Hallowtide

I saw Jim Gaffigan say somewhere, "When did October 31st become the last day of Halloween?" So true! On the Friday before, I took Maggie and Betsy to a little preschool Halloween carnival at our town's community center. Claire's school had a Trunk or Treat event after her last soccer game that evening. 

We spent the weekend jumping in leaves and carving pumpkins. Never again will we let each child pick out a pumpkin to carve! Well, at least not until they're old enough to actually help. Claire and Maggie kept talking about getting Halloween decorations, but thankfully were content with one $3 package of fake spider webs this year. 

On the actual holiday, Claire got to wear her costume to school for the kindergarten Halloween party, while Betsy and Maggie were invited to wear theirs to music class. 

We had our second annual "spooky dinner" before trick-or-treating. The mummy hot dogs and skeleton veggie tray were a big hit. 

But the mummy apple slices could use a bit of work. Trying a different fruit idea next year! I also branched out by making these jack-o-lantern smoothies, which will not be appearing on the menu again. Way too labor intensive (I used melted chocolate to paint the jack-o-lantern faces on each cup) and, of course, my kids barely drank any (they were orange banana flavored). 

Claire and Maggie rejected all of my family costume ideas (Peter Pan, Charlotte's Web, the Ingalls family) because they really wanted to dress up as Skye and Everest, the two girls dogs on Paw Patrol. I wasn't quite willing to let the themed costume tradition die yet though, so we rolled with it. Betsy was a member of the kitty catastrophe crew, perfect for our mischievous toddler. Apparently there's an episode in which the Paw Patrol save a walrus and his pregnant wife, the inspiration for the adult costumes. We found the walrus hats on Etsy and the girls' outfits at Target. 

We trick or treated at about a dozen houses and then the girls were happy to pass out candy at home for a little bit before bed. A successful Halloween in the books! Although, if you're Catholic, you've still got two special days to celebrate. We all went to the School Mass first thing Wednesday morning for All Saints Day. That evening, we gathered all of our saint icons and statues onto our prayer table and sang a litany of saints. We went to Mass again on All Souls Day and got a beautiful candle blessed. That evening, we looked at pictures of our relatives who've passed away and prayed for the repose of their souls. I like to think the fact that our kids are named after saints and relatives help make these two holy days more meaningful for them at such a young age.