SPOOOOKY!

We love Halloween.  This year was different for us though.  We did not have our Annual Warner Halloween Party...which has become a tradition over the past 4 years.  But with the stresses of this school semester and having a three-month-old and a soon to be three-year-old on my hands, we decided to not do it this year and just focus on Eden and making it fun for her.  This is the first year she really understood the concept.  I made sure the house was all decked out with ghosts, skeletons, spiders, bats, pumpkins, and orange and purple twinkle lights.  We watched all the spooky kid movies and went on a haunted hay ride at HeeHaw Farms. Eden loved it! It was actually pretty scary and I was kind of worried, but she laughed at all the people around us jumping and screaming.  And I'm sure sitting in your daddy's big, safe arms probably helps.  Grandma Warner was more scared than Eden was! West was asleep when we got on the hayride, but not for long. (He wasn't such a fan of the jumping and screaming.)

We also, of course, carved pumpkins! (If i look like i just finished running 4 miles, it's because i did. haha) We got these from a pumpkin patch near chases work that has a little corn maze for kids too!  Chase has the pictures on his phone...

As we got closer to Halloween, Eden thought the "spooky" stuff was so fun.  She would say "Ooo, that's SPOOOOOKY!"  She also got to watch her mom slave away on the sewing machine, making her witch costume...which I hoped would get her excited to wear it, but no.  When it was all finished she REFUSED to put it on!  Ahhh!  But, when she saw mommy and daddy get all dressed up for the parties we had on Friday and Saturday, she decided it would be fun after all...phew.

When I was thinking about costumes this year, I was so stressed about making two kid's costumes.  But, lo and behold, I broke out the Halloween boxes and there was the spider costume I had made for Eden's first Halloween!! It was perfect for little West!  Thank goodness for being able to finally reuse stuff!  When Eden wore it, she was crawling and it was so cute! But having to hold West in it wasn't so easy, so he pretty much wore it for pictures. If you couldn't tell, Chase is an awesome Werewolf (a costume he whipped up in about 5 minutes) and I'm supposed to be Eden's Black Cat.

So by the time Halloween finally came around, it was our third time dressing up and Eden's fourth or fifth.  She was pretty much Halloweened out. But after a little crying and screaming, we finally got her costume on her again... and here's the load!  Good job girlie!

And here's our Dinner-in-a-Pumpkin!!  A tradition started by my mother and a fond childhood memory that I have brought into our family.  The filling is sooo yummy and the cooked pumpkin is really good too!  Halloween is just not complete until you can smell this cooking away.  We had all of chase's family over for the dinner and make homemade root beer too! (which is really, really good by the way).

It was a successful Halloween, and although Chase and I were kind of bummed about not doing our party, there is always next year!!  This Halloween was so fun watching Eden get into all of the festivities.  But, like many holidays, when it's over, it is SO over...all the ghosts and skeletons were gone the very next morning :)