What to do With All of That Halloween Candy

We had a great Halloween, and as usual my kids got tons of candy.  And guess what do we do with all of it?  Make a Christmas countdown chain!  We did this last year, and I cannot for the life of me remember where I got the idea.  But it cut our Halloween stash down so much that I knew it would be something we do year after year.  And the kids loved doing the countdown each day in December.

Just start by rolling out a reallllly long piece of saran wrap, add pieces of candy, wrap them and tie a ribbon in between.

I just did it for the month of December (25 pieces), and it cut my kids Halloween candy stash down to 7 pieces each.  Now that I can handle.

And of course, save the best for last:

A New Look and Our Halloween

Before I talk about Halloween, have you seen the new blog?  It is amazing!  Colleen of Paisley Boulevard did a redesign for me and I love it!  Don't you? :)  I cannot thank her enough for all of the time she spent on this little tiny blog and want her to know how grateful I am for it!

What a great October we had!  First up was the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago to pick out our pumpkins.

Next up was the Halloween party last Saturday.  I did my old standby vampire costume, and my hubby was a Peruvian since he had a few authentic pieces--but I didn't get a picture of him.

Scary!  The hubs ended up winning both the chili contest and the pumpkin carving contest.  I might have to post the chili recipe here some day, it really is delicious.  And here is the winning pumpkin:

Along with our other non award-winning pumpkins:

Trick or treating with the kids is always fun.  They both get so excited and their excitement is infectious.  Every time Bud got a new piece of candy he'd say his bucket was getting heavy, or that he was getting "lots and lots" of candy.  Here's our kitty and football player:

Hope you all had a great Halloween!

Our Halloween Costumes

Last week I took my two little ones, and my niece and nephew out for a little photo shoot in their Halloween costumes.  I didn't have high hopes because...well it's best not to get my hopes up when taking pictures of little ones. :)  I'm not professional by any means but I think we got some great shots.

Here's my little Tinkerbell:

And my little police man:

And here is my darling niece in her Mary Poppins costume, and her brother as the chimney sweep.  My sister in-law did such an amazing job putting this together.  She made Mary's hat, bow tie, skirt, and the bird on the end of the umbrella.  The chimney sweep was pretty easy, she spray painted a new toilet brush and then put black all over his face.

Happy Halloween!