As much as I love coordinated family costumes – this year was not the year to make that happen! We normally have a neighborhood party we attend as a family which gives us reason to dress up together and this year we weren’t able to attend. Add to that, Halloween night our kids were running in every direction including Hunter having school soccer tryouts – so we weren’t even home at the same time to take a picture together. And that’s okay!
Everyone chose their costume and everyone was happy.
After tryouts, Hunter attended a costume party with friends. He arranged to couple costume with his friend and they nailed it. All those years of forcing Hunter to dress up – he now does so willingly. What I love more than his willingness to dress up was him recognizing I would want pictures but it would be dark outside by the time he got home from soccer. So he took pictures a day earlier.
Bennett decided last minute he was going to go out with friends. He was torn between hanging with friends and watching the diamondbacks world series game at home. It was a terrible game and I’m sure glad his friends convinced him to join them. They decided on 1920s mobsters as a group costume and because Bennett decided to join last minute, we were lucky to find what we did at a thrift store. They ruled the neighborhood.
Cannon changed his mind regarding his costume every few days for a month! Ghostbusters was always in the mix but he struggled to make a definitive decision. He’s a good salesman and whatever he was thinking, Briggs was in agreement – even when he talked of being a banana.
He landed on ghostbusters which I was totally in agreement with because it meant I could walk into Spirit Halloween and purchase a complete costume. At one point Steve and I were going to dress up with them and then…we didn’t!
We hosted an outdoor nacho bar and projected the World Series game on the driveway for some families we knew our kids would want to trick-or-treat with. You can imagine my surprise when three boys walked into the house wearing ghostbuster costumes. Cannon swears he didn’t know their costumes but it was almost too good to be true. Our neighborhood was looking pretty safe with these guys on the prowl.
Cannon achieved the ultimate Halloween milestone: Trick-or-treating without your parent. A small group ventured out on their own on a specific path and they were so excited and proud of themselves. Of course our community is small enough we were just a few houses behind them with Briggs’ group and kept getting updates from neighbors who had just given them candy. But they felt like big kids and that’s enough!
Briggs also participated in the storybook parade at the elementary school – where they dress like a character from a book. His favorite book right now is Creepy Pair of Underwear (aff link) and he was a little surprised when I suggested it for his costume parade. Easiest costume I’ve ever made and probably his favorite.
Hallie hung out with us for a little bit and then made her way to friends and didn’t even need to dress up in order to be a disappointed Diamondbacks fan!
It would always be my preference to dress up as a family but once in a while it’s also okay to not put in any effort – this was that year – and Halloween was just as enjoyable as it always is.
