i know halloween was a week ago, but....

i can't resist taking time to share pictures of the girls in their halloween costumes----for posterity, ya know.

some of my favorite childhood memories revolve around trick or treating! we'd trick or treat with cousins, trick or treat in our neighborhood, visit grandparents in our costumes, parade around the block at school in our costumes. sheesh. being a parent now, i'm not sure how our parents kept up with all that trick or treating.

this year, i got a pretty good idea though, because we ended up at quite a few festivities and the girls put their costume closet to good use!

the first event we went to was trunk or treat at their elementary school. well, the first one spidergirl went to---ashlyn didn't want to go to this one. so i loaded up spidergirl, invited the neighbor boy and tossed him a boy costume from our costume stash, then picked up a classmate from down the street and off we went.

we got out of the car just as they were starting their costume contest by grade level, so spidergirl quickly shuffled over to get in the lineup and before she knew what was even happening she was declared the winner of the girls from grades K-2. she was over the moon excited because she won a gumball machine and a whole bag of gumballs. she doesn't really like gum though, but she loves sharing with her sister who borders on being addicted to gum chewing.

it was so fun to see her interact with all her schoolmates and see how their faces lit up every time she talked to one of them. she definitely doesn't have a shy bone in her body and her smile is infectious.

after a quick round of trunk or treating and the costume contest, the parking lot was transformed into a carnival-like atmosphere where the kids could play games to win more candy, paint pumpkins, eat popcorn, and try to bite an apple or donut from a dangling stick without using their hands. absolutely hysterical! i wish i had a video of it.


ohhhhhh, i didn't mention....i dressed up too! yes, i regularly make a fool of myself for my kids. this is one of those "i'm too lazy to find a real costume" costumes. i just bought a strainer from the local discount store and hot-glued cornmeal colored yarn to the inside to wear as a hat. then safety-pinned 3" brown craft pom-poms to a red shirt. spaghetti & meatballs. easy peasy.

it's a costume idea that once won doug "best-costume" with the prize being a DVD player when he participated in a costume contest at work years ago.

our next adventure was trick or treating in town. we go to doug's cousin's house to trick or treat every year and enjoy the familiarity of the neighborhood and how the decor on the houses change each year. but this year........it was SO crowded. it was the only town that had trick or treat 4 days before the holiday. everyone from all directions came to this town that night. i've never seen so many kids in one place in my life.


but, the kids invited 2 friends along and we found a few streets that weren't crowded and had fun anyway!


then......a few days later we ended up at the church around the corner from us to trunk or treat some more. we hadn't planned on going, but the weather was amazing and we had nothing else on our schedule, so we went. it's one of those events the kids remembered going to in years past, and had been asking about again this year. i love seeing how traditions come to be during their childhood.


so, once again they raided their costume closet and found what they wanted to dress as. both required sparkle-hairspray to be sprayed in their hair and off we went!

spidergirl.....literally being a social butterfly.....found a school friend and they clung to each other flitting from car trunk to car trunk.

then......i couldn't resist grabbing a few photos! some of my favorite photos of my kids are the ones from trick or treating. i love costumes and i love that they love costumes, too.

the ones of ashlyn make my breath catch in my throat. when looking at just about every picture of her lately, i see time passing so quickly. she hardly looks 9 in these pictures and i won't lie, it scares me just a bit how quickly she's growing up.

*sigh* slow down, baby girl, slow down.

this little one, on the other hand, is full of life and full of energy, but still seems so very young.


and she's obsessed with stuffed animals of any sort. the church had a dum-dum sucker tree. you pull a sucker out and if there is a mark on the bottom of the stick you get to pick a stuffed animal.all i can think when looking at my girls is "gosh, how'd i get so lucky!?"

and lastly......
we made an impromptu trip trick or treating on actual trick or treat in the neighborhood where i work.
once again, the girls raided the costume closet and decided to go as Dorothy twins. and it was the most enjoyable trick or treating night ever.


the kids were tickled pink to get full-sized candy bars at a few houses, M&M minis, and giant 2ft long pixie stix. they also came home with 20 LBS. of candy just from 90 minutes of trick or treating that night.


we did find one really odd thing in their buckets this year...

an individual serving size of Fancy Coconut Jelly. what the what!? weird.

i'm so glad that all those bargain shopping trips i made for costumes last year (and years past) got put to good use! my favorite shopping trips of the year are the ones i make to Walmart, Target & KMart to purchase costumes at 90% off every November. i've done this every year for the last 5 years and it seriously makes me giddy!

every little girl needs a closet full of costumes, don'tcha think!?

every single one of the costumes they wore in these photos was purchased one after halloween for less than $2.00 each.

i can't wait for a few more days to pass and they drop to 90% off again this year because mama's going shoppin'!