Halloween is a favorite time of year at the Leslie house. Figuring out costumes and getting dressed up is always fun. This year Leah decided she wanted to be Joy from her favorite movie (at least at that time) Inside Out. So I thought it would be fun if the rest of us dressed up as the other emotions. Ross was a bit hesitant about that idea at first. But when the rest of us were being emotions he decided it would be more fun if all of our costumes went together. It turned out to be a really fun idea.
One of my favorite Halloween activities is the Halloween carnival that the youth in our ward does for the primary children. I love seeing all the fun costumes and a lot of the adults dress up too. The kids have a blast and it is a fun time to visit with all the people from the neighborhood.
I had the hardest time finding a wig for Paige (since she was still so little I didn't really like the idea of spray painting her hair like I was doing for everyone else). So I found some blue yarn and made a wig for her myself. I thought it turned out pretty good. Here's a picture of her trying on some of her costume. You can't really tell from the expression on her face, but she was going to be Sadness--the cutest and happiest little Sadness, I might add.
At the church they had several carnival games set up. The Primary room was turned into a zombie attack game where the deacons pretended to be wandering zombies and the kids got to shoot Nerf guns at them. The kids (and the deacons) loved it.
Here's Corbin trying out the dragon themed fishing pond that the scouts did.
If you have seen the movie Inside Out then you might remember the scene where Joy has to drag Sadness through Long Term Memory. Here's a picture I tried to get of the girls recreating that scene. Too cute!
Here's Leah playing with our neighbor, Parker. They have been friends since they were both little.
I tried forever to get a picture of Corbin trying to look like Anger, but instead of looking mad, he just kept giving me these adorable poses. Funny kid!
Here's a collage of pictures of all of us together trying to look in character. Ross-Fear, Me-Disgust, Leah-Joy, Corbin-Anger, and Paige-Sadness.
When I was in college, my roommate introduced me to her family's Boo Day tradition. For Boo Day they would dress up and have a Halloween themed dinner. They would have stew served from a hollowed out pumpkin, breadsticks shaped like bones, salad filled with bugs (dried cranberries) and orange jack-o-lantern jello with cheese shaped into the face features. And for dessert they would have a ghost-shaped cake with flaming eyes (my favorite part!). Before I was married, Lesley and I would carry on the tradition by hosting our own Boo Day dinners and inviting a group of friends over to celebrate with us. After having kids, this tradition got put on the back burner since it felt like too much to do. But this year I tried to bring it back. We invited a couple of Leah's friends (Millie and McKay) to join us. Everyone seemed to have a great time. We'll have to try it again sometime.
It may seem strange, but one of my favorite parts of Halloween is carving pumpkins. I think it is fun to come up with a design and try to create something fun. I even like cleaning out the pumpkin guts. This year Ross's mom invited us to come carve some of our pumpkins at her house. We got most of them done while we were there, and I finished the rest at home. Ross carved the spider pumpkin. Leah asked for hers to look like Curious George. And I tried to make Corbin's look like Anger since that was his costume. Overall, I think they turned out pretty good.
Grandma Leslie also had cookies for us to decorate while we were at her house. Here's Leah with one of her creations.
This year Halloween was on Saturday, so the schools had all their Halloween activities the day before on Friday. Leah was so excited to dress up for school. The two little kids and I went down to her school to watch the Halloween parade. There were so many fun costumes. I love all the creativity of Halloween.
After Leah got home from school, we were able to go down to Ross's elementary school and see their costume parade too.
On Halloween day (Saturday), the Millers invited us to come down and have dinner with them before taking the kids trick-or-treating. Here's Leah with the two cousins her age, Kylie and Kenzie. Corbin fell asleep on the way down there and ended up sleeping on the couch almost the whole time we were there. This was not too surprising or unusual. But the problem with him doing it this time was that he had the red hair spray in his hair. Normally the hair coloring comes right out when the hair is washed, but Corbin's head sweats a lot when he sleeps which caused the color to seep into his hair and scalp. We had a hard time washing the red out of his hair and his hair had a light pink tint for weeks after.
When we got back from the Millers, I took the kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood while Ross stayed home to pass out candy. I think this was Corbin's first time trick-or-treating. They both had a great time and the weather was great which always makes the experience more enjoyable.
As much as I love Halloween, there's always a part of me that is kind of glad when all the events are finally over and we can move on to another holiday. And so it was with this Halloween. We had lots of fun times all throughout October. But it finally came to an end and we happily moved on to a more relaxing November.
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