Wow, how many years can we say that Halloween not only falls on a Saturday but the Saturday before Daylight Savings when we gain an extra hour!? There was so much potential for fun this Halloween (even though I’m generally not a big fan of the holiday) and I’m happy to say that even though said fun looked different due to COVID, our kids had a total blast.

Saturday morning, J had a golf tee time so he got up and left early in the morning. He doesn’t ever ask to have guy time like this and I’m always trying to encourage him to go out and take some time for himself so I was more than happy to let him have a Saturday to do whatever he wants.

You know what I wasn’t happy about though?

These little ankle biters who all decided to get up at 7am and be mercilessly AWAKE for the rest of the day. I turned on iPad and let them all pile together into A’s big girl bed so I could buy myself some time to turn into a competent human before needing be a mom for the rest of the day.

We had a slowwww Saturday for the most part, mainly because I knew that we were gonna have a late night and I didn’t want the kids to melt down prematurely. We had lots of down-time with relaxing, reading books, playing outside … and I worked on some training with Kylo. We met his trainer for the board & train program I talked about previously and she gave me some really good training tips to work on with him to make his progress with her during the boarding even faster. He’s a smart pooch and got the hang of it pretty quickly!

J got back from golfing around 2pm and once A woke up from her afternoon nap, we got the kids all dressed up in their costumes and rolled out to our friend’s house for a Halloween party!

If you listen to our podcast, then you’ll know my friend Steph who we’ve had on as a guest-host a few times. She hosted the mostest Halloween party on Saturday and seriously – look at the decorations!

She had ALL the glow-in-the-dark things … face painting, black lights, tattoos, coloring …. it was all the things that kids love to do. We also brought our bounce house from home and set it up in her backyard and I think the kids were just out of their minds with excitement.

I don’t like Halloween all that much and usually don’t dress up but a certain 6-year old I know was super disappointed that I didn’t have a costume so I literally threw together a DIY Carole Baskin look with things I already owned in my closet. When I showed up at Steph’s house, she was wearing a tiger print cardigan and I was, like – AH! Perfect! You’re the tiger to my Carole Baskin!!!

After we ate dinner (and BOY did we eat, there was SO much food, my stomach felt super uncomfortable because I over did it) the dads took the kiddos out for trick-or-treating with masks on in the neighborhood. This was actually an impromptu part of the evening as none of us thought trick-or-treating would happen this year. It seemed like Steph’s neighbors had other thoughts though because we saw TONS of families walking around the block doing social-distance style trick-or-treating (no door knocking, candy pre-packed or waiting on tables on front lawns, etc). Then after coming from trick-or-treating, the kids got even MORE candy through a backyard scavenger hunt that we had prepared for them. Seriously, they got spoiled with way more candy than I think they would had received in a normal year eyeroll.

We finished off the evening with an indoor movie night under THE STARS! Look at that crazy cool star projection on Steph’s ceiling! Truly, when I tell you she pulled out all the stops for this day, I mean it!

The kids were soooooo exhausted … 2/3 of them knocked out immediately upon getting the car. We only live about 20 minutes away but they didn’t make it. Little A wouldn’t even wake up after all her siblings got out of the car and the doors were slamming, etc.

On Sunday morning, we were BLESSED – I mean BLESSSEEDDD – with all three kids actually sleeping in for once. It was Daylight Savings, which meant we “gained” an hour but anyone with kids knows that all it means is that your kids wake up an hour earlier than they need to. That’s always been the case for us too but this year .. THIS YEAR! This year was the first year that everyone sort of slept in so J & I also got to sleep in. J even said to me – “wow, I actually feel like I gained an hour.” I slept 9 hours straight but still woke up with a major Halloween hangover. No, not from drinking but just from being old. I don’t think my body can handle being out so late anymore HAHAH. I literally didn’t even wash my face all day. I wore these pajamas all day, got up to stream church and make lunch, then took an epic 3 hour nap again after lunch. It was amazing 🙂

I still feel a little bloated and slow-moving today from the weekend but all in all, it was a memorable Halloween. I’m SUPER excited, though, because now it’s OFFICIALLY THE HOLIDAY SEASON!! Elf mode: activated!!!!