I heart Halloween!

I just love Halloween. Well, I love kids in cute costumes, I should say. There is a lot about Halloween that I don't love--all the gore and nastiness, but dressing up kids in cuteness and showing them off is just too fun!

Let's see, where to start...How about at the costume planning/acquiring phase...

I'm sure any of you who know anything about us would assume that John would want to be a dinosaur for Halloween, and you're right. However, we couldn't find anything except for little toddlers' costumes. I was trying to figure out how I could make something, but then he fell in love with something completely different while we were shopping one day--Spiderman. Well, sure, why not, except I knew he couldn't wear the hood/mask for the church party, and I didn't think he'd like to wear it anyway, so I decided I'd improvise a hat for him instead. He ended up loving it so much, he was just proud as punch. Oh, but we didn't have this figured out for the first pictures where he is in the fireman costume. He was not happy about having to wear that old dress up thing, but I knew he'd have fun at the Mall of America costume parade, so I made him choose one of the dress up things we already had to wear for the Tuesday activity.

And for my Sara, well, a princess, of course. She couldn't really decide who she wanted to be, but after I saw a Cinderella costume on Ebay for pennies, "her" mind was made up. Did you see the shoes? I mean, really! I want some!

They didn't win the prize at the Mall contest, but I thought they were the cutest. Then they got to trick-or-treat around the amusement park, where they got a book, a Blue's Clues bookmark, and a deck of Dora and Diego cards. They did have a lot of fun at that, and I loved stretching out the whole week of fun!






On Wednesday we had school at our house and made a jack-o-lantern for our school party the next day. Sara chose how to do the eyes, and John chose how to do the mouth. Can you tell what it is? Why, a snake of course! I'm not sure how he came up with that, but I actually thought it was pretty cool. I love how excited John was to help empty out the pumpkin, until he tried it. Gross!

On Wednesday night we had our church "Trunk or Treat" party, where they had games set up for the kids inside and then they got to make the rounds in the parking lot. We were really surprised at how many adults were there in costume. Uh, we did not dress up, but it was a fun time anyway. The games were pretty cute and they got to "win" prizes, so they loved that. And of course they got SO excited collecting candy, and it wasn't too cold that night, either, so it was a lot of fun.

I forgot to mention that the whole day Wednesday Sara had been saying she changed her mind and wanted to be the cow that we have. What? My heart was broken, and I really was excited for her to be Cinderella, so I compromised and told her she could be the cow for the school party the next day. I'm glad she agreed to wear the Cinderella stuff to the church party, because of course she was a hit. All the ladies noticed her shoes, which were cool, although not authentic (the glass slipper is kind of key to the story, right?), but oh, well! I didn't love the crown for authenticity sake either, but it looked cute, so we went with it. I tried to do her hair the "right" way, but I'm not as talented as Margie in that arena (remember when Hallie was Cinderella? Cutest thing ever!), but I did pull off an "up-do." I could have used Alyssa's bumpit... :o)




Thursday was the school party, so they got to wear their costumes again. So, Sara was the cow this time. We made sugar cookies and mummy pigs in a blanket, so that was a fun little "partay" with our one other school friend. I only took this one picture and then recorded them singing their songs, so it used up all the memory. I saw a magazine with the cute mummies--just take refrigerator breadsticks and cut them into thin strips and then wrap a hot dog (leaving a little space for the face) and bake them. I thought they were pretty cute. Wish I had taken a picture...

So, all of this partying and we aren't even to Halloween yet. We went trick-or-treating tonight with our friends who live a few streets over, so there were six kids 5 and under in our little group. They were pretty cute. Oh, but it was like 35 degrees out, so I knew Sara would never last in the dress, and I didn't want to just put a coat on her, so we put her in the chicken costume. I bought it two years ago on an after Halloween sale just to have as a dress up, and they have almost never worn it. Sara was actually excited to wear it though, and she was warm. We tried to talk John into wearing his tiger costume from last year, since that would have been much warmer, but he didn't want to. We layered him up and he didn't complain too much, so I think he was on an adrenaline rush in the excitement of the night and didn't feel the cold. I did and I had my winter coat on! Oh, and all of a sudden, Mr. Anti-Halloween had become the Uni-bomber. Pretty convincing, if you ask me. Yikes.




After every house, they'd announce what had been given and check it out. They were happy with all of it. Cuties. Too excited to stop and pose for me...

This ghost was on a line and moved back and forth--John was pretty intrigued, but not scared.


So, that was our Halloween. I should have taken a picture of all the goods. Maybe tomorrow...if there is any left by then. Just kidding! I think I have my year's supply--does that count toward my food storage?