Halloween

I have never claimed to love Halloween, but my kids love it and that makes it a little more fun for me. For Halloween this year Darcy was a mermaid, Ezra was Darth Vader, Parks was Jake the pirate, and Shelby was an old lady. Originally we went to Target to look at costumes, but I decided they were more money than I wanted to spend for Halloween costumes. As it got closer to Halloween and I wasn't coming up with anything else I changed my mind and splurged for the older kids' costumes since the two younger kids didn't really care as much and had lots of other fun options.

 Parks is normally pretty willing to have his picture taken but he was struggling a little on our pumpkin carving night. 

 I had seen the idea for an old lady costume on Pinterest and thought for some reason that it seemed especially ideal and funny for Shelby. For her hair I glued a bunch of cotton balls on a cheap beanie from Walmart and sprayed them with gray Halloween hairspray. Then I just bought some really cheap baby sunglasses and popped the lenses out. When we got to our ward trunk or treat with her in her costume people were loving it. These pictures of her really crack me up. I was worried that she was going to pull her glasses off or pull the cotton balls off of her hat so I thought I needed something for her to hold onto instead. I went to grab a toy, but spotted this yarn and crochet needle and thought it was so perfect.

 It's hard for me not to splurge on Darcy's costume every year because she gets so excited about them and wears them a lot before and after Halloween. She loved her mermaid costume and the hair and makeup that we came up with. I wish I would have gotten a close-up of her make up. We used fishnet tights to make scales on her face.

 Parks was originally planning on being a shark, but he found this Jake the Pirate costume a week or so before Halloween and quickly changed his mind. He loved having his hair sprayed black. Such a cute pirate!

 I splurged a little for Ezra's costume this year too and he was also very excited about it. I'm afraid this guy leans towards being the villain when he pretends. :) Good thing he's actually such a sweet guy in real life.

I told Drew this picture seemed like a really accurate depiction of the different personalities of our kids. Ezra is kind of quieter and at least outside our house he tends to hide in the shadows a little. Darcy is sitting there sweetly trying to do exactly what she is supposed to do. Parks' pose is full of exuberant personality, and Shelby is sitting there happy to be part of the party. None of those depict their personalities 100% of the time of course, but kind of in general. The differences make our lives so full and fun!