Happy Halloween!

I am typically a very positive and optimistic person. But, I can't lie... for the last several days I have been a bit of a scrooge about Halloween. I spent a great deal of time wondering why we celebrate Halloween...?! I know it is many peoples' favorite holiday. But I just don't get it... On Halloween, we endorse activities that directly contradict what we spend the other 364 days of the year trying to teach our children to do. Just to name a few... 'be yourself' ... 'eat healthy'... 'go to bed early'... 'don't talk to strangers'... do you get what I mean?!
So, the reason for me explaining this all is because I finally see the light! For all you Halloween lovers out there, I get it now! The reason for Halloween is to HAVE FUN!! That's it!! And that's what we did. We spent time together as a family and had fun! It is still not my favorite holiday, but fun nonetheless. Here's a brief recap...
On Thursday, we went to our ward's Trunk or Treat. That's where people line up their cars in the parking lot and decorate the trunks with Halloween gear. Then the kids trick or treat to everyone. This year we had a chili cook-off and some really fun games. The most exciting attraction was the pain-stakingly crafted 'Spook Alley'. Todd, with a couple other awesome ward members, spent about 6 hours turning the nursery rooms into an amazing haunted house. It was a hit!! He even stayed in there the whole time and caringly jumped out and scared all of the little ones! :) In the end, he was thankful that it only took about 30 minutes to take down. :)

The big night though was, of course, Halloween!! Without further adieu, here are the costumes...

Spencer didn't really have a costume. I couldn't find one that wasn't girly, constricting, or made of fleece. So I bought him this cute little outfit to wear. It says "hair wolf" (which I thought was funny) so we spiked his hair too. And his teeth match the hair-wolf's! :)

This is the Dark Spider-man climbing the wall.

Raggedy-ann (otherwise know as Raggedy-ansey) posing like a good little girl!

Bella was a black cat (who looked a little cuter before her make-up was smeared)
BTW- It took 8 shots to get a good picture of her. AHHH!

I just thought this was funny... Eathan is playing with Bella and Spencer at Grandma's house (as he often does) but he didn't take his mask off to do it! He's a die-hard I guess!

Our Halloween festivities included, going to visit grand-parents, hanging out at my brother's house for his block-party, trick-or-treating in my brother's neighborhood, and spending time with some super-fun friends after all of the festivities were over. Last but not least, the night would not have been complete without home-made caramel apples (at the above stated friends' house). YUMMY!!

The end result you ask?!... The point off all this madness?!... A TON OF FUN!!

(And four sticky, exhausted children!)

P.S.- The coolest thing this year was that Todd dressed up too! I don't have a picture, but I will get one and post it later. He was a 70's dude and it was pretty sweet! (You can catch a slight glimpse of his polyester garb and butterfly collar in the background of the first picture of my post.)