Halloween Weekend 2025 + Our Camping MVPs

Peanut Butter Fingers · 9 months ago · 137 views

I think every parent out there felt like we hit the jackpot with Halloween on a Friday this year. Woop! No worries about late bed times/early wakeups for school after a late night and excessive amounts of sugar! We certainly took full advantage of our Friday night Halloween and made our way to our friends’ house for their annual Halloween party… with a little twist this year. We’ve been celebrating Halloween with the same group of friends since Chase was a baby and one of our friends began hosting our crew about 6 years ago because they have the best neighborhood for trick-or-treating. This year the party was more than just a Halloween party however, as it doubled as a surprise 40th birthday party for our friend Lauren! All of the women in attendance came to the party dressed as different versions of Lauren! I was University of Tennessee Lauren (she’s a diehard Vols fan since her college days) and her reaction when she realized we were all dressed as some version of HER for Halloween was priceless! Of course it wouldn’t be Halloween without trick-or-treating and we trick-or-treated until the kids’ bags were practically overflowing with candy. After trick-or-treating, all the dads took the kids home so the moms could stay back and celebrate Lauren until close to midnight. It was a great Halloween! Weekend Camping Trip On Saturday, Ryan and I awoke and immediately went into go-mode packing up for a quick 24-hour camping adventure! When we saw a mostly free weekend on our agenda a couple of weeks ago, we nabbed one of the last sites available at Dan Nicholas Park and crossed our fingers for good weather. It ended up being absolutely gorgeous outside (I will never get over the vibrant fall leaves in North Carolina) and though temperatures dropped down to just below 40 degrees overnight, we were prepared with sleeping bags, blankets and layers. We adore camping at Dan Nicholas Park for a myriad of reasons, the very top one being easy access to a small lake that provides our boys with plenty of entertainment in the form of netting small fish and frogs. (For any local friends, it’s not the best lake for catching fish with a rod and reel though, as we’ve never had good luck and never seen anyone else catch a thing.) The park is also very close to our house (only about a 60-minute drive) and has plenty to do beyond the campground, including multiple playgrounds, a mini zoo, gem mining, mini golf, paddle boating and more. (It feels like a step back in time as most of the activities are priced under $2 per person.) The campground is located across the lake from all of the attractions which we love as it makes camping feel secluded from park visitors but everything is still walkable via the lakeside trail. I had someone on Instagram ask me to highlight our camping “MVPs” so here’s a quick rundown of the supplies we find most hel...