Unconventional Halloween

Last year some friends camped at the local state park a day or two before or after Halloween. When we saw that Halloween landed on a Friday this year several of us decided to camp there this year. People bring candy along and the kids can go trick or treating. It was going to be awesome. So six or eight months ago we reserved our spot with a couple others. But lo and behold, cross country season got in the way and a few families dropped out because their kids had a meet Saturday morning. So it ended up being just us, which is not a problem in the slightest, but just different than we expected.

Wednesday last week we had a church party and trunk or treat. The kids had a ball. They loved trick or treating even to only about ten cars, which is all they had attention for. But they were in heaven.

A minion

A monkey, but only worn for a few minutes.

Our resident skeleton.

A fairy.

So Friday we headed out to go camping. It happened to be the first cold night of the year. That's right, we've had 8o+ degree weather upon until just a few days ago. I swear I've been sweating since I was about three months pregnant a year ago and I've been waiting so long for it to cool down. Well Friday night it did! We just packed accordingly and went adventuring. This summer we had bought a huge 10-man tent for just such occasions after we camped in our old 4-man tent the last time and essentially were one giant spooning family the entire night. This thing is a beast and it's totally awesome. I can't even reach the ceiling of it, so it's probably over six feet tall inside. It has two rooms, a door that swings open, and all the space we could ever hope for.

The kids were in heaven. Spencer talked and talked and talked about how daddy had set up the tent just for him. We got their sleeping gear out and they practically didn't leave the tent after that, except to go play on the old school swing set at the campground. They loved that I swung with them on the tire swing. I filled up the hole and they clambered all over me and hung on tight. It was awesome.

The night really did turn out to be frosty. Apparently it snowed in Greenville several inches while we were out, but surprisingly, even though we were very close to the mountains, it didn't snow on us. It was crazy windy and rained a bit in the middle of the night, but nothing serious.

The kids did just great. We bundled Aaron up in a full body fleece suit plus a blanket. Spencer snuggled deep in his sleeping bag and slept like a log, though he did request a blanket in the middle of the night. His bag certainly isn't rated for 30s temps. Our handy jean quilt in the van worked just great to fix that problem. Genevieve was our little crazy sleeper. At one point she ended up completely out of her bag and on the cold floor with her head on her pillow. She just roams in her sleep and she had trouble staying in the sleeping bag. Spencer used to be like that too when he was younger, so I think she'll figure it out. She loved being in her sleeping, she just didn't stay in it. Bill ended up zipping her into his own bag and she warmed right up and slept happily. Bill and I got rather terrible night's\' sleep since we were worried about the kids, but honestly, I never get good sleep camping on the ground so that wasn't a downer for me.

With it being so cold and dark when we got to the campground we never pulled out our costumes and trick or treated. There weren't very many people out and about since it was so cold. It totally didn't matter. We had so much fun. The kids didn't miss it. They were too busy playing in the tent.

All in all it was as fantastic trip. We'll have to do it again sometime when it's a tad warmer.