Trick or Treating

After you have kids, everything you once knew about celebrating holidays changes. Where Halloween was once all about dressing up as a sexy cop and getting drunk in Miami Beach, it has now become all about holding hands and walking past the scary houses with my Disney princesses.

Halloween 2014 was by far the best Halloween I've ever had. It completely beat out my high school and college experiences and helping my two munchkins collect their own candy was far more rewarding than having my own pillow cases filled with sweets.

Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Mommy and Daddy (who was on patrol duty) set out exactly at 6:00, the start time for trick or treating on post. It was rainy and crappy, but nothing that we couldn't brave for the sake of free candy. There were TONS of kids out on the street. We paraded around our neighborhood for precisely and hour before V got too itchy in her costume and we returned home.

After a quick change, we were out on our front porch passing out candy. Something I learned about our neighborhood is that if you weren't sitting outside, the trick or treaters weren't going to waste time knocking on your door.

Veronica probably had the most fun sitting outside with us and passing out candy for two hours. I was incredibly proud that for once, she wasn't trying to hoard it all for herself and was actually sharing with others. I was also pretty surprised by how courteous all of the neighborhood teenagers were. The grand majority were great about saying "thank you."

How was your Halloween? Did you see any creative costumes?

Boo'd!

When we moved into our house on post, I had expectations that I would be BFFs with the other ladies on the block. Our kids would hang out all day and we'd get together for wine and girl's nights. When we had new neighbors move in a few doors down, I even went over with cookies in hopes that we'd spend mornings at each others houses sharing coffee. Sadly, that hasn't been the case. However, after last night, I have a sliver of hope.

While I was preparing dinner, I heard a knock on the door. As I walked towards the front of the house, I heard voices and saw some punk ass teenagers in the area. I was reluctant to open the door in fear that they were selling something or asking for donations. I peeked out the door and saw a lovely purple trick or treat pumpkin with a note hanging out.

Inside the pumpkin was a bunch of candy, two rubber duckies, and some body parts that grow when you put them in water. Veronica and Adri quickly claimed the candy and split it amongst themselves. Fine by me, since I spent yet another day sneaking Snickers from the trick or treat bowl. We'll probably start "growing" the body parts this evening, after school.

I don't have much on my to-do list today, so Juli and I will most likely head to the store to pick up some goodies to boo another neighbor. I'm so happy that this tradition hit our street. I look forward to passing it on, and hopefully forming some friendships with the neighbors.

Have you been boo'd?

DIY Olaf Onesie Costume

Do you want to build a snowman? While I won't be building any actual snowmen anytime soon, I did piece together an adorable little Olaf costume for Juliana to wear for Halloween on Friday.

It actually took me up until about a month ago to even watch Frozen. However, Frozen fever has hit my home for Halloween this year. Finding costumes for Veronica and Adriana was simple. Veronica wanted Elsa, and since Adri lives to mimic Veronica in every way possible, Anna was a simple choice for her. Target for the win.

Juliana, on the other hand, took some searching. Costumes in the 0-3 month size are severely lacking. For the most part, any cute costume that I could find in that size was one of those super thick and heavy ones that would instantly over heat my baby. So, I decided to take costume making into my own hands.

Lucky for me, I already had all of the necessary materials on hand. Juli has tons of little white Gerber onesies and I actually had some felt scraps from a felt pumpkin activity that I was working on for the older two.

Before taking the scissors to fabric, I practiced drawing an Olaf on paper. He's incredibly easy to draw. Once, I was confident in my abilities, I cut two eyebrows, two circles for eyes, and the mouth (minus a giant tooth) out of black felt. For the carrot nose, I cut a slightly rounded and imperfect triangle. Seriously, too easy.

To get all the pieces stuck on, I busted out my glue gun. A few dabs of glue around all of the edges, and we were good to go. If I had wanted to get fancy, I would have used iron on adhesive, like I used to do in college for sorority t-shirts, but honestly, who has time for all of that?! Not this mama.

Just to be sure that the pieces were in fact stuck on, I lightly passed the iron over all of the pieces. Originally, I had planned to outline all of the felt pieces with puffy paint, but I decided against it just to avoid any potential accidents.

Last week, Juli rocked her costume at the girls' preschool Halloween party. It held up perfectly! It even survived an accidental spin through the washer and dryer.

Trick or Treat!

How was everyone's Halloween?!

The Hubster and I (mostly him) spent the morning packing up our suitcases to make sure that they were all within the allowed weight limit for the airline. We'll be checking ELEVEN suitcases.

In the afternoon, Veronica, Husbter and my dad went for a swim. She is doing great in the pool. The floaties that we put on her hardly have any air in them, and she's swimming like a little fish. Even in the deep end!

I picked up some Chinese food for dinner. It had been a long long while since I had some good Chinese. I was never able to find the good stuff in Missouri or Georgia. This place by my parents' is delicious, fast, and cheap!

After dinner, the girls got dressed up, and we headed out around the neighborhood. I was so excited since I remember always having huge trick or treating success, but the neighborhood has gone down hill. I guess everyone is like 20 years older now and not about celebrating Halloween. Thankfully, we went a block over and were able to get a bunch of candy. I had a lovely time with my coffee cup of mommy juice.

The girls were so adorable in their costumes! As much as I didn't want to do Disney princesses again, they turned out cute.

How was your Halloween? See any cute costumes?

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Halloween Costume Ideas

After much deliberation, we finally got the girls Halloween costumes. Had I realized that Halloween was just around the corned, I probably would have purchased sooner, but things have been busy. I'm just glad that we were able to get what we wanted and in everyone's sizes.

Although the girls were Disney princesses last year, and I wanted to avoid the same theme this year, it's what we settled on. I was really hoping to have a purple minion and a yellow minion, from Despicable Me, but V is really into princesses lately. So V will be Ariel, and Adri will be Sofia.

Since I'm a tiny bit OCD, I insisted that the costumes follow a theme. Just like with their outfits, I like the girls to match, but not be in the exact same outfit. It's going to hurt when both of them are old enough to choose their own costumes, and they decided to be total opposites.

For the time being, I'm putting together a list of sibling costumes. I went insane trying to think of something at the last minute last year. Hopefully, I'll be able to look back at this in the future for ideas.

Monkey & Banana

Princesses

Ketchup & Mustard

Crayons

Pirates

M&Ms

Cowgirl & Indian

Minions

Mario & Luigi/Wario

Rabbit & Magician

Lalaloopsy

Little Red Riding Hood & Wolf/Grandmother

Dorothy & Lion/Scarecrow/Tinman

Curious George & Man in the Yellow Hat

Pacman & Ghost

Dog & Cat

Bull & Bull Fighter

Thing 1 & 2

Pooh & Piglet/ Tigger

Bumble Bee & Ladybug

Angel & Devil

Yo Gabba Gabba characters

Chicken & Egg

Cop & Robber

Witches

Caterpillar & Butterfly

Bo Peep & Sheep

Cat & Mouse

Fairies

Care Bears

Mickey & Minnie

Elves

Strawberry Shortcake & friends

Monsters Inc.

Spongebob & Patrick

Woody & Jesse/Buzz Lightyear

Sesame Street characters

Maggie & Lisa Simpson

Fruit

Spoon & Fork

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Let's Talk Halloween

It's October, so you know what that means! Halloween candy has already been out on the shelves for a month! Am I crazy or are holiday products making their way into stores earlier and earlier? Pretty soon we'll actually be able to celebrate Christmas in July.

Source

Now that it's socially acceptable, I want to talk Halloween. I asked my lovely sponsors a little bit about their Halloween favorites, so I'll share some of mine, and some of theirs. First though, let me reintroduce these ladies.

 You can find Breanna at the bottom of every post. She's a 24 year old nurse and Big Brother fanatic living it up in Minnesota. 

Lanaya is the gym rat mom to toddler, Reagan. She's also a business woman and owner of Reagan's Toy Chest, an educational online toy store for toddlers.

 Fellow Army wife Kelsey, is a stay at home mom of three stationed up in Alaska. I don't know how she does it, but she does it all while looking fabulous.

I've casually started looking at costumes. I think I know what the girls are going to dress up as, but is can always change between now and the end of the month. Lanaya and Kelsey's are both on par with my idea for this year. Lanaya is thinking a Tangled theme, and Kelsey's favorite costume is when she and her husband dressed up as a cavemen and cave woman. I LOVE those matchy coordinating costumes. Breanna's favorite is actually another of my favorites. Ke$ha. You really can't screw that one up. I went the Lady Gaga route, but close enough!

Up until this point, I've done really well at staying away from the candy aisle. I'll more than likely pick something up next time I grocery shop. I love candy corn, but I'm kind of glad I can only find it around this time of year. I'd be pretty sick of eating it if I could find it year-round. All three sponsors are chocolate fans. Breanna is a Twix lover, while Lanaya and Kelsey both prefer Kit Kats.

Unlike myself, all three ladies are door-openers for trick or treaters. Remember my social anxiety issue? Yeah, I don't like dealing with strangers. Not even little kids. If it was up to me, the bucket of candy would stay at the door all night. Hubs likes to answer the door and chat up the little kids. Kelsey likes to scare them. Breanna normally doesn't get too many kids in her neighborhood. Since Reagan is old enough to trick or treat this year, Lanaya might go with a bowl at the door.

What are some of your Halloween favorites and traditions?

Don't forget to join in with Dara and I for the Share You Accent link up on Thursday!

<br /> <a href="http://www.munchkinsandmilitary.com/search/label/share%20your%20accent"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZpTOXQsSdLraaiLFYiafRoNvDHv6XtmOv21ho6k_0xvq9tcIOEk-rnv__MkPSlPVFdBssaawjSa8nvMqlVd2yaEYotZJ9EZROB5cXoktI4j4QJEjCnofT4IRnnY-8qi4mWKLmaVN9MVs/s1600/Share.png" border="0" alt="Share Your Accent"/></a><br />

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Happy Halloween!

I am so excited to be taking the girls trick or treating tonight with other toddlers! It's the first time since V was born that I've been able to go with friends who have similarly aged kids. From now until forever, I'd like to dress the girls in matching costumes. This year, they'll be dressing up as Disney princesses. Normally I don't go for the whole Disney thing, but these outfits were too cute to pass up for the girls. V is Snow White and Baby A is Cinderella.

So far this year we've had two Halloween-ish events. We visited an adorable pumpkin patch in the area the weekend before last, and just last week we attended a Fall Fest put on at Hubster's Battalion.

Poppell Farms is a pumpkin patch and corn maze located about 45 from Fort Stewart. On the day that we went, they also had the fire department there so the kids were able to climb into all sorts of vehicles. I paid $7 for all of the farm games and the hayride and both girls were free. There were plenty of photo opportunities and kiddie activities. The hayride took us to the pumpkin patch where V was able to choose a pumpkin for us.

The past couple of weeks have been spent preparing for the Battalion Fall Fest. Each company was responsible for a booth and decorating a vehicle for trunk or treat. We were in charge of the costume contest. Thankfully I have amazing friends who helped with the girls so that I could run the booth. I was a bit sad that I didn't get to hangout with my babies though. At the end of the night, they played a movie for the kids on the jumbo screen. I didn't get many pics of Baby A because she was off hanging out with Soldiers.

Hopefully I'll updating tomorrow with pictures and details from tonight. It should be fun!