HALLOWEEN HAPPINESS!

A whole month to dress up!! What could be better???!?!?! October means... HALLOWEEN :-)

The Mosleys were in a serious Halloween Tailspin this year. I swear we kicked into Halloween gear October 1st. Even before we had the costumes, we pulled out new Halloween pajamas and decorated the house "Mosley style". We painted some signs and went to the pumpkin patch with friends. The kids had a great time using paint, ribbon, glitter, and felt decorating their pumpkins.

We then headed out to hit as many harvest festivals and parades as possible to get into the Halloween/Fall spirit. Khyri and Kielle both picked out their costumes this year; Khyri was Batman and Kielle was Minnie Mouse. *sidenote* I really wanted Kielle to be Strawberry Shortcake. Maybe next year.

One of our first trips was to the annual Smyrna Fall festival. We saw our favorite marionette guy Peter Hart and played on some of the jumpy houses and rides. We sprung for the kiddos to make sand crafts too.

Mid October I took Kielle to Barnes and Noble for their Halloween event. This was the first year I've gone so I didn't know what to expect. Free events are often touch and go. You never know if its going to be a good experience or not. 

The event started off with a "Scary" storytelling time. The reader was dressed as a character from the book "Where the Wild Things Are". She read four short books that required crowd participation which was good for Kielle - she's a fidgeter :-)

After story time, the costumed cuties colored in treat bags and prepared for trick or treating in the store.

There were different stations set up around the store like at the information desk, at the Starbucks counter, etc. This was Kielle's first time trick or treating so she was a little confused. After she got her first treat Kielle was ready to go. I had to convince her that we needed to keep in line so we could get more treats!

Out of 7 stations, Kielle only made it to 2. Yes two. When we got into the car Kielle had  a lollipop and a tootsie roll candy. This was still good prep for Halloween. I'm glad we had this dry run ahead of time.

The festivities at Little Apron Academy started off with a Halloween parade, and me and the hubby were front and center - of course :-) Its really a big deal. All of the teachers get dressed up and the kids don their best superhero, princess, and fireman costumes.

Following the parade, the school continued with a pumpkin decorating contest. Each classroom decorated a pumpkin and then each pumpkin was judged. I know as a parent I'm supposed to favor my childrens' pumpkins, but I gotta admit that I like the Papa Smurf pumpkin that was done by another class. Its just super cute :-)

Khyri's class designed their pumpkin after their favorite storybook character "Splat the Cat"

 

 I kept asking Kielle which pumpkin belonged to her class, but she kept pointing to each one saying "happy jack-o-lantern" hahahahahah BTW every pumpkin is a "happy jack-o-lantern" to Kielle.

The school continued the festivities with a fall festival where Kielle got her face painted and played in an area designated solely for throwing hay! How much fun is that!?!?

We had one more practice run two days before Halloween at the Kroger event. Now last year I was not impressed at all with Kroger or the mall in terms of trick or treating. The employees weren't dressed up, and they didn't have enough candy for the kids. This year!?! - this year Kroger came correct! We didn't wear our costumes, but instead opted for our favorite dress up hats. I even rocked everyone's favorite Dr. Seuss hat :-)

Khyri really rocked Kroger's "stack 'em high" game. He was able to stack 11 Oreo cookies in 10 seconds and won special treats. They also had a coloring station and an area where you had to guess how many plastic fangs were inside a bowl. Kroger had about 10 stations throughout the store. We practiced saying "trick or treat" at each station. We needed to gear up for the big day :-)

On October 31st as night set in, we headed down to Palmetto,GA to trick or treat with our friend Mikey. I have never been real trick or treating - although I had no idea what I was doing was bootleg... hahahaha. Growing up in Harlem, we trick or treated in the apartment building going from floor to floor, so this was whole going outside in the elements and walking along the street was new to me. I loved it all! It was just like the movies! You walk up to houses with lights on and the kiddos shout, "Trick or Treat". Just perfect. Of course, picky pal Khyri wants to start asking people, "What do you have?" huh!?!? I need for you not to be choosy about the type of candy you receive young man. hmph. I mean seriously, Khyri actually told one woman, "No I had Twix yesterday." Talk about embarrassed?!?! So clearly we still have some Trick or treating etiquette to review before next October.

Batman and his superhero crew!

The weather was perfect for trick or treating. The kids were allowed 5 pieces of candy and then I was a sugar junky sneaking treats every moment I had ;-) After statying out late with friends and retiring the costumes for the night *because surely they have been pulled out since* we settled into bed under the protection of...

SUPER DAD!

*yes my hubby photo shopped NYC in the background... hahahaha I don't think the Smyrna skyline would've looked half as good*