Five on Friday - Halloween 2018

What a week it has been!  The Halloween festivities have been going strong all week – the school fall carnival, Olivia’s class party, Jacob’s class party, and trick-or-treating!  Whew.  It has been the best week and the kids both agreed that this was our best Halloween YET!  Time to recap!

O N E – School Fall Carnival

The school fall carnival was Tuesday, October 30 and it was our biggest fall carnival yet!  I was on the fall carnival committee this year for the first time ever and I never realized how big of an undertaking it was until I volunteered.  Whew.  I was at the school on Tuesday from 7:30 AM until 8:30 PM unloading decorations, setting up, calling vendors, and decorating.  It’s days like these that I wish I had an Apple Watch to track my steps.  I must have walked 20,000 steps that day and I have been sore ever since.  Lol.

We had bouncy houses, a dunk tank, carnival games, a huge and legit scary haunted house, a hot dog eating contest, costume contests, a petting zoo, food trucks, a cake walk, and a market with 17 vendors selling their wares. 

The carnival kicked off right at 5 PM with an army parachute team jumping out of a plane and landing on our football field.  SO COOL, y’all!  Sadly, I missed that part because I was in the gym manning the cake walk, but I was able to see pictures. 

My shift at the cake walk was over just a little after 5 and I was able to enjoy the next couple of hours with Brian and the kids.  The kids made their way through each of the bouncies – the slide, the bouncy house, and the obstacle course and then we went to the petting zoo.  They had a snake, birds, bunnies, a goat, and ducks.  And apparently my kids think snakes are cute.  They were both all over that thing.  I think Olivia would have taken it home with us if she could have.  Eek!  I swear she’s going to be a veterinarian some day.

After the petting zoo we made our way to the food trucks to grab some dinner because the kids were starting to get a little bit hangry.  They take after their Momma… what can I say?  Haha.  We lucked out and were able to find seats at a table by the twinkle lights to eat.  Both kids had started out the evening in costumes, but Olivia was ready to remove hers at that point.  She had gotten scratched on her stomach on the bouncy obstacle course (don’t ask me how – only she could find a way to do that.  Lol.) and her Belle dress was rubbing it wrong, so she was in a much better frame of mind after she was back in her loose fitting uniform shirt.

The rest of the evening was spent playing the carnival games and then we headed over to check out the haunted house.  They were only allowing 6th graders + in there because it was so scary, but they allowed the smaller kids to go with parents.  Jacob is not ever scared of anything like that and he had been begging to go, but while we were waiting in line he could hear the high schoolers screaming in there so he changed his mind.  Lol. 

My friend, Jeannine, and her boys met up with us at that point and we all walked back to the cake walk because it was time for me to go take my last shift for the night.  The cake walk was ROCKING when we got back and we stayed busy for the next 30 minutes before finally shutting down for the night. 

Fall carnival success!

T W O – Olivia’s Class Party

Olivia got to trick-or-treat at school first thing Halloween morning and she was so excited to stop by and see Jacob in his classroom and my Momma in the church office.  Her teacher snapped a couple of pictures and sent them to me so I could see... I love that she keeps us so informed!  

Olivia’s class Halloween party was on Halloween at 10 AM, so I put on my festive pumpkin sweatshirt and headed on over.  They had four activities for the kids – make a spider, make a popcorn hand, decorate a painted Halloween rock, and every kids’ favorite – roll each other with toilet paper to look like mummies.  One of the little girl’s dad’s was there volunteering and the kids had more fun wrapping him up in toilet paper and climbing all over him.  Lol.  Every time he would get completely covered he would jump up and scare them all.  They would all shriek with delight and it was the cutest thing!

After activities, they had some adorable Halloween cupcakes and other snacks, and then it was time to say goodbye.  Olivia’s teacher turned on a Halloween movie for the kids, but Olivia was not interested, and she started crying when I had to leave.  Y’all, that is the hardest thing!  Jacob was never like that when he was little.  When I would visit him at school and it was time for me to leave, he would hug me and then run off with his friends.  Olivia on the other hand?  It’s TERRIBLE.  Bless her little heart.  Her teacher was finally able to pull her away from me and distract her while I snuck out, but my Momma heart hurt so bad since I had to leave her behind.

T H R E E – Jacob’s Class Party

Jacob’s class Halloween party was on Halloween at 2 PM, so I was back at the school for that… and feeling like I might as well be an employee after being there for two solid days.  Haha.  His teacher this year is one of my friends from high school (we graduated at that very school together!) so she had asked me to be the room mom this year.  This was my first party to plan and it was a success!  My friend Amanda and fellow room mom (each class has two) had planned the cutest little activity for the kids to do and some of the other parents brought in treats and drinks.  The kids did their cute little pumpkin crafts and then we handed out the treats.  It was time to dismiss right after the party, so Olivia’s teacher walked her over to Jacob’s classroom for me, and we were able to sneak out a little early and avoid the car line.  YAAAASSSS!

On the way out, I snapped a couple of pictures of Jacob with his teachers.  They let every single kid in the whole school wear costumes on Halloween this year, and all of the faculty and staff dressed up as well.  Jacob’s teachers were both dressed up as the sun because it went along with a bigger theme that the whole lower school was doing.  So cute!

F O U R – Trick-or-Treating

Since we arrived home a bit earlier than usual, I went ahead and had the kids take their showers right when we got home.  We then ate an early dinner with festive Halloween plates and cups and then the kids got dressed in their costumes. 

Jacob opted for The Flash this year and Olivia wanted to be a bat.  When we went in search of bat costumes, we stumbled upon Vampirina.  We had never watched that show, but surprisingly Olivia fell in love with it and that’s all she’s wanted to be since she saw it. 

My father-in-law and my parents all came over as they always do on Halloween, and they stayed behind at our house to hand out candy while we trick-or-treated with the kids.  They were both gung-ho about it this year, and we went to more houses than ever.  Our neighborhood has become one of the popular neighborhoods to visit for trick-or-treating for those who live in the country and have no place to trick-or-treat, so there were cars lined bumper to bumper down all of the streets and there were people EVERYWHERE.  One huge group of people had even set up some kind of Halloween party barge and they were blasting Halloween music as they made their way down the street.  There were also a couple of groups of people who were hauling the kids down the street on hay rides.  The Halloween vibe was strong this year! 

Our neighbors were handing out candy by the fistfuls so the kids’ buckets filled quickly, but one of our neighbors was kind enough to bring us a plastic bag to dump in the overflow.  Haha.  And B and I took turns holding the kids’ buckets in between houses to give them a rest.  They’re both still so tiny and our neighborhood is quite hilly, so they ran out of steam pretty quickly.

The priority for the kids this year was to go see all of the “scary houses” on the front street, so we did just that.  They have been admiring the décor for weeks now every time we drive by, so to be able to see it up close and touch it and take pictures with it was a real treat for them.

We ended up trick-or-treating right around an hour and then we headed back home to let the kids dive into their candy.  The next 30 minutes were spent eating candy, playing with silly string and glow sticks that the grandparents had brought, and Olivia declared that it was “my best day ever.”  Haha.

F I V E – Halloween After-Party

The grandparents left shortly after and we stayed on the front porch handing out candy a little longer.  At 8 we headed inside, put on our Halloween jammies, and watched It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown like we always do on Halloween.  We let the kids finish their lollipops while we watched, and afterward, we brushed teeth and tucked two very sleepy kids into bed.

B and I settled in on the couch to relax once the kids were in bed, and my brother sent me this gem.

Oh my goodness!!!!

It was pretty much the perfect day. 

Happy weekend, y’all! 

*Linking up with A Liz Adventures and Carolina Charm for Five on Friday, A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites, Meet @ the Barre for Friday Favorites, and Cup of Tea for High Five for Friday.