Halloween was Leighton’s first official holiday last year, so it’s been really fun to see how drastically different everything was for the holiday this year. We’ve been all over town taking in festive events and parties with friends, and we topped it off on Monday with a big neighborhood celebration.

First — the costume. I’d been thinking about what she could be for months. Since she is too young to have an opinion one way or the other, I wanted to take advantage of that and come up with something unique. We finally settled on a hula girl, but more specifically a dashboard hula girl… you know, the little plastic souvenir that bobs around on car dashboards. When she hears music, she “dances” by bobbing her head around and bouncing up and down, and we’ve joked that she looks like a bobblehead doll… so a dashboard hula girl made perfect sense! I’d been dying to have a family costume (they’re really the best thing ever), so Craig and I went as Hawaiian tourists. Shoutout to Craig’s dad for his large assortment of Hawaiian shirts that we borrowed!

I found the most adorable, handmade crocheted hula costume on Etsy, which consisted of a skirt, coconut bra, lei, and headband. We added in a ukulele and pineapple cup as her props, and we dressed her wagon up with some leis and  “Aloha” and “Greetings from Hawaii” signs that you might find on the base of a dashboard hula girl souvenir. I’d bought a nude long sleeve onesie because it’s typically so chilly on Halloween, but the weather could not have been more perfect for Miss Hula’s costume!

Some friends hosted us Sunday night for our 2nd annual kids costume preview party, and we had such a great time! Leighton played with our friends’ kids and their ride-on toys, ran around their yard, ate homemade pizza, and tried to eat some stickers — basically the best evening ever.

I love creating traditions like this and making memories for our little family. It was so nice for Leighton to have some more kid playtime since she’s home with me everyday, and she loved it. She’s definitely not a shy child, which I’m thankful for.

On Halloween night, our neighborhood hosts a big party, which has always been our favorite yearly activity with our neighbors. We kicked it off with a potluck in the common area, complete with dinner and Rice Krispie pumpkins, ghost dirt cups, and monster cupcakes. The kids ran wild around the grassy area, and we had a piñata and costume contest… Miss Hula won 3rd place for girls’ costumes, too! I don’t think she cared much about her trophy, but we’ll of course be displaying it on the bookshelf in her room! 😉

As the sun set, our street was filled with trick-or-treaters running from house to house. We pulled L around the block in her wagon and stopped at a couple houses for treats. She was pretty pumped about the stickers and animal crackers she got (so great for a little one who doesn’t need a boatload of candy) and also managed to eat her way through a kit kat wrapper to get to the treat. She spent the next hour running around our yard and driveway, which is pretty much her favorite activity right now. My mom was kind enough to keep an eye on her and even put her to bed so that we could visit with our neighbors and hand out candy to older kids who come through from surrounding areas. We love the “after trick-or-treating” time with the adults — just hanging out in the driveway eating leftover candy and drinking some of our neighbors’ famous witch’s brew.

I can already see how experiencing holidays with a child makes everything so much more magical. Even though she’s only one and doesn’t really know what’s going on, it was so fun planning her costume, taking her to holiday events and parties, snapping a million photos, and making these memories that she’ll be able to look back on one day. I hope you all had a festive, fun Halloween!