Halloween 2019

Another Halloween done and dusted!

This year's Halloween came with quite a few firsts for us. Our first Halloween in Colorado, our first year having a house to decorate, our first year handing out candy, our first time trick or treating in the snow! That last one was pretty unexpected! It was also the first year that Kim didn't wear his class nerd costume that he's worn every Halloween since we arrived in the US. Unfortunately it was far too cold for a thin polyester onesie - no matter how hilarious it looks! Ha!

This year we ended up with an inadvertent computer game theme! Ava dressed as Link from Legend of Zelda, Lola was a Minecraft panda, Mathilde was Bendy from Bendy and the Ink Machine, and I was Pikachu. Without his class nerd costume, Kim chose not to dress up this year. Trust me, we won't allow that again next year!

We had a day filled with celebrations with school parades and parties followed by trick or treating in the early evening. It was so chilly we headed out a little earlier than originally planned and we didn't stay out quite as late as we usually would, but the kids scored quite the haul in our neighborhood so they were pretty happy. Given that none of us look especially warmly dressed it may not look all that cold in my pics, but trust me, the kids were layered up with thermals underneath their costumes and once the sun went down the warm mittens and jackets came out. 

Here's a look at Halloween 2019...

As I mentioned above, the kids had Halloween parties and parades at school during the day. I spent the afternoon at Lola and Mathilde's school helping out with class parties and watching the parade, but unlike back in Berkeley, everything was held indoors. The chilly temps and snow on the ground weren't so suitable for an outdoor parade. I didn't manage to snap any pics of the parade as it was kind of tight in the auditorium, but the kids didn't have their full costumes on anyway.  

Mathilde has this idea in her head that she needs different costumes for school and trick or treating, and given that she's likely to spill food/paint/glue/god only knows what all over herself at some point during the day I was happy to indulge her. During the day she dressed as Pikachu wearing yellow pajamas and accessories that I'd made last year when she decided that she needed an extra extra costume (three in total!) for our karate party. I then re-used her Pikachu ears and tail for my costume in the evening. Getting my money's worth out of that yellow felt! Here's my little Pikachu in our front yard (with our giant Beetlejuice sandworm!) after school.  

After a little break we layered up with thermals under our costumes, added the finishing touches and headed out to go trick or treating with the neighbors. But first, we needed photos!

Here's Mathilde in her Bendy costume. Like most of our costumes it consists of long pajamas from Primary.com with added accessories. I found her Bendy beanie on Etsy and added white gloves and a felt bow tie. Mathilde added the creepy smile! If you're not familiar with Bendy (I wasn't until Mathilde became obsessed a few months back) he's an animated demon from a computer game with a style reminiscent of early Disney cartoons. He's cute, but also menacing - kind of like a certain little someone!

During the day Lola had not been able to wear her full costume as masks were not allowed at school. Without her giant Minecraft panda head (made from a box and lots of duck tape) her costume didn't really look like much. I added ears to a black beanie for her to wear at school instead and she just told people that she was a regular panda. The costume definitely looked better with the giant Minecraft style head added to it! I was really happy with how it turned out. Just like Mathilde, Lola's costume consisted of black pajamas (with thermals underneath) and snuggly warm gloves. That eared beanie that she'd worn during the day came in handy for keeping her head warm underneath her mask.

Ava coordinated her costume herself again this year with the only input from me coming in the form of online purchases! Rather than buying a full Link costume she went with clothing items that worked to make the costume but can be worn again and again. A green dress from Primary.com, leggings from gap, boots from Zappos, and a belt from Amazon. She added a handmade hat from Etsy and Link's sword and shield from Spirit Halloween as the finishing touches. I love that even though her costume isn't home made in any way, she still stuck with choosing items that can be used over and over.

As I mentioned above, I reused Mathilde's Pikachu ears and tail, added some rosy red cheeks with lipstick (which still hasn't washed off completely!) and donned a yellow dress from Sonnet James - with thermals poking out from underneath! Sometimes being comfortable takes precedent over style!

We met up with our neighbors and headed off to go collect candy - with our first stop being at our neighbor's house while they stopped at ours! Here's Mathilde at our neighbor's house - which she seems to think is an extension of our house half the time!

Our street is rather long and joins onto another street that loops around, so we stayed pretty close to home for our trick or treating. In Berkeley we always ventured to a nearby neighborhood for our trick or treating as we lived in an area with mostly businesses and apartment buildings. It was nice to trick or treat on our own street for a change. Many of the houses on our street were decked out with decorations, but not to the extent that we were used to back in Berkeley. Our street wasn't closed to traffic either, unlike the neighborhood we used to trick or treat in, but there were very few cars so it wasn't an issue anyway.

As the sun started to set the sky was filled with stunning glowing clouds. We just happened to come across an empty snow covered lot with the clouds glowing behind it and you know I couldn't resist more photos!

In Berkeley most houses we visited while trick or treating had someone home who handed out candy. Here we found that most houses we visited had a bowl of candy left out the front instead. I'm not sure if this was because of the cold, or because those families were out trick or treating themselves. I'm guessing it was a mix of both. I mean, we did do the same thing!

We didn't spend quite as long trick or treating this year as we previously have as the cold started to get the better of us (my chillblain-y toes are regretting my decision to wear Doc Martens instead of my snow boots) but the kids still came away with a pretty good stash. They even got a couple of full sized bars and packs of Oreos! Look at all that candy in Mathilde's bag! One of the most popular things the kids received was hot chocolate sachets. We made those into hot drinks to thaw ourselves out as soon as we got home. I'm totally stealing the hot chocolate idea next year - especially if it's snowy again.

Back home we found the candy bowl that we'd left out mostly gone, but we still had a few more trick or treaters come to our door. Ava was excited to be able to hand out candy this year too. We don't normally get to do that.

The kids crashed out pretty early with Mathilde telling me "It's been a big day" before putting herself to bed. It's a good thing her costume was made of pajamas! It was pretty tough getting up for school again this morning, especially seeing as it's so cold outside at the moment, but it's the weekend now so the kids (and me!) can sleep as long as they like!

How was your Halloween? What did your kids dress up as? I'd love to hear.