Happy Halloween!

I'm a lover of holidays. They add some excitement to the droll of every day life and it gives a great excuse to spend time together and create family traditions.

Halloween was on a Sunday this year and I'm glad because we actually spread out our festivities over the entire weekend. It was nice, because sometimes it's a lot to pack into one day.

Usually I'm lazy and just make sliced apples and caramel dip, but this year we made real caramel apples with nuts, drizzled chocolate and sprinkles. As you can tell by this picture-- it was very yummy.

Carving pumpkins. This year I got one for each kid (the younger ones got the small pie pumpkins). That worked out great because they could all be creative and there was no fighting! :) I'll be doing that every year.

Here is Lauren's hair. She was Cinderella this year and so we made her hair so "pretty". She loved it!

From the back.

Here she is in her costume.

And another back shot.

Kohler wanted to be a skeleton.

He thought it was cool that we painted his face white.

Alyssa was a Musketeer this year.

A very cute Musketeer.

We always call Brynlie, "B". So it's only fitting that she is a "B"for Halloween. :)

I was going to make black antennas to put on her headband, but I put two piggies in her hair and thought it looked so cute, I just left it that way.

Kamary is a funny girl. She has made an alter ego for herself. She is Kamary Smith, but also Gaine (pronounced Jane) Smith-- rock star (kind of like Hannah Montana vs. Miley Cyrus). So this year, she dressed up as Gaine Smith. She's even written a song called "We Will Survive". It actually is catchy and I find myself singing it during the day. Lauren sings it all the time. She's Gaine Smith's first and biggest fan!

A close up.

I haven't dressed up in years and decided that this year I would be Jane Austen's, Emma. It was a lot of fun.

Another back shot.

Jason did Hanna's makeup.

He did a GREAT job! Hanna went as Darth Maul this year. They made her lightsaber out of PVC pipe. She was pretty excited about it.


Close up. Some people had a hard time recognizing her.


All my cute kiddos together.

In the car, after the trunk or treat party.

On Halloween we have a tradition of eating Taco Soup out of a pumpkin. Yummy!

Here's our spooky Jack-o-lanterns.

We made Mummy cupcakes for dessert (out of devils food cake, of course).

Here are our spider web decorations. The kids look forward to Halloween each year and this year we really had a great time!!