Halloween Nostalgia

A past post I did on Halloween popped up today in my news-feed and that lead me on nostalgic journey of Halloweens past. Man, time is a crazy thing. I can't stop smiling as I sift through images of my babies with cherub cheeks and baby grins, while at the same time tearing up from time gone by.

Wouldn't it be such an amazing thing to be given the opportunity to go back in time for a day? You would get to be you in that present time, but with the future knowledge you have now. Trippy! It would be so hard to choose, but I think I would go back to just an ordinary day at home when the kids were ages: Matt 2, Jon 3, Ella 4 and Abby 6. This was such a sweet time. Our family was complete and we were in a groove. What a gift it would be to go back and squeeze them and munch on their cheeks. There might only be one problem, I might not stop crying the whole time!

I decided to keep the nostalgia going and round up all the images from Halloweens past, so they could be in one place. Now I can scroll through the years gone by smiling and crying at the same time.

Two years in a row I didn't get a group picture, I could kick myself. Oh well, what are you going to do? These were some crazy years, I'll give myself some grace... collages will have to do. 

Forget About Everything Else I've told you...Candy, Candy, Candy!

Halloween is one of those weird holidays that would be very hard to explain to someone who had never experienced it before. It's one of those holidays where we as parents let all those valuable lessons we have been trying to instill into our children throughout the year fall by the wayside. We are less concerned for our kid's safety, we don't enforce all of the rules; we're all caught up in the wonderful memories from our childhood. On this night anything goes! Halloween goes against the principles we teach our kids the other 364 days of the year and we love it!

We are always telling our kids "Be true to yourself", but on this night we say, "You can dress up and be anything you want to be, you just can't be yourself."

We tell our kids, "Never talk to strangers", but on this night we encourage them to march up and knock on as many stranger's doors as possible. In fact, if they hesitate we say, "Come on, you have to go up the door. Okay, I'll go with you this time, but next time you go up alone. Okay?"

We often say, "Make sure you come inside before it gets too dark out there." But on Halloween we say, "Stop asking if it's time to go yet; we can't go outside until it gets dark, that's when the fun begins."

We tell them, "Don't watch those scary shows on t.v., you'll get nightmares and warp your mind." But on this night we oh and ah, laugh and giggle at all the spooky, scary decorations gracing the lawns of the neighborhood.

We tell our kids, "Sugar is bad for your bodies and it creates cavities; only to be eaten in moderation. But on this night, we hand them a huge empty pail and say, "Fill it to the top with sugar. Lots and lots of sugar! We follow that up with, "Wow, look at all that candy, that's awesome! Look how full that is sweetheart! Great job honey!!!"

We tell them to never take candy from strangers, but on this exclusive night we say, "Now walk up to this strangers house and take the wonderful treats that they're handing out... hurry...run!"

It might sound strange to an outsider, but to us Americans it's a wonderful exciting night!

Besides being able to re-live our childhood memories through our children, another great benefit for us parents is putting the munchkins to bed and raiding their buckets!

This year we had a pirate princess, Pocahontas, Thor, and of course Nacho!

They had a great night with friends and, I have to say, Mom and Dad had just as much fun!

What's not to love about Halloween!!!!

Beauty All Around Us

Sometimes I don't realize I have a massive need until I am in the midst of fulfilling it. Drinking water is a perfect example; I'm terrible at it. I don't realize I am dehydrated until I start to drink...two glasses later I tell myself that I am going to be better about drinking more water throughout the day.

This Sunday had been set aside as a family day. It wasn't until we were packing snacks, planning our route and all piling into the Burb that I realized how much I was in need of that day. I desperetaly needed a mental break from work and some quality time with the people I love the most.

The plan was simple, "get out." We are surrounded by incredible beauty and yet we don't take advantage of it often enough. Sunday the plan was to do nothing more than enjoy each others company and enjoy the beauty of Colorado in the fall with a kid friendly hike.

The Aspens right now are ridiculously beautiful. It is so nice taking pictures just for fun; just for me. I need to remember to do this a lot more often.

A few highlights of the day:

1. I got back to the car and realized my cell phone was gone; my new awesome smart phone. Erik and I started talking over our steps and realized it must have fallen out when I was using the restroom. For those that are not following me, I had it in my back pocket and now it was laying somewhere on the forest floor. Thankfully I had remembered the exact Aspen that had earlier served it's purpose and found my phone. Yay!

2. Matthew who is now potty trained (for the most part) does not get that pooping in his pants a mile away from our car is not okay. It was a long way back for him. So gross.

3. The mama bear in me came out...big time. We were walking a little ways on this dirt road the beginning of our hike. The kids are all spread out and the dog is off herding them. All of a sudden this Jeep comes screaming down the road. They see us but decide it's not important to slow down for four small kids and an unleashed dog. The kids, thankfully, know the drill and ran to the side of the road when they saw the car, but I was mad. I take a step out into the road as if I am going to somehow stop the car with my glare and make a point, I start yelling, "slow down, come on, are you kidding me." The Jeep speeds off and Erik says, "you know honey I don't think they could hear you."

4. We had a wonderful day laughing, consuming road trip snacks from the Loaf and Jug, and enjoying the beauty that surrounds us that we to often take for granted.