Trick or Treat-Grandview Style

 

 

 

I totally love it, but I feel like Halloween is becoming like Christmas as far as the celebration seems to continue for several days.  Dubuque seems to like Halloween and offers tons of fun events for the little ones.  We skipped out on several of the bigger ones, but still managed to have three back to back nights of Halloween festivities!

 

We were so looking forward to having Gigi and Uncle Jeff visit us this year for Halloween.  Jeff had been wanting to get to Dubuque for a visit this fall as had Gigi, so the timing was perfect for them to be able to see our new house and enjoy some fun time with the kids!  Jeff had flown into St. Louis for a weekend visit with family.  Then, he and mom drove up to Dubuque.  Mom stayed for a few days and then had head back to work, while Jeff was able to stay the whole week.  We all had such a great week!  I must admit though, after a couple nights of Halloween madness, I'm not sure who was more tired-the kids or mama!  It has been a marathon event to get the house somewhat finished and presentable, so we'd been busting our butts the couple weeks leading up to Halloween.  We were VERY welcoming of a couple set of extra hands on deck for the week.  Outnumbering the kids was a nice change of pace!  :)

 

Monday  night kicked off our Halloween week with the Dubuque Halloween parade.  It's one of my favorite parades...nice small town fun with a wide variety from marching bands, to haunted floats, to walking Girl Scout troops.  MJ really loved collecting candy in his treat bag and commenting on all the "spooky" people!  

 

 

 

 

He wore his Thomas the Train costume and was huddled up with Gigi ready to collect candy.  Charlotte, our little Minnie Mouse for the night, was snuggled up in her stroller.  Last year, Mema was in town with us for this parade, and MJ remembers it fondly.  He's already taking reservations for next year's parade accompaniment.  :)

 

The following night, Tuesday, we attended Loras' Trick or Treat.  The dorms are open to trick-or-treaters who go around to the students rooms.  It's perfect for little ones as it's mostly indoors and not too crowded.  We've been each year and it's need to see how MJ has progressed through his trick-or-treating skills.  This year, he was all about the candy!  I'm betting next Halloween Charlotte will be toddling through the halls, too. 





My sweet little pirates ready for the night!

 Charlotte giving her best pirate-face while trick or treating the halls of Loras College--Arrghhhh

 Pirate love!  Charlee was over the eye-patch by this point! Ha!

 

On Halloween morning, I headed to my MOPS group at church, and everyone else got in on some pumpkin carving.  I was a tad bummed to miss it, but we'd been so busy that there really hadn't been any time to carve a pumpkin earlier, and I was kinda stoked for a couple hours away of mom-time, so my mom was nice enough to take lots of pics for me!  

 

Ready to make a mess!

 

 

 Such a good helper!  MJ had already carved a pumpkin at school this fall, so he was certainly a pro by now.

 

 Ummm, what do I do with this??  Charlee exploring her very first pumpkin.

 

 

Since purchasing our new house, we've been SO looking forward to Halloween.  Everyone had warned us that it's the mecca for trick-or-treaters!  We love Halloween, but in all our years of marriage, and in all the different areas we've lived, I'd be surprised if we've had a combined total of 50 trick-or-treaters. Lets just say we beat that total in the first 10 minutes this year!  Local friends in the area had warned us to buy plenty of candy!  We thought we were pretty well stocked, but with around 600 kids in the first hour, we were out of candy and had to turn out the lights.  I think we'll start stocking up earrrrrly next year!  It was seriously, SO MUCH FUN!  We all agreed it was like something out of a movie.  The sidewalks were packed with parents and their little ones.  Houses and yards were completely decked out, the weather was pretty perfect, and everyone is pretty kind and respectful as well.  We all had a blast!



 

 I even got in on the action and threw together a costume at the last minute!

 

 We'll get Mat to dress up next year, too! On our new front porch ready for Trick-or-Treaters!

 



 Love my mom, AKA, Gigi the witch!

Charlotte and Gigi prepped and ready to go!

 



There was a constant line up to our front porch.  MJ loved handing out candy to all the kids!  I think he liked this part even more than going trick-or-treating himself!

 

Of course, he enjoyed that part quite a bit, too!  No bashfulness from him at all.  He went right up to each door.  This is just one of the many houses that was decorated all out.  This is a couple doors down from us-gotta love a mooning pumpkin.  Ha!

Pirate Uncle Jeff and his little mateys after a candy-filled evening

 

Needless to say MJ crashed hard that night!  That's one tuckered out little pirate.