Like many people, we chose not to take our children to the pumpkin patch nor trick-or-treating this year for Halloween. Some people might say that our kids missed out, but I disagree. It was obviously safer for all of us to stay at home. Don’t worry, we made sure to have fun as a family!

It got me thinking about some of our Halloween family traditions. For many years now, it’s been a family tradition to visit the pumpkin patch to select the perfect pumpkin (and for me to take tons of photos). A few days before Halloween, we all carve out our silly jack-o-lanterns. One year, my husband and I hosted a pumpkin-carving party at our house for us adults. It was really awesome to see our friends get so creative! Below is a photo of some of the creations made at that party.

We didn’t go to the pumpkin patch this year, so I had to improvise with some autumn/Halloween decorations, gourds from our garden, and two, huge, store-bought pumpkins. The kids dressed up in their makeshift costumes and I got a few good photos of them in our backyard before they headed back inside to decorate their pumpkins. Those pumpkins will sit proudly on our front steps for the next few weeks, until they get moldy, lose their shape, and become science lessons on decomposition and composting!

As for Halloween, although we didn’t go out trick-or-treating, our children did get a decent amount of candy and goodies from me, their babysitter, and their Nana. At around dusk, Emily and Logan dressed up in their costumes, went outside, and knocked on the various front and back doors of our own house. My husband, mom, and I answered the doors and gave them candy and treats. It was great! The neighbors across the street probably thought we were either crazy or clever. A little of both, to be honest.

The fun didn’t stop there. For dinner, we ate “spooky spaghetti,” which was spaghetti that we dyed green, with meatballs, small circles of cheese, and sliced olives to look like eyeballs. The kids got to drink “hocus pocus potion,” which was just fruit punch. Dessert was a homemade chocolate cream pie that was decorated with plastic spiders and whipped cream “spider webs.”

Afterward, we danced around the living room, listening to Halloween-themed songs being played on our Echo Dot. The playlist was great! Such fun songs as The Addams Family, Monster Mash, and Ghostbusters. Oh, and in case you didn’t know, you can get a really good workout dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller!

So as you can see, it was a fun and memorable Halloween. We’re so glad that our children are understanding, easy-to-please, and so imaginative! My heart is full and I am grateful.

As always, thanks for stopping by. ❤