BOO! Halloween 2013

You all know that Halloween is not my favorite holiday. But the older the kids get, the more I'm learning to love it. It's borderline impossible not to when they get SOOOO excited about their costumes, the pumpkins, the cookies and, of course, the candy!!!

The pirates are on the move! So much for front porch,
pre-trick-or-treating photos.

We got lucky this year in that both kids decided early what they wanted to be, and they stuck with it right up until the trick or treating started. For Tagg, it was Captain Jack Sparrow. Sloane - Izzy from her favorite show, Jake and the Neverland Pirates. I think really they both just wanted to carry swords. 

The sword fight (note: I did not say "first"). Sloane's sword  makes noise.
Tagg's lights up, and we found it under a pile of leaves in the backyard.
No children were injured in the taking of this photo.

Or maybe the pirate adventures from Lake Powell this year really stuck with them. The gold dubloons, treasure maps and, again, the CANDY may have just turned my kids into wannabe pirates. Either way, this Halloween was particularly awesome.

 Some funny stories from trick or treating:

• Tagg would walk right on into peoples' houses. No waiting on the front porch for him. I actually told one woman to put him to work washing her dishes if was going to be so "in" her house!

Captain Jack Sparrow. How cute is he?!
Even if he wouldn't let me do the eyeliner.

• Tagg kept saying he was going to trick-or-treat "on that house." And the first one he wanted to hit was his friend Liam's. And then our own house. He saw our candy...maybe he thought that was the best he'd get. We also walked by one house that we had already been to and he said, "I already hunted at that house." Yikes.

My little pirates. Also known as my treasures.

• There were a couple of houses with scary porches...big spiders hanging from the portico, automated skeletons and witches that would make jumping, scary noises. At the first one of those homes, the nice lady opened the door and Tagg said, "No, No. Too scary. We don't need your candy!"

My little Izzy. I love that as much as she adores the "princesses"
she wanted to be a pirate girl for Halloween.

• Sloane saw her first of many little-girl princesses and said, "ooooh. You're so pretty!" I think we might be in trouble next year.
 

Surrounded by her loot. She only lasted about half-way through the loop around
our block before she got bored but she still cleaned up on the candy.

• Sloane was quite the porch treat manipulator. She's work every single candy-giver-outer with those baby blues and her cute little voice to get exactly the piece of candy she wanted, and then two or three more of them.

Tagg is literally devouring his candy as fast as he can!
This is just part of his loot. They'll be on a sugar high for weeks.

• After their trick or treat bags were loaded with candy, Sloane and Tagg set up shop by the front door with a bowl of candy and served the kids that came to the door. Tagg would let them grab "hand-fulls" but Sloane would put her hands on her hips, pop that bottom lip out and say sternly, "My mom said ONLY THREE PIECES. You ONLY TAKE THREE PIECES OF CANDY." To tweens. She has no fear, and I'm sure all the older kids in the neighborhood think her mom is kind of a jerk.

Wizard of Oz work costumes. These people are amazingly creative and fun and crafty. Shamed me into doing a costume when I didn't want to. So I threw together a "tornado" costume last minute, thanks to my dear mother who ran to the store to get me tulle at the last minute. Never knew it would be so hard to find plastic farm animals, but really glad I buy random wigs at Halloween because this one really came in handy!

My tornado eye makeup selfie. It's not quite as epic as I'd planned by I have to give my sis props for doing a FaceTime makeup demo/tutorial. She's the bomb. If you don't have an ex-makeup artist in your family, you should get one.