Halloween = Quality Time

Regardless of your stance on the holiday, you have to admit that seeing hundreds of adorable kids dressed up is just too much fun!  I love that my kids start imagining "what they'll be" as early as June.  They get this "holiday anticipation" from their mother, who usually starts Christmas music in early August.  (I did delay this year, until mid-October.)
Growing up, I remember that we spent almost every Halloween at church - and we loved it!  We had the coolest (at the time) setup and we affectionately referred to it as "Fall Festival", because calling it Halloween would mean worshiping the devil (at least I'm pretty sure that was the gist, ha!).  It was always lots of fun, with a jail (where I was always thrilled to find my parents) and tons of games that we'd spent hours putting together during school hours (my church was also my school).  I have tons of memories from these evenings, and I'm overly grateful for them.  That said, there's one Halloween that stands out in my mind.  It's one of the ones we spent at Daddy & Judy's, and we got to go trick-or-treating (GASP!!).  Even though I hadn't seen the picture in years, I could have relayed it to a sketch artist to recapture it.  Instead, I texted my step mom who took a trip down memory lane through her albums to find it for me.  This picture definitely ranks up high on my list of favorites.

   

 
Weren't we a crew?!?! My brother & I were hobos and our sister was a hooker.  This is how you keep it classy on Halloween!  I'm pretty sure those are my daddy's house shoes.  Charles has an eyeliner-mustache.  We. Were. Awesome.  Growing up in the 80's & 90's was just so much more fun.  I remember loading up in the back of the truck, FREEZING, and hopping out at every house we came to (think countryside, ya'll). 

Having recently recalled this totally fun, absolutely ridiculous-looking, took-2-days-to-feel-our-hands-again - kinda night, I knew it was time to give our kids a night of fun - a memory for them to carry with them forever.  They've only been trick-or-treating once before, and it's been about 5 years.

Earlier in the week, we took them to our church event - our church here in Tulsa REALLY knows how rock a party.  Think full movie set garb, complete with photo ops related to the current year's theme (this year, Under the Sea, featuring Ariel and Triton), and an insane number of children dressed in some of THE most adorable costumes!  It's definitely a highlight to our year - every year!

Then - when Halloween day arrived, we braved the near-freezing weather, donned our winter coats, drove to the kids' school, grabbed our mugs of hot chocolate, and proceeded to spend the next 3 hours running and skipping and saying "trick-or-treat", "Happy Halloween" and "thank you" 486 times (rough estimate).  Our neighborhood outdid itself and I am happy to say that I don't think the kids will forget our fantastic evening anytime soon. 

They scored 13 lbs of candy. . .

and we logged 4.59 miles on our step-counter.

Of course, it wouldn't be Halloween without a man with a chainsaw, or perhaps this "jewel"

sorry for the terrible picture

but we had a blast.  Perhaps my favorite parts of the evening were when P kept saying "this is the best time, ever!!" or when C complimented EVERY single person who had hand-carved pumpkins on their porch. 

My challenge to you: (whether as a parent, aunt, uncle, big brother or sister, or just a close family friend) take time to build positive memories with your kids.  My parents did - whether it was my mom & dad spending time in a make-shift jail cell to raise money for our school or my daddy & step mom painstakingly painting those hideous freckles onto my face, the 40 layers of makeup & hairspray on my sister and the perfect mustache on my brother - it was in these small, minuscule moments that I felt like the luckiest kid on the planet.  And as my FAVORITE holidays are just weeks away, I'd like to remind you that your kids need your presence, not your presents. 

If you're looking for ways to increase your quality time this season, check out some of these ideas on Pinterest.