Halloween 2023

November is here and that fact alone is blowing my mind. How are there only two months left of 2023? How has Halloween already come and gone? I have no idea but Halloween this year for our crew was a good one.

I feel like we’ve been Halloween-ing for the past week thanks to a plethora of fall and Halloween-related festivals and activities that popped up on our agenda. Over the weekend, we attended Owl-o-ween at the Carolina Raptor Center, a trunk or treat event at Ryder and Rhett’s preschool and a fall festival at Chase’s school.

(Rhett’s line leader costume was all his idea. When you’re three years old and Mom asks you what you want to be for Halloween, you tell her the coolest thing you can think of: A line leader! I just love Rhett’s brain right now.) 

You’d think overloading on candy for the days leading up to Halloween would make the novelty of trick-or-treating wear off for our kids but that certainly wasn’t the case. They were amped up to go door to door on Halloween evening so that’s just what we did! But let’s back up a bit and recap the day beginning in the morning…

Morning

Halloween began dark and early for me. We left for Panama City Beach for Ryan’s first FULL Ironman this morning (I’m blogging from the car using a mobile hot spot) and since there’s an almost zero percent chance I’ll squeeze in a workout while we’re away, I felt a little extra motivated to wake up early and knock out a quick upper body workout before the boys were awake for the day.

Caroline Girvan’s YouTube station is a go-to for me for at-home workouts because they’re short, challenging and effective. I did this biceps, triceps and shoulder burner and then took a quick shower and got dressed in my best attempt at orange(ish) and black attire for Halloween.

(Pants: Anthropologie / Sweater: Maglia — old via Zulily but this one is similar / Booties: Amazon / Bag: Amazon) 

Once the boys were up we said goodbye to Ryan as he headed off to an early work meeting and then did the whole breakfast and school drop off routine. Yesterday looked a little different, however, because Ryder, Rhett and I grabbed doughnuts while we waited 30 minutes for the annual fairytale parade at Chase’s school to begin.

On Halloween, all of the students at Chase’s school are encouraged to dress up as a character from a book they love for a small parade around the outside of the school. The costume we bought for Chase for Halloween this year actually worked well for the parade since he wanted to be Harry Potter!

I’m pretty sure Chase’s school could’ve doubled as Hogwarts yesterday with the number of Hermiones and Harry Potters we saw walking in the fairytale parade. My favorite costume of the parade was one I saw on a teacher who dressed up as the gray-haired mustached man from the original 1980s version of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. She had all different kinds of fake food hanging from an umbrella she carried over her head and it was so creative!

After the parade, we high-tailed it to preschool drop off and I said goodbye to Rhett and Ryder before making my way home to film an Instagram Reel of our family’s favorite whole wheat pumpkin muffins. (I’m hoping to use today’s 9+ hour road trip to Florida to edit and share it!)

I also used my kid-free time to continue packing for Florida and used my go-to kid clothes packing hack I learned from a friend over the summer. I’m telling you it’s a game changer and I managed to fit all of the boys’ clothes for a 5-day trip in one shoe organizer before rolling it up and zipping it inside a carryon suitcase.

I then ate a quick lunch and picked Rhett and Ryder up from preschool before heading back home to knock out some laundry while the boys played before we had to pick up Chase from school as well.

Afternoon + Evening

Chase had an orthodontist appointment after school yesterday so we headed directly there after pickup and we learned he might be able to get his palate expander out in January. He’s handled braces and his palate expander like a champ and honestly never complains but he seemed excited about the possibility of having the roof of his mouth clear of all that dental hardware soon.

After the orthodontist, we drove home and got a super-early dinner into the boys before Ryan was done with work for the day and our Halloween plans took us to a friend’s house for a little Halloween party before trick-or-treating.

The boys went with a Harry Potter theme for Halloween this year with Chase dressing up as Harry Potter, Ryder as Hedwig the snowy owl and Rhett as the Golden Snitch! (When their costumes first arrived in early October, I cannot tell you how many notes Ryder aka Hedwig delivered back and forth from me aka Dumbledore to Chase aka Harry Potter. They were all in on their costumes this year!) Ryan and I initially planned to be Professor McGonagall and Hagrid but time slipped away from us so we went with a semi-festive yet comfy look for trick-or-treating this year.

We also figured Rhett might want to stick with the line leader costume he wore all weekend but all it took was showing him a snazzy pair of gold wings for him to decide he most definitely wanted to be a Golden Snitch on Halloween.

We joked that our boys were on the express trick-or-treating train last night and Ryder and Chase sprinted all over our friends’ neighborhood with their buddies filling their bags with candy. Rhett was more interested in hopping in and out of a stroller and collecting a few pieces of candy whenever the mood hit him.

Our crew arrived home past the boys’ bedtimes but that didn’t stop us from sorting through the boys’ Halloween candy haul and ranking our favorites.

To my dismay, the boys didn’t get a single Almond Joy this year but apparently I’m in the minority when it comes to loving that particular candy. Also, when I look at the boys’ top candy choices, Ryder’s selections remind me of my pregnancy with him when gummy, fruity candy was my jam. Maybe my pregnancy preferences passed through the womb? Watermelon Sour Patch Kids = The stuff of my pregnancy dreams.

And now I’m starting to feel a little nauseous — blogging on a laptop in a moving car isn’t the best when you’re someone prone to motion sickness — so I’m off to hang with the family and hope this long road trip somehow flies by!

I’m planning to check back in on Friday once we’re in Florida. Enjoy your first day of November, my friends!