Halloween season has begun!

Yesterday was October 1st, and wanting to use every valuable moment of the Halloween season, I dressed the girls in their matching black Target Halloween shirts first thing in the morning and then we spent the evening as a family getting into our Halloween box. It's a 25 gallon, orange and black plastic bin, and I always forget from year to year what's buried inside. Here's a sampling of what we dug up:

We found some costume accessories, like wigs, crazy glasses, and bling-bling.

We discovered all our beloved Halloween books, and promptly had to pause the adventure for storytime. (A tradition in our home: We give the girls a new book for most holidays and we keep it in the holiday box so there are some "new", fun books to read every time we start a new holiday.)We found a Halloween craft kid, which Chatterbox wanted to sit down and do right then. I said "Wait for tomorrow" and so, at 6:20 am, there she was, by the side of my bed (it was still dark outside!) asking to do it.

We uncovered dozens of cute paper goods I'd bought, intending to have a party, (never did) and dish towels, placemats, serving dishes, and a tablecloth. Maybe this year?

We even found a string of orange lights we've never used, some spider webby stuff, and a big black "Beware of Bats" iron sign, so we went outside and decorated the side of our house for visitors, not that we have many.
Cookie cutters, Halloween toys, party bags, pencil toppers, pumpkins, baskets and a few decorations were also in the mix--most of it was junk, (fun junk, but still) and I realized that our nine-year student budget had not left room for very many decent holiday decorations. I may have to splurge on a couple this year.

My Halloween quilt is still in production, but I really hope to finish it this week. That will add a little more spooky spirit to our house. We haven't put up pictures or decorated in the least since we moved here because we plan on being here temporarily, so it is fun to finally have a few decorations out.

Our costume choices this year: Smidget will be a spider, Chatterbox will be Snow White, D will be a Ghostbuster, and I will, fittingly, be a witch, but I don't have a costume yet. (No need for your "Oh, you won't even need a costume!" joke, Mom).