Had Me at "HALLOW"

I had to let the dust settle a bit before I could blog about it.

We Clives love Halloween. Did you know? We do. If there is one holiday we feel we have the natural talent to excel at, it's this one. And this year, I feel satisfied, as if I fulfilled my potential. I didn't decorate as much as I would like. I threw no magazine-worthy party, but still, we had an award winning Halloween.

Halloween on a Sunday meant a weekend of celebrations! And the whole week before, since I didn't want to do all the little things I planned on doing for the holiday on the Sabbath, like make ghost cookies or glowing beverages, etc.

Friday we sent Cadence off to preschool in her costume and then we met up with her for the last hour for a party. The girls really loved being together at school.

I have to admit that as soon as I got them all in their costumes I was overcome with cuteness. All day.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, please don't ruin your hair that I braided myself...for days at a time...

Cutest Hotdog ever!

And you might seriously consider sitting down for this one. It may be more cuteness than you're prepared to handle. I give you: Dorothy Gale:

rapunzel+dorothy:

After the party, playgroup, then home for well-timed naps before we got back into our costumes and headed out to trick-or-treat at Walmart's "home office". This was very exciting and many departments went all out with treats and decorations.

This department went all out on their "How To Train Your Dragon" Theme. They spared no detail.

Rapunzel and Dorothy deftly maneuver their way through the spooky corridors of the Walmart Corporate office. Rapunzel drags a hotdog in a stroller behind her to watch her six. Clever.

We went home and fell into our couches and wondered if we'd have the energy to keep up a whole weekend of this. Then our friends, the Flemings, came over and we worked into the night preparing our over-the-top trunk-or-treat castle. Having matching vans, we couldn't resist this opportunity to team up. Tara and I put a coat of paint on a few boxes, sighed, and declared the work "done!" and then Spencer and Dan went out and finished the job! I guess Tara and I were a little overworked from costume prep.

The next day we had our dual ward trunk-or-treat, which was a little chaotic and hectic for me, trying to get there in costume, get the chili there on time, set up the stuff, keep costumes straight, not lose Dorothy (who's a wanderer), keep the candy bowl stocked, protect my wig and earrings from a certain hot dog, feed the kids, trick or treat with the kids, give Ken a chance to eat... it was honestly all a blur and I was glad that at least I was lookin' good :)

Two hotdogs. Mmmm...

Gavin, Cadence, Cameron, Layla, and Campbell survey their spoils as the trunk or treat comes to an exhausting end.

After that, we rushed home, all but threw the kids in bed, and left them in the able care of some friends of ours while we went to a party thrown by somebody that Spencer works with. You should have seen this place! I would honestly not be able to tell you what the inside of their house looks like. I think I saw a kitchen. And a TV in the room where people were creating voodoo dolls (out of marshmallows) and then burning them (roasting). All the walls were covered with black fabric and maybe plastic bags and spiderwebs and ghosts.... it must have been so much work!

One of the most memorable moments was when the host lit a torch in the back yard and then ran into his own house (dripping with flammable decorations, remember) looking for the "infidel". This was followed by beheading with a full-sized guillotine in the back yard! Next the host beheaded his wife. When the little trick head didn't present itself, he picked up a spare zucchini that must have been lying by and declared that he turned her into a zucchini. I laughed. Hard. And then felt weird about the bum that had apparently wandered in and drunkenly sat down in the chair nearest me. I later found out he was the father of the one conducting the beheadings... glad I said nothing! He pulled of the street-look well. I'll say that much.

Oh, and another memorable moment was when Spencer and I won the best overall costumes in the costume contest, and were awarded a "Nook", which is the Barnes and Noble version of Kindle. BOOYEAH! That's right. Set out to win it. And win it, we did. But can you blame us? We're pretty awesome.

Here are some of the competition. Many Vikings. They were a rowdy bunch (well, just because they were pretending to be Vikings.) The one named Ragnar was the one who got beheaded.

Okay, how do you like these guys? Remember the aliens from Sesame Street? "BRRRRRIIING!! BRRRRRIIIIING!!!" Okay, I never saw these guys break character. I have no idea who they were. For all I knew, nobody ever found out. They wandered the party acting the part impecably, and it never got old. I found myself laughing out loud every single time I saw them.

Paula and Dwayne. I have no idea what these people are really like. They were quite nice to talk to but it was hard to not be anxious when talking to Dwayne. He was very convincing. Anyway, great costume, no?

Sunday we were a little conflicted about. I really didn't feel it was necessary to trick or treat or otherwise celebrate such a non-sabbath-like holiday. But we knew our neighborhood is a big place for Halloween and that our nieghbors would be looking forward to getting visits from little Rapunzels, Dorothies and hot dogs. So we set up some of our things from the trunk or treat,

and the girls handed out candy most of the night, with a little trip around the neighborhood for good measure. It was just right. And after I put Layla to bed, I even put my box back on. For a minute.

We had a great Halloween. Really truly. And I still can't get over how cute the kids were. Maybe that is why I love Halloween so much? Or is it that I love dressing up. A lot. Maybe we'll never know. But I know that being the box next to Ken made me feel really proud of him. I loved him even more than usual last weekend :)

So dreamy...
You can't exactly tell in the pictures, but Ken comes fully accessorized with a strobe light, ipod, and speaker.

So Happy Halloween, all y'all! I hope yours was as exciting and happy as ours.

And now I need to start thinking of our costumes for next year. Any suggestions?