his eyes, nose, and mouth. Um, done! It took probably 45 seconds... Some got very creative, though, and one even made a vampire somehow!

Costumes: We went back to the family theme (sometimes we don't manage it) and chose The Princess Bride.
Our costumes were not 100% complete at the ward trunk-or-treat (some of us were missing mustaches. Travis's was real until a week ago when he couldn't stand it anymore and shaved it off. Good try.) And Zoe of course is missing, who will be an ROUS if I can pull off a costume that she'll actually wear. Um I'm pretty sure I don't even have pictures of everyone yet. Hopefully tomorrow, which is ACTUAL Halloween. Why do I feel like that holiday is already over??

[I couldn't get him to stand up and look at me!]

Poor Nolan. Smothered by my hair.

Then there was the obligatory pumpkin carving, caramel apple dipping, and hot cider tonight. And a sneak peek of our family pictures, also taken this afternoon! I love that Nolan is jumping.