halloween 2024!

on november 1, 2023 the kids (mostly directed by moses, but i think gabriel had some skin in the game too…) determined that they were going to be pokemon for halloween 2024. i thought for sure they would forget, change their minds or have some dissenters, but nope! i think the trip to japan may have totally clinched it, and come october 2024 – a little clan of pokemon it was: bulbasaur, charzard, evie and pikachu! (meanwhile, i’m still trying to figure out what a pokemon actually is haha!)

leading up to the big day we had a pumpkin carving night, some halloweeny crafts were made a school and some different costumes were explored, and then one evening ian and i got to take our older boys to a hogwarts feast at byu! it was so fun to get dressed up in costumes from last year (except for gabriel, who borrowed an incredible hedwig costume created by our neighbour) and enjoy a meal + butterbeer in a dining room decorated to look like hogwarts great hall at halloween! crisis was averted when they were showing the seventh movie on a big screen – mo was soooo worried about spoilers! – we moved to a seat with very limited visibility of the screen … and then gabriel won the costume contest! such a fun night.

our ward had a trunk or treat party, which was thoroughly enjoyed (and moses’s barfing pumpkin won the pumpkin carving contest! … and gabriel used his hood to collect candy, ha!). the younger kids and i also went to another party hosted by a friend of ours in her backyard.

when actual october thirty first finally arrived, the kids were so excited to go to school in their costumes. i got to go watch gabriel and moses march in the elementary school costume parade and then i volunteered in moses’s classroom party. after school i took the kids to trick-or-treat center street in downtown provo for a bit – that was super fun! we visited / picked up ian at his office and soon after headed out trick-or-treating in our neighbourhood!

it was so great to roam our block – first a sunset with just our kids, and then into the dark with a gaggle of neighbourhood friends. wayyyy too much candy was collected and the kids just were in heaven running and playing and exulting with their pals! we ran into the cousins and stopped at our friends’ who were making hot scones and had a fire pit lit. we ate candy until we were sick (yes, ian and i take a parent “tax”!) and did some trades and eventually got everyone to bed!