Halloween 2017 was the first year our boys dressed up independently from a family costume theme. They told me that we can’t all be something together anymore, haha. Tanner had his mind made up months prior about being Leonardo from TNMT. Dallin also had his mind made up months in advance about his costume. He really wanted to be a ghost (I think because he likes hiding under sheets and blankets) and was so excited to wear this fleece costume I made for him.
Jeremy does not like dressing up, but I ended up making him part of my costume. I was a Love Song and he was whom I sing about!
We were not home much in October because Jeremy and I were in Rome and the boys were in Colorado with their Papa and Nana, where they did lots of autumn activities.
Back at home, we managed to make some sugar cookies.
One night we made mummy dogs!
On Halloween day, I didn’t have classes to teach during Tanner’s Halloween party, so I was able to watch his little parade and be with his class at the end of the day!
Right after school, we headed over to Hormel Corporate Office to go trick-or-treating from office to office. It’s the only time of year the boys get to go inside Daddy’s work.
Dallin brought his little ghost toy to be his pal.
Once again the boys were very selective about the kind of candy they accepted. Tanner was quite particular in getting only one of every item offered. He turned down snickers and kit-kats and twix left and right because “I ALREADY have one of those, DAD!” Dallin followed suit with that whole concept, and I didn’t argue one bit about it! They were really excited when there was something besides candy being offered, such as toys, pencils, stickers and Dallin’s favorite (that I brought for Jeremy’s office to pass out) apple sauce squeezie pouches. It was a proud parent moment for us to see our kids care more about non-candy items than the candy. Also glad that Tanner and Dallin couldn’t remember what Twix and Starbursts and other common candies were, which probably means the last time they ate them with us was last Halloween! (In the past few years, we’ve reduced our family candy consumption down to just dark chocolate, 70% cacao).
Getting a “tanner approved” Leonardo costume was a challenge. I bought a pajama version, and he was furious because leonardo’s swords were pictured in the front of the costume, how dare the manufacturers even think of such a thing! Everyone knows that Leo wears his swords on the back of his shell, right? The pj version was also too small. So then I bought this awesome costume. The only problem was that it did not come with ANY swords.
Luckily, we found some at Dollar Tree. Jeremy tried showing coworkers how special it was that Tanner had real swords, in the BACK of his turtle shell just like the real Leonardo. This made Tanner super embarrassed. “You’re not supposed to take the swords out!” Bahaha, then why did we go through all the trouble? By the end of the night, though, Tanner was playing with them, thank goodness!
After going to Hormel, we came home to eat and then got ready to trick-or-treat outside. It wasn’t too cold, so they only had to wear sweaters under their costumes this year.
We always go to our neighbor grandparents homes first, then off to some beautiful neighborhoods that have sidewalks. This is a shot of the boys running back to our house from our backdoor neighbors.
We told the boys it doesn’t work to be choosy about the candy when we go from house to house, they have to take what is given. They did a good job going up to the houses on their own, taking turns with ringing the bell, and saying “thank you” to each person. We were outside for about 45 minutes, then came home! Jeremy and I both liked keeping it short and having more time at home to enjoy looking through the stash with the boys. Here’s the highlights of what they got. Probably the best part of the evening was that everyone was in bed at a regular hour!
