Halloween is over, can you believe it?? While I fully expect it to be Halloween in my home for the rest of… forever (??), it is a bit sad that yard decorations are coming down, Home Depot animatronics are fully cleaned up and spooky season happenings are over. That being said, this was our most fun Halloween season yet! We had Dempsey’s school party on Friday afternoon then headed out trick-or-treating later that evening. It was the busiest I’ve seen it in our neighborhood and Lydia was straight up giddy running from house to house for candy!

The rest of the weekend involved a sleepover at Grandma’s for the kids, Denver Film Fest and dinner at Bar Dough for Joey and I, and a Sunday of time-change disorientation, 80 degree weather, too many chores to do and the kids going to bed at 7 PM 😂

Dempsey’s school party was as chaotic and overstimulating as you’d expect 😅 Leave it to him to find all the skeletons in the classroom to play with. Afterward, we went home for a quick and early dinner of grilled cheese and tomato soup, then headed out to trick-or-treat shortly after 6. We hit up all of our close neighbors, then headed down a nearby street and Lydia was having the time of her life! Dempsey mostly inspecting everyone’s porch decorations. They both hugged and kissed that Count Mickula blow up 😂 They were ready to call it quits shortly after 7, which was perfect because it meant we got to hand out candy to a few groups of trick-or-treaters and get the kids to bed on time. Dempsey got those vampire teeth and I think he liked them more than all the candy!

Saturday started with pumpkin pancakes by Joey because the kids wouldn’t let me out of Dempsey’s bed with them. Finally got downstairs for breakfast and then we tag-teamed child care and errands, so we could both go for a run. We’re in our Zombies phase and the second film has some real bangers on the soundtrack. We were all singing along to “Call to the Wild” on our way back from Target. After lunch, I got Lydia down for a nap and after she was up, we took the kids over to Lori’s then headed to the Holiday Theater for Denver Film Fest! We saw Jay Kelly and while I felt like it was slightly sentimental/tedious, I still liked it. George Clooney remains incredibly handsome. We had dinner at Bar Dough afterward and I think the garlic bread was my favorite part of the meal 😋 Back at home, we watched another movie. Look at us go! This was funny, sweet and harrowing all at once, and I thought it really worked.

We had talked about going out for breakfast the next morning but with the time change, we woke up at 6 AM 😅 Opted for slow-cooked eggs at home instead! I worked out then headed to pick up the kids, while Joey blew out the sprinklers and cleaned up leaves. We took a pic of the kids with our Halloween yard decor since we forgot to do it when we first put it all out and then we “swapped” it out for our turkey blow up. “Swapped” because all of that Halloween stuff is now set up in our backyard, thanks to Dempsey 😂

The rest of the afternoon was Lydia playing around in her bed instead of taking a nap, Dempsey asking me for snack after snack, a shaving cream leaf craft that turned into just playing with shaving cream, Joey making us all dinner and an early bedtime for the kids. Lydia was overtired and asking me to do stuff like “make her bed into a house” and “cut her blanket” 🤷‍♀️ Since they were asleep early, we watched a third movie of the weekend?? Superman was fine, I didn’t love or hate it. I didn’t sleep well and blame the time change, so hopefully our bodies all make the transition by the end of the week. Happy Monday!

We had a busy Friday, but then a pretty low-key rest of the weekend… finally! I keep forgetting Halloween is at the end of this week because it feels like we’ve been celebrating it for a million years and it should be over by now 😅😅 Still pumpkin carving, Dempsey’s school party and trick-or-treating to come, so I’m trying not to let the Halloween fatigue hit me.

My MIL is a saint and took the kids yesterday while Joey was at the Broncos-Cowboys game, so I had a whole afternoon to myself and did WORK on our playroom after Hurricane Dempsey’s Birthday absolutely destroyed it. I’m actually feeling rejuvenated today 🙌 Let me show you our weekend!

Friday morning, Joey and I each did our normal drop off for each kid then went on an elementary school tour! Kindergarten is coming 🥺 Afterward, I headed back home to work then jumped on the family committee meeting at noon. Lori brought my two + Landon home around 3:30 and we all walked over to see the pumpkin drop near our house. It was really fun and man oh man, do they get that ladder high!

We walked to the house and hung out until Joey got home, then got in our costumes and walked over to Dempsey’s school for Trunk-or-Treat! They got candy, took a picture inside a fire truck and saw a bunch of cool trunks! The chemical spill one was my favorite but Lydia made a beeline for Glinda once she saw her and Dempsey’s vote went to a trunk all decked out in, what else, skeletons! Back at home, we started Zombies and ate pizza from Hops & Pie before getting the kids to bed and firing up GBBO for ourselves.

We didn’t have anything planned for Saturday until 4 PM! I attempted to make mummy waffles for the kids but my frosting was too thin so the mummy bandages just pooled in the waffle indentations. What can you do? The kids still ate/loved em 🥰 Afterward, Joey did some basement clean up and I did some clothing clean out in the kids’ room. Felt good to finally do that! Dempsey had something like ten sets of outgrown pajamas in his drawer 🤪 Next up, a trip to Target. Taking two kids to Target is always somewhat chaotic — they saw a kid riding underneath the cart once and now they insist on doing it themselves every time we go — but we mostly stayed on track and left with mostly just the things we needed/came for (plus one more skeleton for Dempsey’s collection 😂). The afternoon involved Zombies 2 & 3 and a really good long nap for Lydia before we headed to the park for Lilli’s birthday. The kids had so much fun on the playground and in the bounce house and they had the best weather for the party. We literally had to drag our kids home. Got them to bed and started The Studio. It’s so made for a movie nerd like me! Excited to watch the rest.

Sunday 🤍 I woke up to work out then we all had breakfast and tried to catch up on our Lego Halloween advent calendar. Afterward, Joey got ready to head out on a run and Sissy insisted on going too! She’s SUCH a mommy’s girl, that Joey and I never pass on daddy-daughter time when she asks for it. Meanwhile, Dempsey and I got some one-on-one time, playing with clay and then making brown butter pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (whew!). It’s my very favorite making something in the kitchen with him, but we so rarely have the opportunity to do it, so this was the best 🥰🥰 Lydi seemed to have a good time with her dad too! Once they were back, we did our very last $5 Target craft, ate lunch and got the kids ready to go.

Lori came to pick them up around 12:30, right after Joey left for the game. I cranked out salads for the week then got to work on the playroom and ten trips back and forth to the basement later, toys were rotated/organized 🙌 Trying not to think about how we still have Lydia’s birthday and Christmas to come 😅 I made Japanese curry for dinner — my sis and Wayne gifted me some curry blocks — and it turned out sooo good! Everyone made it back home in time to eat it and then we started Zombies 4, got the kids to bed and watched an episode of The Amazing Race before going to bed ourselves.

I hope you all have a good Monday and a very fun Halloween! I know it’s going to feel bittersweet once it’s over 😞