Halloween 2016

I know everyone has an opinion on Halloween...to celebrate or not to celebrate...to dress up or not to dress up...on and on it goes.

I've never been super-into Halloween. Yes, I was allowed to dress up when I was a kid, and I did for all my elementary school years. Our church always had a party {before Trunk or Treat was a thing}, and I'd trick or treat at trusted people's houses. I wasn't ever allowed to be a witch or ghost or anything evil or controversial. I am actually quite a scaredy cat, so I also don't do scary movies or haunted houses. But I mean, for real: it's a candy-centered holiday, so I cannot ignore it entirely, you know?

The first couple of years we were married, I don't think we did a thing for Halloween. In 2014, it fell on a Friday, which was our date night, and we went to Indianapolis to eat. That was when we learned Halloween is THE BEST NIGHT OF THE YEAR to go to a sit-down restaurant. They're empty! Everyone is either taking kids out to trick-or-treat OR they're home passing out candy/protecting their property. So there's just a little PSA for you on the merits of eating out on Halloween. You're welcome. Anyway. That night, it SNOWED, so we named it snow-loween.

Last year, I found out Ryan was allowed to dress up for work, so of course, I was ALL OVER THAT. We transformed him into Mr. Clean, and we also carved pumpkins and ate a festive Papa Murphy's pumpkin shaped pizza and totally-not-clean-eating orange chocolate chip cookies. {This was also before we started eating clean.}

This year's Halloween was hodge-podged over a couple of days, starting with the making of the costume:

 Because of course....

 ISN'T HE THE CUTEST CHARLIE BROWN???

{I was also floored at the number of people who didn't know who he was!}

I sent him off to work with his costume and his eyeliner-pencil hair, which I had to go over and reapply by 10 a.m. because he kept forgetting he was wearing it and rubbed it off. Whoopsie!!!

Our niece and nephews came to trick-or-treat during the day, so we all met at the hospital so Ryan could see them too. {My sister-in-law is the one with Ryan. One of the kiddos refused a picture unless she could be in it too.}

And yes. The littlest one is happily munching on the candy WRAPPER. Never asked for it to be opened. Just content to mash it to death through the wrapper. And also, yes, their mom is holding the key pieces of each of their costumes. I never said it was a well crafted photo. It's just a photo. LOL!

Lest I be left out, I tried to get a little festive. {Wanted to be Lucy to match Charlie, but I couldn't find the right blue dress.}

 Forgot my lips. Sorry about that.

Anyway.

We went to work at my parents' house that evening, so we didn't receive any trick-or-treaters, other than the kiddos at work. Maybe next year!

BUT!! We did have a little more fun. We had planned to carve pumpkins, but the truth is, we were just too tired to deal with a mess of that magnitude {plus Ryan couldn't find anything he wanted to carve}, so we went to plan B instead.

COOKIES!!!!!

I made regular sugar cookies and also clean eating cookies from the Dashing Dish website, and we had so much fun decorating them with the limited collection of supplies we had on hand for this last-minute adventure.

 {What...do you not stretch before baking adventures?}

AND!!!

Made taco stuffed jack-o-lantern peppers for dinner.

So that was our Halloween! Ryan already dropped a suggestion of what he wants to be next year, so I am ON IT!!! I will make it happen!