Our first Halloween!

Okay, so it wasn't technically our first Halloween, but it sure felt like it. First jack o' lanterns? Check. First Halloween costumes? Check. First time trick-or-treating? Check!

We kicked off the season with our first trip to a pumpkin patch, where we went on our first hayride and got to pick out our very own gourds:

Then, as Halloween approached, we gathered around the kitchen table for our very first pumpkin-carving session:

The girls loved touching pumpkin guts for the first time:

But the boys were content to just watch:

And direct Mommy and Daddy:

"Mommy, take out the mouth!"

When we asked the kids what they wanted their first jack o' lanterns to look like, Isaac said he wanted a happy face, Jude a scary face, Dahlia a rude face, and Lucy? Well, Lucy wanted a happy face with eyebrows ... and hair ... and bangs. HA!

The finished results looked pretty good in the daytime:

Left to right: Lucy, Jude, Isaac, and Dahlia's jack o' lanterns

But our jack o' lanterns really came alive at night!

When the big day finally arrived, the kids couldn't wait to put on their first Halloween costumes. The girls asked to be "ballerinas in long dresses":

Dahlia and Lucy in ballerina costumes

And, thanks to Benny the Bull in Dora's Costume Party, the boys wanted to be slices of pizza:

Isaac and Jude in pizza costumes (sewn by Abuelita!)

Halloween night was frigid, but nothing could have kept these kids from going trick-or-treating around the neighborhood for the first time!

And they're off!

All four of them had a ball ringing doorbells and picking out candy, and I think they had just about mastered the "trick or treat" and "thank you" routine by the time we finished our route. Many thanks to all of our neighbors who helped make our kids' "first" Halloween a great experience:

They had so much fun that they are already talking about what they will dress up as next year, on their "second" Halloween!