Halloween Rewind

October 31, 2011

Has anyone noticed that Halloween has become this very long, drawn out process?  And I do mean process. Every year we have so many different Halloween functions to go to (including the Harvest Festival type of things-- for the PC peeps).  The kids used to really worry about what they would be for Halloween, but now...  it's all about the candy and the parties! 

I remember when I used to SEW costumes!!!  Every year!!!  I can't say I miss sewing costumes, or stewing about the perfect costume!  After 15 years of Halloween, we now have a good stockpile of dress up clothes, old costumes, and various accessories I've picked up on clearance...  To keep things "fresh", I only leave out about half our dress up clothes for Everyday Play.  That way when OLD dress up clothes and OLD costumes come out of the Halloween storage bins, the kids feel excited about choosing something from the OLD stuff.  Win Win.

Anyway, to the pictures...

The first Halloween event was a Cub Scouts party.  This party was on the 18th of October!!!  That's way too early to worry about Halloween, people!  Anyway, Mac was of course working, and not able to help with the main focus of the Cub Scout party-- the pumpkin decorating/jack-o-lantern contest.  So, I got to manage this wonderful task for the second year in a row. 

  First I had to schlep all the kiddos to the garden store/nursery that's closest to our house to pick out The Perfect Pumpkin.  Kate wasn't part of the fun- she was too busy with school soccer at the time.  Not that she'd go with us to pick a pumpkin, but whatever.  Anyway, they all chose well, no one was run over in the parking lot, and everyone was happy to get started on the carving...  Except for me because to be honest carving pumpkins scares me.  Way too much can go wrong.  Knives, ONE adult, and excited kids...  Oh My!!

Since we were running a little late, I decided to only let the boys carve their pumpkins at the time, and told the girls that they could carve their pumpkins closer to Halloween (the actual day) and that Dad would help them...  And that they'd be getting a professional pumpkin carver out of it.  Not that Mac has carved many pumpkins in his life, but he is a surgeon and 5 years of cutting people up should count for something, right? 

Anyway, Isabel bought it, Josie not so much.  But everyone went along with my plan and so I let the boys draw their designs, and then I cut them (to the best of my ability).  Isabel and Josie helped "gut" the pumpkins, pulling all the goo out and making a wonderful mess.  Isabel (bless her) separated the seeds from the stringy slimy stuff, and I roasted the seeds. 

Luke and his jack-o-lantern

Steven and his jack-o-lantern...  

Which he decorated in his own special style for the contest...

Next, costumes.  We of course had not dragged out the Halloween storage bins yet, so it was a "go find dress up stuff" kind of an event.

 

Josie has plenty of everyday dress up attire.  She is a princess, of course.  I found a magic wand somewhere too, so she felt extra special with her "accessory".  And of course, she insisted on Make Up.  When I put a tiny bit of blush on her, and told her she was beautiful, she looked insulted.  See, Grandma has been giving her makeovers for many months now.  How dare I patronize her by only using a little blush.  Sigh.  Sometimes, it's much easier to appease a 3 year old than it is to win an argument with a 3 year old, so I just gave her a tiny bit of eyeshadow and pretended to apply mascara (yes, she demanded mascara), and she was good to go.

Steven and Isabel dressed up as versions of Harry Potter.  I bought them dress up robes for their birthday presents- Isabel has the Hogwarts robe and various accessories, and Steven has the Harry Potter Quidditch robes AND the Quidditch goggles.  Steven and Isabel were too busy playing games at the party and collecting candy...  so I don't have pictures of them at the Cub Scout party.

Luke stuck with the same costume the entire Halloween season.  If you can even call it a costume.  Basically he wears this robe almost every day normally!!  But he called it a "padawan outfit" which is some type of Star Wars Jedi in training.  And the key to the "costume" is the light saber...

The next Halloween Event were the Halloween Parade and class parties at the kids' elementary school.  These happened on the Friday before Halloween.  The kids stuck with easy costumes for this-- since they needed to get ready all by themselves.  Luke was...  A Padawan!!  By this time, he was tired of explaining the term "padawan" so he defined it for them: " it's a jedi apprentice".  That still confused a lot of people, but he was happy!  Isabel and Steven stuck with Harry Potter, but Izzy mixed things up by wearing a witch hat that is her souvenir from a girl scouts outing to see Wicked last year.  Josie wasn't to be left out, even though she's not quite in elementary school yet.  She stayed cozy and warm in her cow costume. 

This is the last elementary school costume parade for Steven and Isabel.

Luke uses the force, while protecting his little cow.

The parties were fun, and got the kids in the spirit for more festivities.  The kids also were able to eat Large Amounts of Sugar!  And since the parties are at the very end of the day, I was able to enjoy the sugar crashes at home.  Very nice. 

The next day, Saturday, we went to a Harvest Festival at a local church.  It was snowing, which was unusual and fun for the kids.  It was a wet, sticky snow, and it didn't stick, but it did make a mess of everything!

Josie raided her dress up box for some more princess clothes.  She found an outfit that looks like Rapunzel, so along with the requisite make-up (thanks mom) she looked Divine.  Izzy stuck with Harry Potter, which is appropriate since she's In Love with Harry Potter.  Luke stuck with his padawan outfit.  And Steven went as a baseball player so that he could carry his mitt and ball around.  Go M's! 

 

 

There were lots of games at the harvest festival, and the kids had so much fun.  Since the weather was not perfect, it was not crowded either!  Bonus!

Whack a Mole game- cute!

Bobbing for Krispy Kreme Donuts- yum!

Face Painting- maybe more special than make-up?

Rapunzel the Cat- with sleepy eyes...

That thing on his cheek is a light saber.  He's a Focused Kid.

We took Sunday off from Halloween Festivities...  Except that Mac made time to carve the girls' pumpkins FINALLY!  Here is a picture of all of the pumpkins as they were glowing on Halloween night. 

Josie chose an owl pattern for her jack-o-lantern.  Steven's pumpkin is above hers, Luke's is on the other side of the lower step, and Isabel's is above Steven's.  Clockwise from owl:  Josie, Steven, Isabel, and Luke!

Then it was Monday.  The Big Day.  October 31, 2011.  Mac had to work (bummer!), but we were busy with other stuff all day anyway.  The kids had the day off of school.  Not for Halloween, just for the ever-ambiguous Professional Day.  We had lots of spare time to get costumes ready for trick-or-treating!  

 

 

Josie went with the Pink Dragon costume.  Luke stuck with the old standard, and so did Isabel.  Steven went as a swimmer.  A swimmer wearing warm up clothes though-- he's not that crazy!!

Mac made it home in time to go trick-or-treating with us all.  Kate didn't want to go with us (I wonder why not?  We are pretty awesome to hang out with...) and her trick-or-treating plans fell through...  I personally think it's silly for teens to trick-or-treat, but...  some of them do.  Anyway, the cool people in our family went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  Since it was a warm night, we stayed out trick-or-treating for much longer than we ever had before-- Mac says it was close to 2 hours.  I was not keeping track of the time...  I prefer to Enjoy The Moment vs Watch The Clock!  (haha) 

Anyway, everyone was exhausted, everyone got a huge haul of candy, and everyone will remember fondly our last Halloween here in Maryland!

It's Harry Potter!!!  Really!!!

Competitive Swimmers do use Floaties...

Wait a minute-- Dragons don't wear make-up!?!

Luckily, Luke's light saber actually lights up (with sound effects).  Very handy for trick-or-treating.

Even though we got home late (at about 8:30), Steven and Isabel could not resist sorting their candy out...  They are STILL eating the candy, a few pieces a day...