After being so insanely hyped up all weekend, my kids woke up at the crack of dawn yesterday. When Annabel woke up, she immediately ran into James’ room and shouted, “JAMES! IT’S HALLOWEEN GET UP!” James is not a morning person, but luckily for Annabel, he jumped out of bed. They had about three bites of breakfast and then begged to start getting ready.

Annabel decided what she wanted to be over the summer, and picked out her costume in September. We gave James the option to be whatever he wanted, but in the end, he said, “I wanna be like Annie-bel.” Such a sweetie. Without further ado, I present to you Vampiress Annabel and, (according to James), Spooky Bampire James:

vampires

They’d been practicing their vampire faces for almost two months:

scary vampiress

spooky vampire jamesie

my vampires

They both had a lot of fun at school (James told his teacher, “I scary bampire James! Rawr!”), but I honestly don’t know how we survived the hours between school and trick-or-treating. I think I blacked out. But finally it was time to light up the pumpkins and hit the street with the other kids.

vampires and their pumpkins

vampiress

spooky vampire james

James was SO into it this year! After being a little afraid at the first house, he quickly realized that trick-or-treating is awesome when a neighbor gave him a full-sized skittles bag (his most favorite candy). After that, he was running from house to house, yelling for the rest of our crew to catch up with him. He chatted with every neighbor, “I spooky! It’s Halloween!” and squealed with excitement with every piece of candy, “AH! I GOT WHOPPERS! Thank you!” It was such a blast to have both kids so happy and having fun.

Trick or treat!

trick or treaters

James would have trick-or-treated all night, but Annabel was anxious to go home, see the other kids, and go through her loot. Once James realized he’d finally be able to eat his candy, he was fine with going home.

Full size Hershey bar!
Just discovered a full-sized Hershey bar.

They were both sad when it was time to turn off the porch lights and call it a night. It’s always so hard to come down from the high of Halloween. Annabel chose to focus on more positive thoughts. While the kids were brushing their teeth, she said,

“James, what should we be for Halloween next year?”

I never thought I’d say this, but thank goodness Halloween is only once a year!