Halloween Festivities

We visited a nearby pumpkin patch (a first for our family) in preparation for Halloween, and Maddox loved it! He talked for weeks afterward about the pumpkin patch and riding the tractor. It was a little misty half the time we were there, in true Portland fashion. But we enjoyed ourselves all the same.

Hayride out to the pumpkin patch. We snagged front row seats and had fun watching the tractor slide around in the mud. (Luckily none was thrown up on us.)

So much mud!

Scott heard and then found this little guy to share with us all. Maddox thought it was hilarious.

Oh yeah, that picturesque shot good enough for Pinterest:)

And this one is even better... haha. That's the best we could do!

Scott found us a couple cute pumpkins to carve up later that day with some friends. I went for the traditional jack-o-lantern look and Scott's masterpiece is a haunted house. Maddox wasn't too interested in scooping out the gooey inside, but he thought it was fun to light them up with the candles and he loved mama's pumpkin bars:)

Our annual tradition with the Klugs is to make gingerbread houses right before Christmas. With baby coming soon, we decided to make haunted houses for Halloween instead. As always, we had a great time and ours was far less decorated!

Our ward celebrated with a chili cook-off and some trunk-or-treating the evening before Halloween. Per our family's usual process, we started thinking about our costumes right after Maddox's birthday, but didn't make a decision until two days before the parties:) So we went with something simple and fast that we could make with materials we already had at home, as usual. Pacman, Ms. Pacman, and a pacman ghost!

Maddox was great - he didn't mind wearing his costume and would even make "ghost noises" (booo)! And, of course, he loved filling his bag with treats!

Cinco opened up on Halloween for the kiddos to come around. Each team decorated their space, and naturally the product design group had quite the setup. There were live mice, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, mealworms, nightcrawlers, and edible crickets. I thought it was a creepy petting zoo.

Waving to the little mouse.

They also had a fun photo booth, but were scaring people while they snapped a couple shots. We've never seen Maddox scared like that; his reaction was to just cover his eyes, he didn't make a peep. It was really sweet and made me sad for him. He recovered quickly though and was even willing to go in for round two of photos with the other kids.

He was ready to start swinging though if anyone came at him again...

Cachoo.. camera noises

Afterwards, we headed to a co-worker's house for some yummy dinner. We had fun hanging with friends and handing out candy to trick-or-treaters (and they had a lot). Our family had such a great time celebrating this holiday!