We love Halloween. It's a big one in our house. There's no particular reason other than we have tons of fun with it. Here in Iowa, the big day for celebration is actually Beggar's Night, October 30th. It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized Halloween was actually the 31st. I refer to this as 'Iowa girl problems.'
Anyways, this year, the happenings happened at our house. I was gone all day at a Board of Directors retreat (for the Des Moines Children's Museum) and went directly party supply shopping. The oldest had his buddies over for scary movies, while the middle and youngest went trick or treating followed by a Murder Mystery Dessert Party. It was loads of fun! We also fit in a visit to the Des Moines Art Center for our favorite annual celebration of Dia de los Muertos.
The face of a mom whose children told her they needed more from the store that she was just at shopping. This mom was not amused and told the children to inform their father.
The Art Center's ofrenda each year is beyond amazing. We love looking at all of the details in it.
All three minis got super excited to see this exhibit, only to tell me they learned about the artist during their art classes this semester.
Somewhere in the craziness, we made time to grab a new-to-us cotton candy machine (taken to the Museum, not for daycare purposes).
The middle mini decided the morning of Beggar's Night that he did want to go trick or treating. He talked Hubs into running around town for devil horns and other accessories. I had the job of ordering pumpkin shaped pizzas for the party.
They didn't want to carry their buckets, so they came up with a new way of carrying them: on their phones in their back pockets. I don't think this worked once the buckets were full.
I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from this Murder Mystery set. It got decent reviews, but I held my breath because it also wasn't 100% kid friendly. Luckily, it was nothing too much (we gave it a PG-13 rating) and the middle school and high school kids enjoyed it. Hubs and I had to help keep the game on track or it would have taken quite a while for the kids to play alone (I honestly doubt they would have finished the game if we hadn't kept them on track). What I love about this game set the most is that we can play it again and again. It was definitely worth the money!
Popcorn drizzled with melted chocolate and filled with candy pieces (fresh from their trick or treats buckets) was their dessert.
There was some much needed cleaning to do after the party. The rooms were littered with candy wrappers. I did have to laugh because the oldest had a TV brought into his room for the night. The next morning the kids insisted on watching one last Halloween movie...and watched it on the smallest screen in the house.
We took time to get our ofrenda ready on Halloween night while we ate tamales (also our dinner for Dia de los Muertos on the 1st, but we just couldn't wait, so we had them both nights). We had one more picture to add to the alter this year and we added her favorite Mitch Miller albums to go along with it. The middle mini also froze a small bouquet of marigolds from his garden. The entire reason he wanted to grow a garden of marigolds stems from last Dia de los Muertos. We couldn't find marigolds anywhere in town and had to put carnations out instead. Apparently that affected him because as planning another garden of marigolds this year so we have some specifically for our ofrenda.
A kid in a mask. I wouldn't even question this if it wasn't Halloween.