I gave up trying to do a coordinated family theme years ago, but this year after all the kids had picked their costumes I realized that with a small stretch of the imgination we could pass as having a family theme.
Presenting ... Team Murray:
Carson Wentz, the game ball, the cheerleader, and the mascot Bumblebee.
Mason knew he wanted to be a football player for Halloween months ago. Once he decided to be his favorite player, Carson Wentz, then he started planning (obsessing over) every last detail of his costume to make sure he was an exact replica. Because if he didn't have just one black sleeve then no one would even know who he was. It all came together and Mason was thrilled with the finished product - which is truly saying something.
Brynn saw this BYU cheerleading outfit and immediately knew that's what she wanted to be for Halloween. When we were only able to find a single pom pom in our costume box she insisted it was just fine because she would need a hand to carry her treat bucket anyway. I ended up buying her new pom poms anyway and you would have thought it was Christmas morning with all the gratitude she expressed. Brynn is so easy going about her costume each year. It is very refreshing.
Miles decided pretty much the day after being Optimus Prime for Halloween last year, that he was going to be Bumblebee this year and he has stuck with it. Originally we borrowed our cousin's old bumblebee costume for him to wear, but after he wore it for 3 days straight, I decided it would be worth getting him his own to have in our dress ups. Once again, you would have thought I gave him the moon by his reaction. He wanted to make sure I took a picture with his mask up so we would know who it was.
We had ourselves a very grumpy game ball who was later diagnosed with a double ear infection, so we'll cut him some slack for not smiling in any pictures. It was actually Mason's idea for Ryan to be a football so he would match his costume. I thought they turned out pretty cute together.
I think we have officially discarded our old tradition of carving our pumpkins to match our costumes and that is just fine by me. Grandpa showed Miles a picture of a Jack-o-lantern and Miles wanted his pumpkin to look just like that. He teamed up with Grandpa, but after a single look at the guts inside the pumpkin Miles declared he was going to throw up and ran off and played while Grandpa did all the work. Brynn wanted to create her own design and created what is very possibly my favorite pumpkin face ever and I helped her carve it out. Mason searched and searched and searched to find the perfect (aka most complex) design. After settling on an intricate dragon he paced around the table while Scott carved and had more than one blow up when Scott "ruined his pumpkin" several times by not cutting perfectly. While we were dealing with that fun, Brynn and Miles helped Ryan out by coloring his pumpkin for him. Probably my favorite thing of all about our pumpkins this year is that when we went to pick out pumpkins the kids all insisted we needed to get a white pumpkin for our angel Ellie. This will definitely be a new tradition for us.
The Sunday before Halloween Grandma hosted her traditional Halloween party. This was the first time in all the years she has done it that all of her grandchildren were there. It made for a very exciting Spider Web this year.
It must be documented how much progress Brynn has made conquering some of her fears. As we went around trick or treating with the Glahns I was reminded how last year Brynn would stay back on the sidewalk while the other kids went to the door until she could tell if there was dog in the house or not. If there was a dog she would skip getting a treat at that house, it wasn't worth it to her. This year she ran right up to every door and we only had a couple times when a yappy dog startled her but even then she handled it really well. She even went to "the Scary Werewolf house" that the Glahn's took us to and handled it so well.
Mason ditched us to go trick-or-treating with his best buddy Maddox and had a blast.
Another great Halloween is in the books.
