Easter is always our most jammed-packed holiday with Christmas probably right behind it. Halloween is among our more chill holidays and I’ve loved the last couple of years that Halloween itself has fallen on a weekend as we’ve been able to basically do ALL the Halloween things within that weekend. Love me a good theme and a fun themed weekend is always a great time 🙂
Our mall was the location of the Spirit Halloween store this year. Last year I had a date night with Tessie to the “spooky store” and the other kids heard about it and really wanted to go this year so I had a “mommy night out” and took them to check it out.
Britt’s reactions to seeing all the spooky things were hilarious. She’s def not a fan of the creepy stuff but the other kids all were excited by it – especially Kye with the many weapon options! My crew loves a good battle 😉
I was surprised at the affordable prices and we ended up bringing home a knife that fills with “blood” when you play with it. Perfect for the many pretend games the kids play and it was only $7!
Every year we go to our local pumpkin patch to choose a giant pumpkin to carve as a family. The last couple of years our regular spot has been closed (due to the pandemic) but this year they were reopened and it was great to be back!
In addition to one large family pumpkin we did also let the kids each get a smaller one to decorate however they wished too! We had fun hunting for the perfect pumpkins and I love taking the annual pumpkin patch pictures. It’s always fun to me as a mom to have pictures in the same spot year after year of my babies as they grow up!
I swear I’m still taller than Kye…the ground is just uneven 😉
I cannot get over how GROWN allll my babies look. They need to chill out.
I not only love a solid family tradition but I also love a random spur of the moment fun family outing. We literally had dinner cooking in the crock pot but I was just crrrrraving queso so we made a stop at a local Mexican restaurant for dinner and had the best time!
We aren’t a family who eats out often so when we do it’s always a special occasion and usually a fun family vibe 🙂
We had several events over the Halloween season this year. I had a Halloween themed book club, we had Aunt Casey’s annual Halloween party AND our church-fellowship-church day fell on actual Halloween.
With so many events that required me to bring a dish I thought it was the perfect time to try my hand at a charcuterie board for the first time. In true Emily fashion I wayyyy over-purchased goodies to put on the tray but the kids weren’t mad about that 😉 I made three different boards for all three of the events we attended and I LOVE the way they turned out! I don’t regret overbuying because it also meant I didn’t worry about running out of treats and was able to overfill each board too!
We did a costume party for book club and Katie and I brainstormed a costume idea together. Facebook memories had randomly reminded me of all of our Twilight movie days back in the day and how we’d make shirts and make it an EVENT.
Life is always more fun when you get INTO stuff ya know? I’m all about that and miss those days of going all out and getting super crunk about stuff. So Katie and I were like LET’S BRING THAT BACK.
Instead of just wearing a random Halloween shirt or phoning in the costumes we wanted to be creative and really and truly have fun with it!
In our brainstorming we tried to come up with a costume theme that was also meaningful for our friendship. Katie and I love to watch movies together (the last several years we’ve watched all the Best Picture Nominees for the Oscars every year together) and Katie remembered that our first EVER movie together was also (we’re pretty sure) our first time hanging out just the two of us as friends.
Katie and I met through Zach and in college Katie, Zach, Ryan and I were all four a tight group (seriously best friendship group everrrrr) and all four hung out together all the time. Well when Brokeback Mountain came out to theaters the boys had no interest in seeing it and Katie and I wanted to see it so she and I went together! It was our first movie and the first start to our friendship outside of the group.
And it makes for a really easy as well as fun and creative Halloween costume!!!
On top of the looks themselves just being fun, I stopped by the UPS store on my way to book club and when I got out of the car to take my package in this big truck was parked facing my van and these two young guys with their cowboy hats on were sitting in the truck. One of them totally hit on me and it was not only flattering but also HILARIOUS. Just goes to show Brokeback still has appeal haha
Of course we had to recreate the movie posters 😉
A good theme is ALWAYS a good time and having everyone get so into it really made the Book Club meet up extra fun. We even had themed snacks and treats! We did a Halloween/Fall gift exchange which was also a blast. Always lots of laughter at our monthly meet ups!
Britt has really taken a liking to my clothes and I LOVE that the baggier trend is in for her age so she can rock my looks and we’re able to share some clothes already. It’s such a fun perk of having daughters and part of that special mother-daughter relationship I’ve always wanted.
We carved our pumpkins the weekend of Halloween. We’ve learned the hard way that in South Georgia you gotta WAIT to carve em as long as possible or else they will rot before Halloween!
The kids got to each choose how they wanted to decorate their pumpkins. Britt wanted to draw and color on hers as did Tess, Kye wanted to carve his and Spear just wanted to stab holes all over his. For our family pumpkin Zach did a Mandalorian theme!
Every year Casey hosts a Halloween party at her house and it’s always fun to get together with all the cousins and fam. I was proud that a lot more of the family participated in dressing up this year!
We had more fun themed food and a costume contest (WHOOP WHOOP WE WON!) and the kids all just played and played and never wanted to leave!
You can see all the details of our Cruella family costumes here 🙂
We also had a Halloween Trunk or Treat event with our church fam! We do a family Halloween costume for Casey’s party but that’s really the only time we wear it all. Other than that the kids just pick whatever they want to wear from our dress up clothes collection.
Spear dressed like “Super Spear,” Kye dressed like a ninja, Britt was still Estella, and Tessie went as Michael Jackson 😉 Super Spear didn’t want to leave his “Tractormobile” 😉 We had so much fun with our church fam!
Every year we host trick or treating for the fam as well as for any friends who may want to come! It seems like every year our group grows a little bigger and it’s always a super fun time together. The kids LOVE IT!
This year was the year Casey and I no longer had babies on our hips running around. It was a little sad but it also freed me up to really ENJOY the night in a bigger way because I got to truly see the kids ALL have fun rather than just be worrying about the current baby at that moment!
Last year Tess accidentally walked through the neighborhood haunted house ahead of everyone and it was so pitiful. This year she was crying just SEEING it. I let her know her mama is the biggest wuss ever and she’s super brave that she did it before and she did NOT need to do it this year if she didn’t want to!
We had Asher along with us for the night and he was hilarious and so fun as always. He and Spear were ALL about the spooky decor around the neighborhood. I think Spear enjoyed the spooky stuff more than the candy 🙂 Some of Kye’s archery buddies also came with us and it was just such a beautiful night and SO FUN!
Once we finished up Zach got Spear in the bed and we let the big kids and Asher walk down our street the opposite direction and hit those houses solo and then when they got back we all hopped in the golf cart and hit up houses across the neighborhood to finish out the night! I love a chance to be the cool mom 😉
Of course the best part of trick or treating is going through all the candy and making deals and doing trades. Kye is the Reece’s KING!
Halloween also fell on a Sunday so the kids rocked their Halloween themed outfits to church too (And yup, Britt wore one of my dresses)
I love making memories as a family with our babies and this was another wonderful, fun-filled festive Halloween season!
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