I am a complete lover of Summer and all things bright, neon and Lilly Pulitzer, but nothing gets me more excited than Halloween season...otherwise known as Fall.
Flamingo Garden Nursery is our to go place for Pumpkin Patch pictures. We always do this at the end of September as it gets really crowded over the weekends and the closer it gets to Halloween. Every year they add more "picture taking" spots, which has increased its popularity (they have Tow Mater from Cars and Herbie the Love Bug). Even with us going the first weekend they opened (September 22nd), by noon they were packed (thank goodness for their amazing smoothies and snacks to keep the kids occupied). The only thing about going the first weekend is that nothing is really cleared out so a lot of my photos had unnecessary things in the background like pumpkin cardboard boxes and trashcans and I spent an inordinantly extra amount of time removing them from the pictures. You can tell by the cropping below when I just got lazy with it.
Moving on to my next favorite Fall spot...Target. Everybody breathe a collective sigh here...you know you are! There is something that sends my heart aflutter the minute Target begins to get ready for Halloween, I am always all over the Dollar Spot. I not only begin to stalk the Target Mama accounts on Instagram for inspiration and what I should be picking upt, but I also begin to stock up on all the house decor and Halloween party supplies (for the future Halloween party that I promise myself I am going to throw every year and end up not doing).
Our neighborhood is amazing during Halloween. Everyone participates. Houses are all decorated (there is even a haunted house) and everyone dresses up for trick or treating (yes, including adults). There are so many families in our neighborhood that Hubs and I not only have candy for the kids, but libations in the form of spooky jello shots for the adults (ID must be presented). We decorate both the inside and outside of our home (I am still trying to justify the the ginormous Beetlejuice sandworm that Home Depot has). Nothing is left uneerily touched!
Sadly, we did not do our normal outside Halloween lighting as we are not going to be home and therefore did not want our security and Ring going off every three seconds because someone is coming to the front door.
Our Halloween Disney Cruise fell through as my BIL who is a CM was waiting for our dates to be released for the ship and when they were, we quickly found out that Cruises for infants start at 6 months. Baby D will not be six months quite yet at the time of the cruise, and yes they will ask for confirmation via birth certificate when we arrive at port, so fibbing (::cough cough:: downright lying), is out of the question. So now the plan is a Star Wars cruise for January. Based on the research and YouTube videos I watched, it looks like it will be just as much fun,so although slightly disappointing it is now something to look forward too.
With that being said, we decided to keep with the Disney theme and just do Disney World for Halloween. Both my MIL and I live for this holiday, so to say we are excited is putting it lightly. We did Mickey's Not So Scary before the cruise last year, so we did not feel that we had to do it again and I was able to score Storybook Dining reservations for Halloween night so I am (I mean the kids) are pretty pumped! However, our reservations conflict with the Movie Under the Stars at Fort Wilderness Lodge which is yes, Hocus Pocus....bummer!
I bought a whole bunch of fun Halloween things for EV and Baby D to wear on the cruise in addition to everything she had last year (most of her costumes although 12-18 months still fit her because she is a peanut), so with the Halloween on the High Seas no longer happening, I had to make this month "wear as much Halloween garb as possible month." It is completely normal to take your child to Target in a Tinkerbell or Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas costume right?!
Although Target is my favorite for all things Halloween, around the end of September, I started picking up a bunch of cute things at the Disney Store and Carters as well #teamnoselfcontrol #especiallywhenitcomestoHalloween. We purchased Baby D's Abu costume at the Disney Store because prior to the release of this costume when the live action movie of Aladdin was released, Target had come out with the cutest Jasmine outfits. When they went down to 30% off, I purchased everything in the line including the costume (I think it is a costume) and the bathing suit (I am beyond depressed that it was not made available in my size) So EV and Baby D are going to be Abu and Jasmine (take a minute to swoon). Because the Abu costume is going to be hot and we are going to be in Disney World, the plan is just to go to Disney Springs to take cute pictures (the Photopass spot next to the Co-Op has Halloween inspired backdrops) and then change him into something cooler ( the My First Halloween w/Jack Skeleton).
Even though it is October, we are in Florida and therefore sitting on the sun. A fuzzy monkey costume will not last longer than an hour max. The Jasmine costume on the other hand is light, flowy, and cropped, so I do not think EV will need an alternative outfit. I did purchase matching Hocus Pocus shirts for her and I for dinner (not pictured, but purchased on Amazon, however it looks like the store has moved onto Christmas...still so cute lol). Everything else, pretty much came from Target and Carter's.
some would say excessive....I actually question if it was excessive enough?
If you are not following ForeverDreamDesign on Instagram, you are totally missing out! She makes the CUTEST infant ears and headbands, but you need to mark on your calendar the day and time her shop opens because her stuff goes FAST and within HOURS. Totally worth it in my opinion. It is reasonably priced, she is darling to deal with, the product is beautiful and comfy for children (even those that do not like anything on their head), and you won't find anything like it in the parks. We have so many ears from her that it is getting out of hand...but not really lol. We just bought these two so now that we are going on the Star Wars Cruise, Baby D will get extra wear out of it (welcome to the justification of most of my Disney purchases).
And lastly, the hubs and I over Summer bought an outdoor movie screen to enjoy the last season of Game of Thrones in the backyard and for some outdoor grilling festivities. Best thing ever purchased on Amazon hands down. We plan to partake in all of our favorite Halloween movies (::cough cough:: Hocus Pocus, Practical Magic, and It's the Great Pumpkin) and overdose on all things Halloween on the big screen. Our projector can be plugged into our Amazon Fire Stick so the options on what to watch between Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu are endless.
I just need another month of Halloween season to do even more stuff, I feel like it went by too quickly and I didn't hit half of the stuff on my bucketlist...what was on yours?!