I love Halloween! I know a lot of moms who hate the candy and the costumes and the scary decorations, but I have such fond memories of Halloween from when I was a kid, it only feels fair to try and make sure my kids feel the same! It was also a fun distraction to help blow away those post-vacation blues.
We started by carving pumpkins Tuesday night which is our yearly tradition. We turned on "The Nightmare Before Christmas," gutted and scooped all the pumpkin guts out, and let each child pick a design. Lucy saved some seeds to bake later.
I tried to find an Olaf pattern online, but you really seemed to need a long thin pumpkin for that, and Leah's baby pumpkin was just too teeny-tiny, so we carved a girl jack o'lantern with eye lashes.
She loved it! She kept wanting to turn out the lights to see it glowing-- and she also learned how to say "Happy Halloween" this week which was too cute.
Zach-O man wanted "fighting light sabers," which was right up Jonathan's alley, so that's exactly what they did. We like to keep things simple around here.
Naturally he decided to set up all of his Star Wars guys next to it, so that way the non-Star Wars fan would know what it was.
Lucy is able to carve her own pumpkin now, which is great. She totally takes it all on-- scooping out the guts, tracing the design, and then finally carving it out. She did awesome!
The following night, Wednesday, the kids had their very last fall baseball game. It was great weather-- down in the 70's and not a bit windy. Lucy had gotten some spectacular hits in the previous couple of games-- she can really knock it to the outfield with the right pitch! Unfortunately tonight there wasn't a very good pitcher so she just got some grounders.
Little dude waiting for his turn to bat next!
Zach got a GREAT hit his second time up to bat! He got really good contact and line-drived it straight to the pitcher. Nice! After only two innings we had to cut it short and head over to ward's Trunk or Treat party at 7 p.m. before they closed off the parking lot! It was a very busy night!
You can tell we really got into things by my super festive trunk (NOT)-- I really should start putting Lucy in charge of this stuff since she is our creative one! Two Elsa's ready for candy! One little girl walked by and was like, "There's Elsa, Oh! And there's Elsa Jr.!"
Zach dressed up as the Cap. He met up with some primary friends and we didn't see him again until the bitter end!
All tanked up on sugar and with buckets full of candy, and one panicked mom ready to get some kids home to BED. Too late and too crazy to do this activity on a school night if you ask me, but we survived!
Friday was the real deal, and Lucy was dressed to the nines ready to celebrate in style at school. She had her press-on monster nails from Grandma Cardon all ready to go the night before.
Here she is! Pumpkin tights, jack o'lantern shirt, and pumpkin scarf-- she was ready for her class Halloween party. Zach got to do "pumpkin math" in kindergarten where they gut pumpkins and count how many seeds they can find, and then they watch "Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin" movie. Zach told me he doesn't like Charlie Brown because he has "that skin hair" (meaning he's kind of bald). Ha!
Friday night I made a special Halloween dinner for the kids before heading out to go trick or treating. Wearing orange is about as "dressed up" as I ever get. Maybe one of these years I'll surprise my kids and go all out!
Viper Venom, Frog's Blood, Bat Blood, and Spider Venom to drink. I told Zach I'd brewed some potions while he was at school, so he really thought if he drank it he'd turn into what it said. He wouldn't partake until I promised him it was just root beer. I love that little guy!
We played the Haunted Mansion background music, dined on mummy dogs and chili, and had Halloween donuts for dessert. Yum!
Cheese!
The kids couldn't wait to get outside to start trick or treating, so as soon as we'd cleaned up dinner they booked it outside to meet up with our neighbors Josh and Luke to see if we could all go together. It was quite a bit colder by Friday, so Lucy decided to be Hermione since it was a warmer costume and she didn't want to have to wear a coat over her Elsa dress. We did her hair "frizzy" and she looked PERFECT in her new robe and scarf!
Next door neighbor Josh was Harry Potter. The dynamic duo (with a pretty sweet photo bomb from Yoda)!
The Cap is back! This time with his trusty shield.
Miss Leah as Elsa Jr. I actually let Leah wear her costume all day because we'd been battling over it all week, and I figured if not today then when else! The babysitters at the gym were so excited to see her all dressed up! She was too cute and so excited to show off her Elsa dress.
The beautiful Elsa shoes that caused such a stir at the gym that Friday. Nobody could believe how expertly she walked in those little high heels. They have no idea about Leah and shoes, I guess.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2014
The trick or treaters in action! Since we went with Josh and Luke's parents, and their friends (who had 4 kids) we just kind of tagged along. They were die-hards! We did several streets (maybe 2 miles total) and the kids raked in the candy.
Way, way, way too much candy for three little ghoulies to have all to themselves! Zach was ready to go swimming in it when we got home!
Aaaahhhh! After letting them have free reign that evening, we convinced them to combine their three stashes and it has since been gathered up and hidden by mom, and metered out one by one since then. We may have candy until next October. Happy Halloween!
