Halloween during a Pandemic

I agonized over Halloween this year! I wanted so badly for the world to be normal for my kids, for them to get to do everything they normally do. Alas, it just isn't. But after discussing and planning, we ended up with a great Halloween that everyone felt good about!

The kids got to wear their costumes to school a few days beforehand, and they had little parties with their classes. Trying to find a costume for these boys that 1. didn't include a mask (a normal mask was required, a costume mask was prohibited) and 2. didn't need a weapon attached. Most of their ideas really needed one or both of those to look like the costume and without it, mostly looked like nothing. Then I came up with the brilliant idea to use old sheets to make them Jedi costumes! They loved their Jedi costumes and they cost me nothing but 2 hours of my time!

Lila had two costumes- during the earlier part of the day she wore the little Jack o'Lantern costume that all my babies have worn their first Halloween. And later in the day she was a ballerina. She looked adorable in both!

And Davis just really wanted to wear his spiderman costume again from last year. He loves spiderman and was thrilled to wear it. And so I outfitted everyone for Halloween in costumes they loved and didn't spend a single dollar!

On actual Halloween we had a fun lunch and party over at Ray and Diane's with their cousins. We made mummy dogs for lunch and Diane had a bunch of cute games for the kids to play. They had so much fun and I didn't pause to take a single picture.

Later we stopped by Nana and Papa's for a rootbeer float. We timed it to be there with their cousins so we could get a picture of them all together and so they could show off their costumes to each other!

When we got home, Davis was trying to convince me to give him more candy. This is how he asked (and he does this frequently). He knows I'll probably say no, so he just doesn't make eye contact. He smiles super cute and just holds it out towards me. It was so cute that I probably caved and gave him the sucker.

For the evening we closed our blinds (so the kids couldn't see all the trick or treaters around) and had the Bacciocco's over for a little Halloween party. This ended up being the perfect solution for us this year. Bacciocco's kids line up perfectly with mine and they all get along so well. We had pizza, decorated cupcakes, played games and watched a movie. It was such a fun night! The kids all had a blast (so did the parents) and since all our kids play together all the time anyway, it didn't increase our exposure at all.

 So that's how we did Halloween during a pandemic. It ended up being a  good balance of activity and safety for us. Most importantly, the kids had a great time!