Our Spooktacular Weekend

This weekend went by fast because we had a ton going on.  Saturday was our ward's chili cook-off and Halloween party.  I love Halloween.  I love dressing up, I love carving pumpkins, I love Halloween sugar cookies, and I love the candy {I have the WORST sweet tooth EVER}.

Once I found out that our ward had a Halloween party I started thinking about possible costumes for our family.  Thankfully Reese is obsessed with Peter Pan and Tinkerbell right now and I found a super easy tutorial online to help me so I could make their costumes.  At first Reese wanted to be Peter Pan but as soon as I showed her a picture of the costume I was going to attempt to make, she decided she wanted to be Tinkerbell.  It was so fun to make both Reese and Benson's costumes.  They both looked adorable and I was quite proud of myself for being able to make them.

She was the cutest little Tinkerbell around!  I have loved seeing her excitement about Halloween.  Reese has made this holiday so much because she is excited about EVERYTHING!

Benson was our handsome little Peter Pan.  I am quite proud of his costume because I made EVERYTHING.  From his hat and sword to his pants and shirt, I made it all.  Thank goodness for creative people who post things online because without them I would have never figured out their costumes on my own.

Benson didn't care about a thing except for that darn hat.  All he wanted to do was rip it off his head and chew on it.  At least it was good for something!

As for me and Ben... we were Pirates again this year because it was easy and plus pirates go great with the Peter Pan and Tinkerbell theme. 

After we ate our dinner, while sitting on the floor, {this party had a really good turnout} they had games in the back of the room for the kids.  Reese was the best cheater around!  They had pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern, so she lifted up her blindfold so she could see where to put the nose.  The had a witches hat ring toss and if she missed she went and picked up the ring and put in on the witches hat.  I don't know where she learns it from!

But what Reese was most excited for was trunk-or-treating.  We have been practicing trick-or-treating with her at home so when it was time to go trick-or-treating she would know exactly what to do!

And boy did she know just what to do.  After visiting a couple of cars she told me that was enough and that she wanted to go so she could eat her candy.  I told her about how she could get even more candy and so she decided that we should continue trunk-or-treating!  What a fun night Reese had!

Ben has had a really busy week.  Originally we were going to carve pumpkins for family night but Ben has two tests on Monday and one on Tuesday so we decided that Sunday night was going to be our family night this week because Ben will be studying all day tomorrow.

I LOVE carving pumpkins.  I don't do any of those fancy pumpkin carvings that take hours and hours, but it is something that my family always did every year and it is a tradition that I want to continue on in my family.  This is the first year that we bought a pumpkin carving kit from Walmart.

We should have bought one long ago!  This little kit, even though it looks like all of the saws would break as soon as you try to cut, was AMAZING!!!  In the 4 years that Ben and I have been married I have never cleaned out my pumpkin by myself.  I always get tired of cleaning it out because it takes FOREVER.  Tonight I was done in about 5 minutes and I did it all by myself.  We are HUGE fans of the pumpkin carving kit, plus it gave Benson something to suck on while we carved!

Reese wasn't quite sure about sticking her hand inside of a pumpkin.  I showed her how and what was inside but she really had to talk herself into sticking her hand in there.

Once her hand was inside she decided it was kind of gross and didn't want anything to do with that gross stuff inside our pumpkin!

Benson thought the pumpkin guts were GREAT!  He loved touching them and even went as far as to suck on the pumpkin.  Whatever makes him happy! 

This boy loves his dad!  Whenever Ben walks in the door from school he gets so excited and wants nothing to do with me.  I love hearing Ben talk to Benson about all the man dates that they are going to have together once he gets a little older {it kind of melts my heart}.

Reese and I went easy this year with our jack-o-lantern.  Nothing fancy but then we were going for something quick that would hold Reese's attention {thank goodness for that carving kit because we whipped out this sucker in 5 minutes}.  Seriously that carving kit was the best 3 dollars I have spent at Walmart in a while!

Ben was a little more creative with his pumpkin and created a cute little stick-figure witch. Ben has also been really sick all week long so I don't know that he was really into carving pumpkins but he has been a good sport.

Thank goodness for cellphones.  Otherwise I don't know how we would ever light out pumpkins!  Maybe next year we will invest in some candles but I highly doubt it... we have been lighting our pumpkins with cellphones for 4 years now!

I am loving this holiday season already!  

I love how excited a 2 year old gets about carving a pumpkin or dressing up or going trick-or-treating!  I love that Benson could care less and would rather have something, anything to suck on.  I love having a husband who indulges me and lets me dress him up as a pirate and carves pumpkins with us even though he feels terrible.

Well that is the end of our Spooktacular weekend.  We got a ton of candy, ate some yummy chili, and carved some mighty fine pumpkins!  What more could we ask for?