Halloween: Traditions
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As a child, well all the way up until High School my mom would dress all 5 of us kids up and we would go over to my cousins to trick-or-treat. (Yes, I was that "kid" who still went out on Halloween night as a High Schooler) Their neighborhood was the perfect place to go door-to-door since the houses were so close together, so getting a TON of candy was pretty easy and we were always so stoked to dump our bags out on the floor and trade for our favorite candies. Our aunt would make beef stew and when we were too cold to keep going we'd come have a warm bowl of soup and help pass out candy. Although not a major deal, it was something that I looked forward to every Halloween.
Traditions are something that I love carrying on in our family. Those memories you create, those special occasions that you look forward to year after year. Those people in your life you get to see and enjoy time with. Now, as an adult with two small children I can't wait to pass on our family traditions and also create some new ones. I'm always looking for that special "thing" to do that our kids might grow up thinking that was the coolest and want to pass that tradition on to their family. I'll share a few of our favorite Halloween Traditions with you and I'd love to hear some new ones if you comment below!
- Pumpkin Patch- I know its the most basic tradition around and actually this year we didn't even go lol instead we went to the Twin Cities Corn maze which had pumpkins at it but we didn't buy any because my parents got us 3 gigantic ones from Alexandria. So although we didn't quite make it this year, it has been something we've done in the past and we love it.
- Carving pumpkins- I'll be honest with you. I hate carving pumpkins and luckily our kids are young enough where they don't want to either lol Oliver thinks the guts are gross and cold and I just think its too much work. I mean, you spend all this time finding a design, tracing the design on the pumpkin, then white knuckle cutting out your design with that Sh*tty little carving knife they give you.. and for what? For it to rot after a week of sitting on your front porch just so you can pick the soggy thing up and throw it in the trash.....ooooo fun. This year Oliver poked his fingers in one of the rotting un-carved pumpkins which led to the dogs eating the top half off, so that pretty much counts as carving one because it looked like the "headless pumpkin" for a few days until Loui finished her off lol (okay, I sound like a debby downer but maybe when the kids get older and actually want to carve their own pumpkin we'll get into to.. cuz you do it for the kids, right!)
- Pictures- Each year my mom would take us to Portraits of the Heart off 7th in Andover to get our Halloween pictures taken, and you all know I'm crazy about pictures so I of course had to carry out this tradition! Oliver's first year at Gay's he was a lion (we dressed up as the Wizard of Oz), his second year he was the old man from the movie UP, and this year I dressed both boys up as dinosaurs, they were adorable!
- TRICK-OR-TREAT- Yes, Oliver went out last year to like two houses and since it's already snowed this year he'll probably only make it to two again!
- Goodie Baskets- So if you watched my snapchat you probably saw Oliver searching for his Halloween basket and some of you are probably thinking I'm crazy and he's spoiled but the way I see it as I was gonna buy him that stuff anyways so why not make it into a fun little tradition that he hopefully looks forward to each year. The whole idea came from my mom who would always have stuff out for us the morning of each little holiday and it was seriously the best. Even it was nothing major, knowing that I would wake up to something on that special day was so exciting. This year I got the boys two little halloween baskets from HomeGoods which I can reuse each year. In Oliver's I put a book, new undies, some festive candy, cheap little wooden cars, halloween bandaids, and some dollar section crafts and silly toys. You guys, it doesn't have to be much or cost much! Just the look on their face and the excitement they get is pure joy. He loved it! He painted both his little crafts, ate some of his candy and played with his new cars. As for Attikus, since he's only 4 months old I got him some socks, sleep sacks, and long sleeved onsies which are all things he needed anyways so it worked out perfect!
- Hallows Eve- It wouldn't be Halloween without making beef stew and passing out candy so that's what we're planning on doing. Hopefully Hocus Pocus will be on, we'll have some friends over, jay can take oliver to a couple houses and we'll see some trick or treaters!
- Party- I should also mention that jay LOVES dressing up, so any Halloween party he hears of he'll jump on the chance to go!
Traditions are my favorite so if you've got some you'd like to share, I'd love to hear! Happy Halloween!