The Season that has become Halloween

Halloween for us lasted about 3 weeks. On Oct 16, we were invited to Sean and Livia Nufer's house to have a little party. That meant we had our first chance to try out Josh's Mickey Mouse costume. When we first put it on him, he definitely protested, but we put him in front of a mirror and his eyes just lit up because he recognized who he was supposed to be. I was so proud!
The Friday before Halloween, our playgroup (thank you Lindsy!) was at the library for a Halloween story time and trick-or-treat. We walked there and arrived a little early, but we got to see almost everyone come in.

Josh with the Hartsock twins

(I think this is Emilia.)

Juliana and Abby

This is our buddy Quinn Corotan--he was so cute as a pirate and matched his brother Jude

In the middle (wearing yellow) is Lindsay Moss with her two youngest: Edyn and Rex; beside her in black is Lindsy Hartsock with her twins on her lap: Emilia and Avery; Josh is sitting on the ground and the dragon in front of him is Carter Hartsock

I was pleased to see the Leah dressed her daughter (Mckenna) up as Minnie Mouse

On Saturday (the 29th), we finally carved our pumpkin! It was hard to find a good day to do it because of piano lessons and with Steve getting up early to work on his MBA.

We were happy to see Joshua taking an active part in cleaning out the pumpkin. He kept going "Ew" and "Yuck!" with every handful.

We were going for a Mickey Mouse pumpkin, but when we showed this to Joshua and asked who it was he immediately responded "Toodles!!" (Those of you who have watched the show understand this, but on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Toodles is a little helper that looks just like this.)

Saturday night was the ward Halloween Party. We had told our friend Mandi that we would watch her kids that night while she worked and Nick was out of town. She arranged a ride for her kids to get to and from the party, and we dressed them up in their costumes while we were there. It was very hectic, but we had an enjoyable time. One of the brothers took some great pictures of everyone that was dressed up. Steve and I went as Tahitians, Kelsey is a pumpkin, and Josh was Mickey Mouse.

Making pumpkin soup has become a Halloween tradition and since we didn't throw a party this year, we decided to have the Tates over to celebrate with us. We had it on the Sunday before and really enjoyed the roll creations they came up with:

Finally! Halloween arrived! We were invited to Lindsay Moss' house with all of the other parents of toddlers to have "Soup and Bones" (which was soup and rolls) before all going out to trick-or-treat. Thanks Lindsay and John! It was so fun and we loved getting together with so many friends.

I don't think a single picture of ALL of the kids was taken, but this was as close as I got. It was so fun to see their excitement! (Well, at least the excitement of the parents...)

So that was it! Josh very enthusiastically ran from door to door yelling "Trick or Treat!", "CANDY!!" and "Happy Hoween!!!!" He had a few weeks of practice, so has still been saying "Happy Halloween" to people we pass. It was a good month and we're looking forward to Thanksgiving.