Cruella

The Halloween season kicked off with a carnival at London's Elementary school. When I went to school there, the carnival had cute little games run by PTA moms and a cake walk on the kindergarten playground. Now, the school has a legitimate fall carnival, with food trucks, real carnival rides and bouncy houses fifty feet high run by carnies. The girls were too scared to go on all of them except one. And the twins? They squirmed with all their might to escape our arms and run across the blacktop into the abyss of moms and dads and grandparents and very small children. 

Lets talk costumes.

London decided over a year ago that she was going to be a cheerleader. One stop shopping at the BYU bookstore, a high ponytail, glitter and mascara-- and London can't stop looking at herself in the mirror. Bam.

The twins were a little trickier. I knew I wanted them to be Tinker Bell and Peter Pan because Juliette's little hair has grown into the cutest little blonde bob, and I wanted to take full advantage! But a Peter Pan costume for a little boy? They don't exist. Google it. I think that's why the universe invented Etsy. I found his cutest little costume, hat included, for $30, in South America. It was destiny. 

Oh, Elle. My child who thinks outside the box. You know what she wanted to be? A scary dragon. Do you know how many scary dragon costumes there are for sale in the girl variety? Zero. Luckily, a good friend of ours let us borrow one! Did she look more like an adorable clown than a scary dragon? Yes. Mom fail? Nope! Because Elle thought she was the scariest, most powerful dragon in all the land.

Only one person knew we were Chip & Joanna Gaines! 

The best part of Halloween was, believe it or not, my mother. Although she claims to have dressed up for Halloween before, I think this year was (cough, cough) actually her first time. And let me tell you, she went all out. She dressed up like Cruella De Vil: wig, costume, fishnets, pretend cigarette--- it was epic. I did her make-up, with blue gody eye shadow, huge false lashes, and bright red lipstick. She looked absolutely amazing. I forced her to give out candy for the first time too- I decorated her front door with 3-D spiders and lined her walkway with jack-o-lanterns, and she sat in a tall-backed chair and greeted the neighborhood kids as Cruella. She had the accent down, made references to puppies all night, and had all of us laughing out loud. I love that woman.