And the Cow Jumped Over the Moon

We have a tradition at our house where we only come up with a Halloween costume at the last minute. It's not that we dread Halloween or feel obligated to scrounge up a costume, thus pushing it to the last second before those trick-or-treaters start ringing. We're actually huge Halloween fans. It's simply more fun this way. It allows for spontaneity, requires creativity, is an excuse to wear some random things you have hidden away in your closet, and is FREE!

This Halloween my sister Sarah came over right around 5pm when I was busy starting this soup (it's great, try it! More like a Tortilla Soup than Chili. I think I'd like it even more without the chicken and with some garbanzo beans) and headed straight back to my room. Five minutes later she had become a Cowgirl! And notice our pumpkin with Woody? Haha ... non-intentionally theme appropriate (thanks Riley!).

I actually used the same pink-and-white shirt two years ago to be a cowgirl! (Read that post here). And last year I picked out a rarely worn red-and-white shirt to become Waldo. (Read that post here).

You should try it one year. Give yourself five minutes in front of your closet (and possibly other closets/storage cabinets throughout the house) and see what you can come up with.

Sarah's cowgirl costume prompted me to become .... a COW! Perhaps a horse would've been more fitting, but in this family, cows are kinda special. And of course when Evan got home he was game to be a cowboy.

I think it was right after posing for this photo with my tripod that we realized a whole group of kids were crowded by our door just watching us. Oops! I should mention that we had scary/Halloween music playing all night, and one little girl looked up to us with concern in her eyes, saying "it sounds really scary in there." Oh the fun of Halloween.

Here we are practicing our mooing/chewing our cud (Evan is significantly better at this than me).

We didn't have many trick-or-treaters .... more for us! Towards the end of the night we decided to relax upstairs by the TV, but were sure to leave a handful of candy on the front steps for those late-night teenage trick-or-treaters. I left about 7 pieces of normal candy, then a few mini bags of animal crackers, and Evan threw in an old candy cane, just for kicks ... you know, to see if what they would take it. And sure enough, and hour later, it was all gone -- candy cane and all! 

We installed our new full-glass storm door just in time for the festivities! It was a pain to put up and took a few hours, but it was definitely worth it. Now we can spy on the squirrels who like to sit on our doorstep and plot their attack of the pumpkin/decorative corn/you name it. I'll have to post a picture with the door closed soon -- you can finally see the finished blue door!

If you haven't seen this Halloween light show yet, watch it! It's amazing. We watched it about three times the other night. We're thinking a road trip out to California to see it in person next year? Anyone with us?!