Steve and I have slightly disagreed about celebrating Halloween over the years. I've been more eager to dress up, trick-or-treat, and carve jack-o-lanterns than he has. This year I thought we'd avoid the norms since we live out in the sticks. But the kids' friends asked what they were dressing up as, and the moms asked me if I was taking the kids to the downtown trick-or-treating (to the shops during daylight).
So I let the kids use their costumes from last year and we made papier-mache pumpkin buckets again. We went into town in mid-afternoon and waited in a long line for a free horse-drawn carriage ride. Then we walked around with a few friends from church and received candy from local businesses, which just thrilled the kids.
The highlight, though, was going to a church's "autumn fest" in the evening. I left Ethan at home with Steve, and took Naomi and Josiah. The church had a bunch of games set up that were simple and perfect for little ones. Both kids had fun playing the games (Naomi's favorite was throwing balls through a hanging hula hoop, and Josiah's was knocking down a pyramid of cans using a ball) and were tickled to get tickets (especially when I said they'd be worth a prize later).
Naomi especially agreed that getting her prizes was even better than getting candy. She picked out a make-up kit and a pink purse. Josiah picked cars, frogs and snakes. They've been playing with them all day today!
I'm thankful for a local church that endeavors to give kids a safe place to have fun on Halloween. And I'm thankful for a fun day with my kids! In Naomi's words, "Mom, at the beginning of this day, I did not know we were going to do all this fun stuff!"
3 comments:
Sounds like fun! Any photos to share?
That's great! Our church has something very similar. They call it Hallelujah Night. We are very thankful for a wholesome place to go on Halloween too.
I love the paper mache halloween buckets! Those turned out great! Kid love to participate in some manner. What a brilliant idea!
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