I touched on Halloween spending in a comment in CCF's post on Friday. I thought I'd expand a bit here.

We'll spend very little on Halloween. The kids each got a pumpkin to carve. They were given to us by our in-law's neighbor. I blogged about that a couple weeks ago.

We carved the pumpkins last week. DW and the girls made three flavors of roasted pumpkin seeds - garlic, one flavored with chili powder, and a sweet one flavored with maple syrup, and some other spices that I'm not sure of. Roasted pumpkin seeds don't last very long around our place.

We don't buy candy to hand out, because trick-or-treaters don't visit our house. When I was a kid, my mom drove us to all of our rural neighbors, then we would go to town. The funny thing is, that the rural folks all gave out the big candy bars, and home made popcorn balls - the really good stuff. I guess kids (and parents) don't want to waste their time actually driving from house to house anymore.

And, we won't be spending anything on costumes for the kids this year. We typically don't spend much on costumes, because DW is a seamstress, and usually sews something for the kids. This year, one of my SILs bought outfits for my kids.

Remember about a month ago, when we had that family picture taken? After the formal pictures were taken, the photographer took some fun pictures of the kids. My SIL bought capes and masks for the kids (her three and our four). The outfits were purchased from the MSU Alumni Association. They made really cute pictures, that were a real hit. But ... she spent $15 per outfit. Fun pictures or not, I wasn't keen on the $60 spent for my kid's outfits.

SIL said that they are an early Christmas gift, which is fine. But, I'm sure she'll still buy Christmas gifts for my kids.

Our kids will wear those outfits for Halloween.

My kids are: DD1, the biggest kid in the middle; DD2, the red head second from the left; DS 1, third from the right; and DS2 on the end.

And, yes this picture has been featured on the MSU Alumni Association's Facebook page.