Just before school started, I took Morgan and Emma to the Plaza to hang out and shop.At the time, we didn’t realize that the Gap store was closing, but we are always up for bargain shopping!  I have a big family, peeps, I have to find stuff on sale!  We scoured the store hoping for some super cute clothes for cheap but ended up leaving with a bag full of hawaiian shirts!  Morgan asked if she could get one for various school spirit days they have throughout the year, and within minutes we were grabbing up 6 of them for Halloween costumes.  Done. Check please.

Thank you Morgan for being the inspiration for this Halloween “tacky tourist” hot mess!Add in a few fanny packs, binoculars, and hats, and you’re wonderfully tacky!  I didn’t even have to convince any of them…they were all on board!  I love it when a plan comes together.  Drew got ‘into character’ the night before just to make sure he would be perfect and could manage to get all this garb on for the school parade.  They nailed it…they were the cutest by far!

After the school parties – trust me when I tell you, the school is completely nuts on Halloween, we hurried home to get ready for our annual halloween party.  Of course this included putting finishing touches on our Halloween-themed food for the contest!

This has been a tradition for years, and I love that my kids are involved.  Maybe they’ll do this for their kids!?  They all picked out what they wanted to make and sent me to the store to get all the ingredients.  And even though I still have my own dish to make and fifteen billion things going on, I’m so happy to do it because It’s just plain adorable!  I love to see what they come up with. Drew is notorious for picking something complicated.  I love it, Drewy, you keep aiming high bud!  2018 First place winner I might add!

Jake killed it with these bloody fingers..

Morgan made these darling candy corn treats and Reece worked so hard on these donut spiders.  Getting those pretzel legs looking good is much harder than you think!

Our family always comes through with awesome ideas and our table fills with spooky halloween dishes.  It’s a blast!

Morgan had another party to attend so Reece had to take over as the master of ceremonies.  She did a fabulous job…watch out Morgan, she might get promoted into your spot!

Somehow I rarely win and my sister, who barely steps foot in a kitchen, EVER, seems to always be on the winners podium.  She’s finally found her culinary calling…Halloween themed food!  Congratulations winners!

I love this party!!

Of course we made it around the neighborhood for trick-or-treating and we have more candy than should ever be consumed in a lifetime!

Morgan made a quick costume change for her next event and turned into Cardi B…(Cardi B is a rapper/songwriter just in case you’re wondering)

They also took a trip to the Edge of Hell haunted house for a 16th bday party.  UGH – I would never pay money to have someone scare the crap out of me!  It’s clearly a teenager thing!Reece really is picking up on my love of Halloween as she had an outfit laid out for each day leading up to the big day.  Clearly we have a problem here.  No one should have this much Halloween attire!

I also caught her staying up late one night making all of these pumpkins and taping them all over her room!!  They were EVERYWHERE!!

She was working SO hard!!  I finally had to step in and help her or she was going to be flat on her desk asleep the next day at school!  Reece always cracks us up with her cute ideas.

And Halloween would definitely not be complete without carving our pumpkins.  While I was busy making mummy cake pops, these guys were really doing an awesome job!  We decided that sometimes simple designs turn out the cutest.  Aren’t they great!?Just a few days before, Reece got to do a fun Fall outing with her soccer team – they went on a hayride, roasted s’mores, and had a pumpkin carving contest at Shawnee Mission Park.  So fun!  Well, ok, I guess she did fall asleep in the corner on the hayride, but she perked right up when she filled her dinner plate with Sun Chips and 3 cupcakes.  Yikes!

I’ll wrap this up with a couple more tacky tourist photos.  Next to our 80’s hair band costumes, these might be top on my list of favorites!Now excuse me while I pack up all this fun into 2 plastic bins and start my 2 month-long stress filled bender called the HOLIDAY SEASON!