Happy Halloween!

October is the start of holiday season, at least for my family. The beginning of October is my daughter’s birthday, then there is the fair, followed by my son’s birthday and then the dreaded Halloween. (Insert spooky music.) I know there are many families who do not celebrate Halloween. However, in our family, we love it! Now we don’t go all out and dress up together, or even have that great of costumes, but maybe one year we will. 😉 Honestly, the day usually sneaks up on me. I tend to wait till the last minute to buy a costume, which means I pay no more than $500 (okay, so that’s a bit of an exaggeration). Or, my daughter tends to wait till the last minute to tell me what she wants to be, then I’m throwing things together and she ends up looking like a bum instead of the clown she was going for. There were many years that she was a cat for the simple reason that we had ears, black sweats and black eye liner.

 “This year will be different,” I say every year.

Guess what?

This year is not different.

My daughter barely told me on Monday what she wanted to be. She’d like to be the Pringles guy. Cute, right? Although, this means I’m going to have to get crafty, and it’s already Wednesday (when I’m writing this), and I’ve not done a thing about the costume. My son, on the other hand, knew ahead of time what he wanted to be. He’s missing his top front teeth, and his incisors are pretty sharp looking. Soooo, he’ll be a vampire. I happened to go to Goodwill about a month ago to look for something and noticed that they had costumes. Guess what? I got his whole costume for only $8!!! What?! I’ve never been so lucky! It made me think…How many of us Fresyes residents shop for costumes new, at the thrift store or make them on our own?

There are so many places to shop around town. I know that you can always get good (and pricey) costumes at Party City or Spirit Halloween, but what about the local shops? Thrift stores are a GREAT place to shop. I wish I knew about all of the thrift stores around Fresno, because then this post would be 100 times better. However, this is where you come in! Where do you shop? What thrift store do you like best, and why? I know of Goodwill, Amvets and Salvation Army. I also know there are a slew of them downtown, but probably couldn’t find them without someone telling me where to go. (And when I say “someone” I really mean Siri.) I also have driven by a thrift store near Fresno City that I’ve always wanted to go into. So please, tell me about some of your favorite thrift shops! (Anyone singing the Macklemore song, or is that just me?)

Okay, now that we all have our costumes, where do you go to get your candy?! I know Natali wrote about some good places this week, which is a great way to show that you don’t have to just stick to your neighborhood. We don’t. Well, we don’t usually. I live in an apartment, and I don’t even know if we can trick or treat around here. So, like I do in all things, I see where my friends are going! Last year we hung out with some amazing friends whom I just love to pieces. The year before that we drove to Clovis to hang out with some other friends, whom we also love. The year before that, I think my friends came to me, and we went Trick or Treating in the neighborhood across the street. That’s the nice thing about Fresno, you don’t have to stay in your neighborhood! I know some people don’t like it if you drive to different neighborhoods. However, I don’t see a problem with it, but then again I am one of those people! 🙂 Why Trick or Treat alone when my kids can Trick or Treat with friends?!

So, I’m curious, how do you spend your Halloween evening?

Oh, and before I go… I’ve been noticing a lot of my friends on Facebook who have changed their profile picture to a teal pumpkin.

I was curious about it and asked some friends. You may have seen the story, but for those who haven’t, the Teal Pumpkin Project is trying to make Halloween less scary for kids who have food allergies. The way the Teal Pumpkin Project works is that if you’d like to hand out non-food items, you can put a teal pumpkin out on your porch. This way families know they will get a treat that will not harm their child. What a great idea, right?! I’m curious as to how many Fresyes families participate in this!

Now for the homework. Yes, I said homework.

Leave a comment if you’d like to share:

a) a favorite thrift shop of yours

b) where you go Trick or Treating

c) if you see any #TealPumpkinProject homes

For the thrift store that gets the most mentions, I will go there next week and write about it!

Now go have a fun Halloween evening! Be safe and polite, watch for little ones, and most of all, enjoy the time with friends and family!