Seems like just yesterday that it was Halloween, right? I’m going with that. After finally printing last year’s blog and receiving the bound copy, I realize how very much I wish I could keep up with this darn blog–and how worth it getting up-to-date will be. So here goes.

In the lead-up to Halloween, we enjoyed the CARVED exhibit at Descanso Gardens with the kids and their friends. They light up the gardens, arrange hay bales as a playground, and have carved pumpkins everywhere. There were glow sticks, hot chocolate, selfies, spooky fog and silly headbands, oh my!

Always a blast. And pretty sure I’ll be disappointed when these girls get too grown up to want to go… so I’m making sure to enjoy it NOW.

As you no doubt noticed above in the front door picture, Zoe and Ella dressed as Piglet and a devil for school onHalloween. Shocking that a middle school kid chooses to wear pajamas to school for Halloween (or any other reason)? Nope. In fact, most days they ALL wear one of two uniforms: Hoodie + fleece pajama pants OR something very fitted with a bit of skin showing (jeans + cropped tank tops are prevalent). Most are wearing PJs.

Anyway, back to Halloween. Zoe and a few friends choose matching pajama sets of Winnie the Pooh and friends (thus, Piglet). She even curled her hair for the occasion. Unlike Ella, who had a blast and shared every detail of her day at school, I have no idea how the middle schoolers spent their school day.

In contrast, Ella’s school had the cutest Halloween parade, as they do every year. Bart and I went to watch and got a few pictures:

I’m sure you remember, but turns out Halloween is also the day Bart and I got married. Seemed like a great idea at the time. Who knew we’d spend our anniversary trick or treating with cute little kids every year? Ha! Speaking of which, this was the first year we didn’t have Zoe around for that. She went with a friend instead. Insert costume change. Meet Rosalina, from Super Mario Bros:

To be honest, Halloween used to be my favorite holiday. I recently found several photos from dressing up at work, in which I barely recognize myself (that’s the point, right?) When scrambling to coordinate costumes and experiences for cute little kids, the adults tend to phone it in. I gave it some effort as a Pink-ish Lady, from a leftover costume from years ago:

Sure, it’s hard to even think about Halloween (and its candy that kicks off a whole season of eating)–unless you have hundreds of boxes of Girl Scout cookies in your home, as we do. But I’m going to say for sure that these two little girls enjoyed the holiday. Especially the loot:

And that’s only half of it. Literally. Thanks for indulging the super late account of our holiday kick-off! Up next, we’ve got a trip to GA for Thanksgiving, an action-packed Christmas, and a fabulous New Year’s Eve. Oh, and whatever has happened this year so far. It’s hard to keep up.