Halloween!

Oh boy! Halloween flew by fast! But it was fun-filled for the kids! We started things off the weekend before when Old Navy had a big Halloween special. Any kid who dressed up get a coupon for a free screen print t-shirt. Plus, there were tons of discounts throughout the store that day! Braylei had her beautiful Cinderella outfit that Meghan's mom made, and Tayscen was supposed to be a lion, but didn't wan any part of the headpiece. So we knew we'd have to make some adjustments for Halloween. Luckily, Old Navy had all their costumes on sale for $5 during those few hours, and there was a pretty cool Ninja outfit that would be good for him and for general dress-up play around the house!

On Halloween, I dressed as festive as I could to work. I had recently begun my Psychiatry rotation which is at Rosewood Ranch Center for Eating Disorders in Wickenburg. It's all inpatient, but it's pretty laid back. I wore my bright orange dress shirt with black pants. I also had on my black skeleton shirt I bought at Old Navy for $1 underneath my dress shirt, but it was buttoned down enough to see the ribs pretty good! I found this somewhat humerus, so I posted on Facebook whether or not it was bad to dress up like a skeleton to an eating disorder facility! It went over great, though! Some of the patients went all out for their costumes, based of course on what they had. The girls mainly dressed as crazy psychos, or Hollywood divas at an addiction center. Cool stuff like that!

I got to leave a little early so that I could get back for the kids. Each year, Midwestern puts on a Safe Halloween Carnival event. The kids trick or treated at all the department offices throughout the school, and then there were cool games and activities in the Cafeteria, like fishing, cake walks, cookie decorating, and ring toss stuff. Then outside there was a bouncy castle and a couple of other games. Then we headed back home where we had a potluck with our neighbors. We got to hang out outside and let the kids run around. Then all the kids went together around trick or treating in the subdivision. Braylei loved it, but Tayscen just wanted to run around.

A cool new tradition we implemented for the family is the Great Pumpkin! Since the kids don't need all that candy for Halloween, we thought it would be a good idea to trade it out for something cool. We did it with Braylei this year. She got to pick out 5 pieces of candy she wanted to keep, which she could have periodically, and the rest she left out for the Great Pumpkin. In return, the Great Pumpkin leaves a toy or other surprise. This year, the Great Pumpkin left a Cinderella Barbie with a horse, along with a Halloween Strawberry Shortcake DVD!


Braylei's preschool class (she's a year younger, why she's so short); Braylei getting a pumpkin at the farm; Braylei decorating her pumpkin


Braylei as Cinderella; Tayscen's intimidating Ninja custome with his Chuck Taylor's; bro and sis


At Midwestern: Bray eating the cookie she decorated; Taysce in stealth mode; fishing with the kids; Me and Tayscen

Braylei on the Bouncy Castle


The kids from the hood; trick-or-treating; Braylei hitting the Halloween pinata!


Taysce getting the pinata; children looting the streets (is Taysce doing the chicken dance?)