Halloween Celebrations

We just ended a four day Halloween celebration. Not a four day celebration like we had in our early twenties. That kind of celebration involved tons and tons of alcohol, big pounding headaches and calling in sick to work. Our four day celebration was much more family friendly. But still exhausting.

It started on Friday night. At least for Keaton. He went to a Spooky Swim at an indoor pool. They got to swim and play games and they even got a goody bag.

Then on Saturday morning we went trick-or-treating at some local businesses. They had a Halloween Carnival too, but we decided to skip that because we didn’t want to be late for Keaton’s soccer game. The kids had fun and they still got quite a bit of candy. Plus we still had Monday night to get more.

After Keaton’s soccer game we went to the Haunted Trails at the Camp Fire girls camp. It was geared more towards little kids, but I think Keaton and Justis still enjoyed it. We were the ghost group so the kids got ghost stamps on their hands and they each wore a ghost headband. I, of course, snapped a photo of all of them. Then they got to color a picture and get a temporary tattoo. The face painting wasn’t set up in time for us and Skyler was very dissapointed. But we had fun anyway.

On the trail we got to touch a brain and eyeballs, play some cool games like graveyard bowling and haunted bingo, learn tricks from the mad scientist, make spooky crafts and eat some yummy treats. Plus each station gave out candy. So the kids already had full sacks of candy and it wasn’t even Halloween yet.

On Sunday, my mom took us all [except Lee and Justis] to see Wallace and Gromit at the movie theatre. While we were enjoying the movie, Lee and Justis went to a very scary haunted forest. It said it was not recommended for kids under 13. Lee and Justis said it was “pretty good.” In guy speak that means it rocked.

And then, of course, we went trick-or-treating. Keaton’s friend, Dallas, came over and went trick-or-treating with Keaton and Justis. And Dallas’ mom, stepdad and baby brother, Jace, went trick-or-treating with me, Skyler, Spencer and Caleb.

It was a nice night out. A little chilly, but not too bad. I remember a Halloween when Keaton was a littly tyke and it was snowing. So this Halloween was awesome compared to that.

Even though the weather was good, the kids got bored after just three blocks. Well, Skyler was bored and expressed her desire to go back home and nobody else argued. Surprisingly they got a lot of candy for only three blocks (actually more like 2 1/2 blocks).

Once the big kids came back, we went to Aunt Candy’s house to show Aunt Candy and Grandma O our costumes. And they gave us big bags with even more candy. They always hook us up.

So now we are all trick-or-treated out and more candy than any one family will ever need. And most importantly, we had a lot of fun.