Spooktacular Halloween.

When it comes the boys' Halloween costumes this year, we sure got our monies worth. We actually bought Kaden's in August and borrowed Logan's from a dear friend.

But why Kaden's so early, you ask? In May at Cousin Colton's birthday party he would not put on the super cool cape that he gave to all his buddies. He didn't want anything to do with it. Three short months later, you can't take the dang thing off of him. He went from asking to watch Mickey Mouse to flying around like Superman so I did want any Mom would do and decided that for his third birthday we would have a SUPERhero photo shoot with the amazingly talented Katy from Katy Gitto Photography and I can't tell you enough about how in love with these pictures I am…

and even before that we had a quick dry run to see what kind of posing he would be into. We stepped outside our front door and walked across the street to the house that was being built…

If we had stopped there, we still would have got our monies worth but we weren't even to October yet! In October we kicked it up a notch and whipped their costumes out every chance we got. They went to Deanna Rose for their Halloween Hallow with Ms. Brenda and ran into Johnsons, Ms. Korie was kind enough to send me a picture-don't they look so enthused!

Kaden talked about that night for the next few days and that necklace he has on in the picture-he still wears it! Can't get the thing off of him.

We decided that the costumes needed a little rest so for the next week we did other Halloween activities. We "painted" pumpkins. We bought candy, made treats for day care, read Halloween books, colored pumpkins and worked on our BOOs.

 And then finally it was time to get the costumes back out for some Pre-Trick-or-Treating fun at Nanny's. Grammy Janet wanted to take the boys out to see Nanny so that she could see them all dressed up and so that the boys could bring some added joy to her and all her friends. They ran the halls of Little Sisters with their baskets in hand and charmed each lady they ran by. We had one Superman and two Spidermans but my little Spiderman was not having the mask...

Side Note: When dealing with a 97+ year old, know who is the boss. Nanny sometimes needs a little encouraging and pushing to get her to go on a walk outside or to even walk down to the end of the hall to sit and watch the kids play. (Sometimes all she wants to do is walk-just depends on what sort of day you catch on her.) On this particular day, she just wanted to get up and walk and not sit. I said we would walk in just one minute that we just wanted to get a picture of her with the boys and boy did I get a look. She gave me the dirtiest look a 97+ year old could give and sat there with her arms crossed. I was NOT on her good list. We quickly got the picture and off she went!! The boys had fun, Nanny seemed to enjoy them being there and in the end, thats what matters but lesson learned on my part!

Halloween Day was filled with fun. First up was their party at day care. When I picked them up later that day they had WAY too much candy and goodies with them. The good news, it was all the good kind and Mommy got to enjoy a little bit of it on the drive home.

Once home I pulled together a kick photo shoot for the boys. We tried the evening before at Nanny's but it just wasn't the right lighting and I was trying to hurry and get the picture and the boys were trying to hurry away from the camera. This time, I got smarter. I brought out my handy prop--the trunk. The trunk works magic, kids LOVE the thing and just want to sit, stand, or climb on it. Thats why I use it so much now, its like the kids forget about running away and are instantly drawn to it!

After our quick little shoot and some dinner we headed out to the neighborhood. We weren't sure what to expect since our neighborhood is still growing and there is a WIDE age range when it comes to our neighbors but we were going to give it our best try. Plus this would be a great way to meet more of our neighbors and perhaps find a few boys and girls that we could set up play dates with. Armed with my iPhone-for taking pictures and for recording names & addresses-we hit the pavement. The boys went house to house-Kaden walked alongside or helped by pushing Logan.

They toured the neighborhood faster than the speed of light…

Once we arrived at a house Kaden would run up to the door and push the "ding, dong" button which was instantly followed by a loud and impatient knock. I tried teaching him that one or the other was plenty but he was just way to excited. Just about the time the door would open Logan would be finding his place right next to his brother. It was so cute watching him follow his big brother around, idolizing every move he made.

They, well Kaden, said Happy Halloween & Trick-or-Treat at each house and followed up with a Thank you and a Have a Good Night. And as we walked back down the sidewalk Logan would turn around and say bye-bye. They had our neighbors eating out of their hands, just like they do with everyone. And as we arrived back home Grammy pulled up with more treats. Once inside they dove into their buckets and fished out the one thing they wanted before it was off to take their baths and then to bed. It was a successful Halloween and the costumes have found a new home in their playroom for the occasional dress up party. I wonder what the kids will be into next year...