"Dad, I like this day!"

John is a huge Halloween fan, which can be mostly accredited to an awesome annual party/pumpkin carving contest that his family has had his whole life. As for me, I honestly can't even remember one costume from my childhood. No, I was not deprived, Halloween was just never really a big deal. Since I married John and especially since we've had children, this fun holiday has become a bit more exciting. Unfortunately, being so far from home, attending the family party was not going to happen. However, John always has to go find the perfect pumpkin and spend hours carving it just as he would if he was home to enter his pumpkin in the contest.

This years "entry" (please note the teeth, as much time was spent on them)
As for me, mine is not quite so good but I've come a long way from the typical jack o lantern
And we can't forget the work Aiden put into his pumpkins. He picked out the small one from the store because he thought a white pumpkin was cool but when he got home he decided that pumpkins really should be orange and proceeded to paint it as he felt it SHOULD be.

Now on to the costumes. Every year since Aiden was 1, John and I have made the kids costumes. We love coming up with something creative. Since Aiden very much loves playing Nintendo's Mariocart on our Wii, he was thrilled with the idea of being Mario. Now for Abby, we thought maybe Luigi or Princess Peach would be good. However, she has this very cute waddle when she walks so we thought a Goomba would be quite fitting.

Do, do , do, dodododo (for those familiar with the Mario song, please insert here)

And here's Abby, we've decided she was destined to be a Goomba

For those not familiar with what a Goomba is.
Mario and the Goomba coexisting in peace

So off we went Trick or Treating. Abby made it about 4 houses, so she and I headed back to our friends house. Dad and Aiden continued on with a mission to get a good haul of candy. Aiden lasted about an hour and was thrilled with how much candy he had gotten. At one point he turned to John and announce "Dad, I like this day!". John's response was, "if you think you like this day just wait till Christmas", much to the amusement of a woman passing with her children. Thank goodness it was such a warm day. Layers were all Mario needed to stay warm.

Of course we had to capture Abby on video. She wasn't crazy about having the costume on when we taped this, so please imagine the screaming as Goomba growls. For the most part she was quite happy to waddle around in her costume. She lasted a whole hour at our wards Trunk or Treat party and was likely the warmest kid there.