Halloween 2013

I'm a little sad now that Halloween is over - even with all of the exciting holidays coming up, it's one of the few that we really celebrate at our own home with our friends and family. This year we had a pumpkin carving party with a few friends a few days before the big night - the Mister got to try out some really fun carving tools that were sent to us by Häagen-Dazs (you could attach the "pumpkin gutter" to your drill - craziness! I'll never use a wooden spoon again) along with some yummy munchies and various other paraphernalia. Violet chose the face - she wanted the "nice" classic jack o'lantern. I love having a kid to choose the face now, because I am sooo indecisive and could never choose what to carve on my pumpkin. Luckily HD also sent us a really cool fake remote-control candle, because Kev decided to to go Tim the Tool Man and clean Sharpie off of our jack o'lantern using kerosene. Yeah...sometimes fake is good. ;)

For most family events, we either go to my sister-in-law's or one of our parents' houses because our house is teeny tiny, but for trick or treating we have the best neighborhood! So we had all of our family over this year for Halloween night and it was a blast. We had a chili bar set up with a white chicken chili that I make (and amazingly that Kevin actually likes! Normally he's the cook in the family.) I wanted to get some pictures of it, but trying to get ready for a bunch of people to come over with two little ones, photos just didn't happen - at least not good ones. Maybe next year :) Most of us went trick-or-treating while my mom and dad hung back and gave out candy. Then we all came back home to check out the kids' loot, steal some of their chocolate, and watch The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Garfield Halloween. It was a great night full of family and fun and food (and candy candy candy!) and I hope the tradition continues for many years to come. I feel like if and when we ever do move we need to find a neighborhood that is just as wonderful as our current one, if only for trick-or-treating purposes! 

And speaking of trick-or-treat, Violet had an amazing time - she ran from house to house trying to keep up with her older cousins, and although she had a few tumbles in the dark on our uneven old sidewalks with her not-so-practical-for-running shoes on, she was a trooper. She totally "got it" this year, saying "Twick or Tweet!" and "Sank you!" with so much enthusiasm at every house - it killed me. I was kind of sad when I had to go back a little early to feed Lucy and put her to sleep - holidays with kids are seriously so amazing. It's like being a kid all over again! Lucy was such an awesome big bad wolf - she's been making these hilarious faces lately, and it was just perfect for her costume, although Violet made it clear that she was a nice wolf. She said, "She's not weally going to eat me - it's just pwetend." Followed by, "And Daddy's not actually going to kill baby Luce with his axe (he was the woodsman), because then we wouldn't have a baby sistuh anymore, and I love my baby sistuh!" You wonder what goes through their little minds sometimes lol.

I have my mother-in-law to thank for Violet's adorable cape - she took some $1 red fabric I found at the Salvation Army and made it into something beautiful. Lucy's costume was a hot-glue-gun and felt special thrown together on the day of by yours truly :) Nothing like a little procrastination to get your glue gun going! 

Hope your Halloween was truly lovely! xo, Lauren

I have been chosen by Häagen-Dazs as an ambassador for their Moment for Me campaign. It's all about celebrating those little moments that you take for yourself, or even doing something you love with your loved ones - whether it's a hot cup of tea while your little ones are napping, carving pumpkins, or having a big bowl of homemade chili with your family. So I'll be sharing those types of moments here on A Lovely Lark as well as on my Instagram feed with the tag #HDmoment. We'd love for you to join in too - just tag your photos on social media and your moment may be shared by Häagen-Dazs!