Happy Halloween 2026!

I'm not a huge fan of dressing up for Halloween. Maybe when I was a kid up until about 5th grade it was cool but after that, I just really never liked to do it. So aside from when my kids were little, once middle school hits, I don't really get involved in picking out Halloween costumes for them. They tell me what to order and I do it. The girls tend to have coordinating costumes with friends and then Austen was always something sports related until he was older. 

Hailey in the middle in the orange sweater

It changes too - the trick or treating. Eighth grade is usually when they trick or treat around the neighborhood. After that, it's all parties - from high school to college. So Hailey has one more year left now to trick or treat and she's making the most of it. Her group of 12 met around noon (she did not get there until 1pm since she had hockey) at a friend's house. where the mom had so much food - Chick-fil-A, desserts, drinks, etc. They watched movies, hung out, got ready and finally decided to start their night of fun at 5pm. Hailey was a fox (her favorite) and all of her friends were some type of animal with little cone party hats so they called themselves the "party animals." They did come to our house so I got to see them all (Tom happened to be on a run to Costco for more candy as we had about 165 trick or treaters this year probably because it was a Saturday although last year we had about 150) so he missed them and was bummed. But hey, last year, he was at U of I for Dad's Weekend so Peyton and I had to man the door and I had to make the run to Costco (next year, I put in my notes app on my phone how much candy I need to buy so I don't have to make an emergency run for a third year in a row!). I think they finally stopped trick or treating after 7pm and headed to another friend's house to eat their candy and hang out. She finally got home after 10:30pm!

Peyton on the other hand had two costumes. One for her party on Friday night and another costume for a different party on Saturday night. No idea why she couldn't just wear the same costume on Saturday since it was two different parties. I only got a picture of her one night and it was after she came home because we had gone out before she got ready. The next night she wouldn't let me take her picture even though I helped her "craft her costume." On Friday, she was a leopard and on Saturday she was a clown (I glue gunned a few colored pom pons to the front of a white tank top.) She wore yellow shorts and did some clown make up although she was missing the red nose! 

Austen sent me his costume request about 5 days before Halloween and it needed to arrive before Friday (because his party was on the 30th). Of course he never looked at delivery dates so his costume ended up being the most expensive so it got there before Friday. (It arrived Wednesday.) He was some type of mechanic in navy blue coveralls from some show that I didn't know and I got no pictures of him dressed up (I guess he's not 5 anymore). 

Anyway, I'm glad Halloween is over for another year!

Peyton's 1st costume and the only one I got on camera