Trick or Treat...Again...and...Again!!!

So, usually Halloween only lasts a day...well, we decided it needed to last for a whole week!
Our Halloween celebrations started last Saturday with our annual Halloween pictures. Expressions photography in Highlands Ranch does free Halloween pictures every year. I found this out our first year we moved to Colorado and have only missed one year of pictures. How can you pass up FREE!! All you have to do is bring canned good donations and you get a free professional 4x6 photo of your kids all dressed up in their Halloween costumes. It always turns out cute too! Everyone there is all dressed up and the studio is all decked out in Halloween decor. They even have a cute little pumpkin patch set up where you can take your own pictures of the kids.
After we took our pictures, we were off to Boo at the Zoo. The kids did this last year and really had a fun time. Mike had to work, so this year Heidi and Christian came with us, so we had our own little Justice League! I wish I could say we were there to see the animals, but of course not - we were there for the candy! I think the kids spotted a few of the animals between candy booths, so we weren't totally uncultured.
On Tuesday at school, Sam had crazy hair day. We had a lot of fun with it and Sam thought it was so cool - especially when everyone commented on her hair when we were running errands that afternoon.
Then, on Wednesday our ward had the Trunk or Treat Halloween Party. Mike was working again, so Heidi and I took the kids - yes, we are both often widows! Of course the kids had so much fun. I didn't even see the boys half the time we were there, since they were off playing the games with other families in our ward, and Sam hung out with her cute friend Ally just about the whole time - it was torture when I pulled her away to spend time with me. She found Ally again for the Trunk or Treating and I didn't find her until it was all done. After the boys and I had finished making the loop once, Heidi went searching for Sam and finally found her struggling to keep her huge haul in her little treat bag. That girl definitely has the concept down!
So, by the time Halloween finally arrived, the kids had plenty of candy - but of course that just the beginning! Sam had her class party on Friday morning. It was really cute to watch all the kids all dressed up working on their "pumpkin math". wasPart of the game was to guess how big around their pumpkins were, and Sam actually cut her string exactly right! What a little smarty - she definitely gets that from her dad! After school the kids were super excited to have Grandma and Grandpa Hansen come over to celebrate Halloween with us. While the kids carved pumpkins with dad and grandpa, mom and grandma were inside putting together the traditional Halloween Buffet! This is something my mom did every year when we were little, and now my kids love it. They can't get enough of the green slime!
Finally it was time for the real trick or treating - as if they didn't have enough candy already! Grandma stayed behind to pass out candy so both mom and dad could go with the kids.

(NEWS FLASH! No I am not making this up, our high temperature on Halloween was 76!!! They said it was one of the warmest Halloween's on record! I was even wearing flip flops when we took the kids trick or treating!)

It was really fun taking them around the neighborhood and watching them run up to each house with bags opened wide, shouting Trick or Treat as loud as they could! They are at such a fun age, when everything is so exciting to them - hopefully it lasts for a while!