Our Accidental Halloween Tradition

The houses on our street were built in the 1920s and 1930s. So, I think it's safe to assume that a lot of our trees were planted back then too. Which means that the trees on our street and in our backyard are enormous. The one in our backyard is almost 18 feet around. Eighteen feet!!! And as much as I love the giant trees on our street... it also means one thing this time of year.

Leaves on leaves on leaves. So. Many. Leaves.

And thus our totally accidental tradition of raking and bagging leaves the morning of Halloween came about because we didn't want kids tripping or dropping candy into our leaves in the dark. I mean, kids dropping candy and leaving it behind for us to find sounds awesome! But not when it's mixed with gross leaves. 😂

It was really mild outside for Halloween this year, which made our morning of yard work way more enjoyable. June had a blast and helped T.J. for like five minutes sweeping the leaves into the bags, but mostly she just kept him company while she sprinted up and down the sidewalk over and over. Goodness, a three-year-old's energy level is incredible, isn't it!?

It was so warm out this year that we were able to carve our pumpkins outside, which was way more enjoyable. Until the bees found us, of course.

June drew a smiley face "with cheeks" on her pumpkin and T.J. helped her carve it, thus facing his elementary school kid fear of putting his hands inside a pumpkin. 😂 Way to go, babe, you did it. #sobrave

Just look how focused she is with that Sharpie in her hand. 😍 That's ma girl!

Because we couldn't find our actual pumpkin carving knives or tools, we had to use our Ikea kitchen knives, which didn't work very well. They work great in the kitchen but not for a pumpkin. I kept my design super simple with stars so I could use the knife in straight lines and not in circles!

I asked T.J. to take a photo of me holding the two pumpkins and of course, he pretended like he "didn't know how to use the camera" while I stood there with the super heavy pumpkins, thinking to myself "Why is he taking so long, these are so heavy!!!"

After pumpkins, but before we all got dressed for trick-or-treating, my niece an nephew came over to join in the leaf pile fun! And by came over I mean walked out their back door and into the leaf pile. #neighborsiblingcousins