finding some good in it :o)

When Seth was a toddler, we found ourselves wondering what we, as a family, should make of Halloween. ;o)

On one hand, Steve and I both had lots of fun celebrating Halloween when we were young.

... On the other hand, we aren't the hugest fans of some of the aspects of this holiday (especially when it involves our impressionable and easily frightened youngsters!).

Recently I read about one mom's point of view concerning Halloween. I think it summed our feelings about our kiddos and this issue pretty well. She talked about how, whether you celebrate Halloween or not, your children are going to be exposed to it. (Well, unless you never let them out of the house!) So, she said, why not be the ones who give them their first impressions about the holiday? Maybe create some wholesome traditions they can look forward to and enjoy doing as a family each year when the time for Halloween roles around.

So, we thought we'd share a few pictures of some of our "Halloween" traditions we've enjoyed doing with Seth and Haddie each year. :o)

We have fun traveling to the local pumpkin patch.

This year the pumpkin crop wasn't stellar, so we just chose our pumpkins from a couple trailers piled with orange goodies (instead of wandering around a huge field or yard full of them).
It was a chilly day, but we had fun.

Haddie took her job seriously, and carefully checked out many a pumpkin.

Seth was "king of the pumpkin pile".

Haddie lost a shoe (it was retrieved).

Hooray, they found the perfect ones!

(And then we picked one big one to carve.)

They looked forward to this part for weeks!

After successfully cleaning out and carving the pumpkin, next on their list is always toasting the pumpkin seeds.

This year we made one batch of "salties" and one batch of honey/cinnamon seeds. Yum!

They wanted to try out their snack right after bath time tonight.

(They are dressed a little goofy here - wearing huge matching t-shirts they received one afternoon playing at the gym with their cousins. That was Seth's choice of pajamas for the night, so, naturally, Haddie followed suit.)

Haddie and the finished jack-o-lantern designed by our boy. It has "Batman eyes", he says. ;o)

They were delighted by how our pumpkin face looked when we put the candle in and turned out the lights!

Well, there you have it for now. We hope all of you have a lovely day tomorrow whether you are hard core trick-or-treaters, you choose to stay home with the lights off and the shades pulled, or you fall somewhere in between like us. ;o)

Thanks for stopping by!