Halloween 2025

 

Halloween 2025 is in the books! And what a day it was! 

Remind me never to hold a baptism the day after Halloween (and the same day as the ward Halloween party) ever again! I made about 12 dozen cookies, pureed and froze 20 cups of jack-o-lantern, and made 2 loaves of pumpkin bread (with another 2 cups of pureed jack-o-lantern). Andrew has made three types of soup and some rolls and is working on crackers. 

And I spent like two hours taking kids trick-or-treating. 

And I have a big assignment due on Monday. 

It's fine. It's been...just...a big and full day. 

I finished Phoebe's costume only recently, and she was thrilled with it. She is...a drain monster...or a sewer monster...or a gutter monster. She calls this creature many things and was terrified of it (and all drains) for so long. But she seems to have conquered her fear by turning herself into the commander of the drain monsters. 

First the book The Ghosts Went Floating solidified her fear of drain monsters—because there is a page where these pink monsters erupt from the sewer grate. And that made things a bit worse, honestly, even though she insisted on reading that book twenty thousand times a day for weeks on end. 

When I broke out our collection of Halloween books, however, she found the book There's a Nightmare in My Closet and although I was hesitant to read it to her because I thought it would make her even more afraid of monsters...it kinda did the opposite. She felt really empowered by that story. 

We've read that book several times this month and, anyway, she's not afraid to walk past drains anymore but will pause to greet the monsters—that she's positive live down there—knowing full well that she's in charge of them and not the other way round. 

So...here is Phoebe in her drain monster (or sewer monster or gutter monster) costume:

She is a fierce drain monster.

Her crocheted bag is supposed to be a round sewer cover...just in case you can't tell. She used it as her trick-or-treat bag. I mostly whipped it up while watching general conference (though spent a considerable amount of time after conference hand-stitching the lining).

The sequin fabric was from the Buy Nothing Group. I simply cut a circle of fabric that looked like it would drape well on her, cut a hole in the middle for her head, and then cut two arm holes. I added some...I don't even know what...some (improperly made) bias tape to the neck and arm holes to prevent her from ripping through the fabric while she runs around.

Eventually one day I might hem the bottom because this costume has been shedding sequins all over the house!

But I just ran out of time—I have sequencing issues (or sequinsy issues).

Anyway, Phoebe is delighted by the twirlability of this costume.

Her horns are made from felt from our scrap bin, attached temporarily to headband, which is attached to her sweater with a diaper pin (just in case).

She is the glitziest gutter monster to ever erupt from a sewer grate!

Zoë and her friend E decided to dress up as elves, based on their own mythology of a game they created and play together in the cul-de-sac quite frequently. Zoë was a water fairy and E was an earth fairy. 

E's mother loaned Zoë the corset and blouse. Everything else was from Zoë's closet.

Alexander was Le Petit Prince, himself! While we were reading Le Petit Prince a while ago, Alexander couldn't but help notice how much he looked like The Little Prince. 

I actually bought these mint green clothes for him since we didn't have anything of that colour in his wardrobe. He can keep wearing them after Halloween though. 

The scarf was purchased when we lived in Egypt—and it's still going strong in the dress-up bin. Miriam made the rose for him just this morning because he needed a certain je ne sais quoi to really give him that Little Prince vibe.

I know the rose stayed behind on Asteroid B-612, but the rose gave a nice little flair to his costume.

For extra warmth, we added the cape Naanii sewed years ago to be part of a Snow White costume for Miriam (and which I used the following year to be Super Mom, and which we added gold buttons to a couple years ago for Benjamin to be Wirt...and then Rachel used it for Wirt last year). It made a very good Little Prince cape as well. It's basically a Halloween staple.

Benjamin had originally planned to be a swimmer for Halloween, but the cold weather we've been having changed his mind. It would be hard for anyone to know he was a swimmer if his entire costume was covered up with warmer clothes. 

Plus, we're reading Dracula and he...kind of started talking about wanting to be a vampire hunter next year. So I said, "Why not this year?" 

He wasn't sure he'd have time to pull together a costume. But he did!

A hat from the dress up box, a coat that Auntie Josie gave me (and which I only wear occasionally even though I like it), his explorer bag, a flask of holy water, a cross, and a toy gun (which I honestly don't know why we have since I don't typically welcome such things into my house). The rest is from his dresser. 

It came together nicely, and he was pretty excited about it.

Did people guess he was Indiana Jones? Yes. Crocodile Dundee? Yes. An explorer? Also yes. 

And he was actually okay with all those answers, but the correct response is vampire hunter.

Here are the four little ones completely covering up our display of pumpkins:

Phoebe was just a little bit excited for this day. 

In fact, when she woke up this morning she said, "Guess what day it is, Mom!"

"What day is it?" I asked.

"It's the day before Halloween!" she squealed.

"Actually," I told her. "Halloween is today!"

"Today?!" she squealed even louder. "This very day!?!"

"This very day," I told her.

"Hooray!"

Here she is by some of the neighbour's decorations:

And, look who we got to come outside and join us! It's...duh-duh-duh-duh-duh Inspector Miriam! Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-DUH-duh! Woo-woo!

I love the way the kids are all looking at each other in these pictures (we'll pretend that creepy pumpkin-head back there is a stand-in for Rachel).

In reality, Rachel dressed up as the TARDIS (while her roommate dressed up as a burrito using Rachel's tortilla blanket):

They (and some other people) went to the graveyard to fulfill an assignment for their family history course, I believe, and also went and got food at Chipotle (because they were doing a big Halloween discount for people in costume), and also went and trick-or-treated at Dr. Agle's house and their bishop's house (because they live close to each other and invited them). 

Here's Andrew our candy passer-outer:

And here's some pictures of Miriam, who was very reluctant to leave her homework behind.

There were tears today, but I did convince her to come out and enjoy at least a little walk with us before returning to her dreaded assignment (which she finished just fine).

She'll put on her full costume tomorrow, I'm sure. She just wasn't feeling it tonight. But tomorrow there's a dance and a costume contest for the youth, which she's excited about.

I...threw on an autumnal-vibe top and a McGonagall cloak and hat (from the Buy Nothing Group). I ran into my friend Lynne while we were out trick-or-treating and she was also dressed up like Professor McGonagall. 

Here's Phoebe, just beaming, after scoring a full-sized pack of Skittles.

Here's a look at a particularly spooky house—the werewolf lunges at you and Phoebe had a hard time walking past it, but she did it! In fact, she walked up to every house by herself this year. Sure, I pulled her in the wagon between houses (houses are set far apart in our neighbourhood), but she walked up to every door by herself! That's gotta be like some weird pareting milestone, right? Not walking your child up to the door on Halloween.

Benjamin stayed with us for the first, like, one house. Then he and his friend Reed booked it around the block, hitting every house along the way. They finished trick-or-treating way before us and with way more candy (since they simply went further, faster). So Andrew put them on candy passer-outer duty and he went inside to start cooking. Here's Benjamin with his haul:

And here's Phoebe diving into her stash:

Zoë and Alexander went to E's house for an "after party." I'm sure they indulged in quite a few treats this evening as well!