Our First Halloween in Our New Neighborhood

I remember my parents really enjoying Halloween when we were growing up because they would get to be outside with all of the neighbors and socialize. My mom would sit beside all of the other women from our cul-de-sac and pass out candy while my dad took us around trick or treating. We all just loved it.

Fast forward 20+ years, and now I’m the one with all of the hearts in my eyes squealing about how much stinkin’ fun Halloween was this year!

This was the first year the girls 100% picked out their costumes on their own. When I asked Sadie a couple of months ago what she wanted to be, she immediately shouted “Elsa!” And she never backed down from that. Hadley wasn’t sure what she wanted to be, so I took her to a big costume store before we left for Germany. She browsed ever so slowly through five aisles, and when she saw the Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) costume, she was done. That was the winner. 🙂

Halloween was actually really busy. The girls were at school that morning having fun while I knocked out a lengthy list of blog-related things at home. I then picked them up and we went to parents day at Hadley’s dance studio. After that, we came home to relax (neither girl could nap because they were so excited) while I cleaned the kitchen, did some laundry, and prepped some things for that night.

I had planned to make some white chicken chili in the crockpot for dinner, but the day completely got away from me and we ended up eating some frozen food that I threw in the oven about half hour before we headed out for some Trick or Treating fun.

My mom and dad drove over for a little bit to see the girls in their costumes before heading home to pass out candy in their neighborhood. The girls loved showing off their dresses. 🙂

Around 5:30 we threw shoes on, snapped these pics, tossed Teddy’s costume on (hehe), and headed down the street to meet all of our neighbor friends!

Our neighborhood is only half built, but there are still so many kids! The weather was wonderful (75 degrees ahhh), so it was a great night to leisurely walk the neighborhood. There were five families that primarily stuck together, but we stopped to chat with so many neighbors and met a handful of new ones. The neighborhood still feels small enough that it’s possible to know most people, so it was really nice to get to know some people we hadn’t met yet.

We snapped a quick pic of the kids from our little group at the end of the night (inside our house since we were the first “drop off” in our row of houses, haha!), and it’s obvious they are all toast. They had so much fun together!

We lucked out with some really wonderful families on our street. We are already talking about next year and what we can do to make Halloween even more fun.

Last year, we spent Halloween in Alabama since Jamie was deployed. I took the girls trick or treating in a bigger neighborhood, and when we got back to my parent’s home, my dad spontaneously took Hadley out for round #2 to the houses in their neighborhood.

He had so much fun doing it and made a comment on Halloween this year about how he’d gladly take her out again if she was up for it (and if I was up for driving her over). Since we were done in our neighborhood around 6:45, I decided to seize the day and drive Hadley over to their house (Sadie was toast).

My mom and dad took her out while I stayed back to hand out candy at their house, and I know they all had a great time. I’m glad I took her over there. Pictured below is Hadley’s very last house, my grandmother’s. She lives in a little apartment attached to my parent’s house, so Hadley’s rang her bell to trick or treat. It was sweet to watch! She loves her Nana.

By the time we got home a little after 8, Sadie had long been in dream land, and this Sleeping Beauty had turned into a disastrous beauty that had hit her wall and was ready to sleep.

So many little things made this Halloween special. Jamie was home, and I try to never take that for granted. He missed a few while we were in Kansas, which always made the fun times like this a little bittersweet. The weather was intoxicating. The girls are big enough where they could walk (run) on their own, say “trick or treat”, and have a ball. And finally, the community was the cherry on top. Doing life like this with good people is my jam. It fills my tank in big ways!

Hope you had a fun Halloween too!

Let’s chat!

What do you do for dinner on Halloween? We are talking about maybe doing a block party-type thing next year with potluck food. Do you go out to eat early? Hang and eat with friends? Eat frozen food like we did this year? lol