This is Halloween, Halloween, HALLOWEEN

That darn Nightmare before Christmas song has been stuck in my head all month! I don’t get all the hype surround Halloween.  But the kids just love it, so I do my best to bring my game face. 
Although I don’t love Halloween, I do love pumpkin patches.  Kids in pumpkin patches make for the best pictures.  We hit up Cottonwood Farms this year.  Josh and Blake loved timing themselves in the hay maze.  Halle’s pocket got gnawed on by a goat.  And we all had fun making our way thought the cornmaze.


This year the ward put on a huge Halloween dance.  There were some fun carnival games for the kids, a photo booth, root beer floats and lots of dance competitions.  We all had such a great time. 

Halle, Sadie and Grace won the award for the best group contest.  Grace left before the awards, but there has been much discussion on how to most fairly share the award.  Last I heard it was rotating houses on a regular basis

Rusty’s costume wins the day.  The Mets are playing in the world series right now and he managed to fit into his second grade jacket .  It was a hoot.
Now:
 
Then:

Halloween also means PUMPKIN PIZZA PALACE!  In its third year now the PPP made new records and sold 30 pizzas and about 85 sugar cookies.  This year Papa Murphy’s donated all the pizza crusts.  I cannot even explain what a huge relief that was.  It was also really great that Halloween was on a Saturday this year.  It made the whole process so much more relaxed. 

FINALLY the time for Trick or Treating arrived. Josh was a demetor from Harry Potter, Blake was Captain Smek from Home, complete with the susher and Halle was Joy from Inside Out.  The Whitakers and the Rowberry’s joined us this year so the girls could go together.  Although it was an absolutely beautiful night they got cold fast and were home way earlier than I expected.  The boys, on the other hand, hit as many houses as was humanly possible.  The amount of candy is staggering. 



It was a BUSY BUSY weekend and we all woke up on Sunday feeling like we’d just come out of a coma.  I’m proud of the kids and all the work they did for the PPP.  They are already plotting ways to spend their hard earned cash.  And like last year, they are donating 25% of the profit to Kids Against Hunger.  Can’t wait to go package food again.