Happy Halloween! Okay, I might be a day late, but there was a lot of candy that needed to be examined… Right. That’s what I’m going with. Yesterday was one of those magical days that, again, makes being a parent worth every moment of sleeplessness. The night before, the boys were truly awful and were awake from 12:45am until around 5am. They weren’t even playing nicely. They were being destructive and woke all of us up. I had a feeling Halloween would be terrible because of this, but although we are still a bit sleepy, it was just perfect.

The boys are obsessed with dogs, so even though they were Dalmatians last year, they went as brown dogs this year. They thought they looked just like Ranger! I found their costumes on a Moms of Multiples resale page, saving me at least $40, so that was huge. I think they were adorable, and they kept the kids warm without needing coats last night, which was another added bonus. I have this gigantic basket sitting in my garage. It was used for one of my baby or wedding showers and has just remained there since. I had the idea to stick the kids in a basket with a “Puppies for Sale” sign earlier in the morning, but didn’t know if it would be more work than it was worth. I decided to go with it and do a mini photo shoot and I am so glad I did. It was so very well received. I got lots of compliments and the pictures of the boys and Ranger in the basket are definitely some of my all time favorites. They perfected their puppy panting faces too!

Taylor had a small parade at her school. Each of the classes made their own costumes, and her class was a bunch of Hula dancers. They even made their own ukuleles, which were adorable. They marched through the school, sang some Halloween songs and were generally adorable. She was quite proud of herself and the hard work she put into her school costume.

For trick or treating, Taylor decided to be a witch. She was dead-set on being creepy and scary and was threatening to turn her brothers into toads, rocks, and snakes. As soon as she put on that dress, it was like she transformed into a grown up. There was not one bit of creepiness on that girl, and she looked too gorgeous to be scary at all! She loved her dress and had so much fun wearing it.

We kept on with our tradition of trick or treating with some of our best friends and neighbors. We now have six kids amongst the two families and it is always so much fun. The kids adore each other and were so respectful of each other. We had a bunch of falling down episodes from costume malfunctions, where candy was strewn about the street. Each kid stopped, helped collect the candy for their friend, and waited as they got re-situated. They took turns ringing the door bells (a huge deal when you are five and under) and just had such a fun time. Watching them all interact with each other and the neighbors they visited was magical. Their faces were innocent and full of happiness and it made it all worth it for me.

We had to remind Taylor not to read too much into what she was getting in her treat bag. We got to a few houses where she politely said Trick or Treat and Happy Halloween, but then she would dig through their candy bowl examining things and saying “Is this healthy?” Nothing about Halloween is healthy, my sweet girl. Jackson had no problem grabbing fistfuls of candy when prompted and actually ate a few pieces with the wrappers still on, as we were walking around the block. Joseph was naturally very methodical about everything he did. He was on a mission and tried to collect only candy pieces that were wrapped in blue. We got to one house and he looked in the bowl, looked at me, and with the saddest little face said “Mommy. There’s no blue for me here. I really like blue.” I quickly explained that it was okay and he didn’t need everything to be blue, but our neighbor felt badly and dug through and found him a Rice Krispie treat (blue wrapper) and handed it to him. He literally cheered out loud and then began kissing the small blue wrapped treat. These kids do have the tendency to be adorable sometimes.

Jackson gave us a bit of an issue at bedtime and took a while to go down. Taylor was up way more times than I would have liked throughout the night, but all in all, it was a good night. We had a bit of a rough morning. Taylor couldn’t get enough carbs and required both cereal and extra toast this morning, probably to counteract the sugar. As I was brushing and braiding her hair this morning, I noticed a weird clumpy texture. She may or may not have somehow gotten half of what looked like a chewed tootsie pop matted in her hair — and then slept on it. Whoops. I did what I could and sent her off to school. I’m hoping the chlorine from swimming will help wash some of it out before I get my hands back on her tonight. The poor girl didn’t even want to get out of the cozy comfort of her car seat this morning. We all survived though, and the kids can’t wait until next Halloween!