A Happy Parish Halloween

Happy Halloween from the Parish family! Last year was Elijah's first Halloween and although we had a great time take him to a few houses to go trick or treating, I think we had more fun than he did. This year, our little "Elmo" was quite the trick or treater! He had so much fun! His face was so full of joy and his enthusiasm for running from house to house and getting to pick out colorful candy (which he does not even know what he was getting) and putting them in his pumpkin was so the cutest thing ever!

Last year, Chip and I started the tradition of watching It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. This year Elijah was old enough to sort of enjoy it. He loved pumpkins and dogs so we had fun pointing out those things in the video and decided to watch it after dinner before we went on our trick or treating adventure.  I love these quiet moments where Elijah and I are just snuggling together. Such a little lover.

After our video, we got changed and headed out to trick or treat! Although we are realizing more and more that our actual house is not ideal for our family, we love our neighborhood and one of the reasons is there are a lot of kids. This becomes quite apparent on Halloween night due to all the "action" you see walking around. We chose to go kind of early (around 6:30pm) so that we can at least start when it is a little light out and there were already quite a few kiddos and parents in the street. We walked about two and a half blocks total and Elijah walked almost the whole way! After a few houses he started knocking on the doors himself.  All the neighborhood kids got a kick out of his sweet Elmo costume ( a gift from Granmumy and Pop) and would say "Look, there's Elmo" and Elijah would just smile big.  After each house, Elijah would say "Bye" (He isn't able to say Thank You yet, but we said it for him) and then he would little be running at lightning speed to the next house, dragging his Daddy behind him.

This is how our pumpkins started out 

After the huge rainstorm we had on Halloween day, Elijah's and my finger painted pumpkins were no longer painted. And poor Elmo pumpkin started to rot. I will be researching preservation methods for the carved pumpkins next year. 

Chip did such an incredible job on our pumpkin!

Our little Elmo ready for some trick or treating!

My boys. 

First stop, Jessica and Greg's house! 

Jessica took a family photo for us!

We love our little Elmo!

And we are on to the next house!

Love this little boy!

Mama and Elijah enjoying our  Halloween night walk!

Watching Elijah run up to a house with a group of other kids just made my heart melt......

"Hey Ma, Whatcha doing way back there? Don't you know there is CANDY up here!"

Cheeeeeeese!

Ready for the next house!

Once his pumpkin started getting full, Elijah wanted to carry it himself. 

Little legs were getting tired. 

This is a serious trick or treater!

It was so cute when he started knocking on the doors himself

Mama's Costume

Such a great night!

 Because we are firm believers in giving our kids healthy foods and not allowing too much indulgence in junk, Chip and I decided on a new Halloween tradition.  We want our children to be able to enjoy the fun of trick or treating and even maybe a couple pieces of candy. (though no candy for Elijah this year). We decided that each child will get to choose a set number pieces of candy to try (maybe correlating to how old they are up to a point) and then they leave the rest downstairs. When they wake up the next morning, there is a Halloween present or two in place of the candy! This year Elijah got two books! The first is from Dr. Sears' series and teaches about Mama's growing belly and what it means to be pregnant. Might be a little over his head but it is something we can look at together and talk about. And the second, God Gave Us Two, is an awesome book about a Mama polar bear pregnant with twins and becoming an older sibling to twins. LOVE BOTH THESE and am so excited to read them with Elijah!