Halloween Strikes Again

(Disclaimer: Our graphics card is not happy with us at the moment and as a result, the formatting of the text and pictures you see bears little to no resemblance to what I put together. Sorry.)




For some reason Halloween is popular with our kids. In spite of recent, time-consuming, additions to our crew, we managed to fit in all the important activities.


The Halloween Stand:

As usual, Ellie and her friend, Abby, concocted their own plan for an activity. Rather than a costume parade like last year, they planned a Halloween stand where they would sell all things Halloween. Ellie and Abby (and Nico and Grace to a minor extent) spent the last month drawing Halloween pictures, making homemade Halloween mazes and other games, and then Monica and I drummed up some Halloween treats. Grandparents of both girls showed up with financial support and kudos to Monica for getting the word out to all her neighbors and "encouraging" them to come. If I'd had any more family around, you'd better believe that you'd all be encouraged to come too. In the end, it was a raging success and nearly all the goods sold.


Pumpkin picking:

Although the patch was not nearly as cool as last year's location, it was a veritable sea of possible jack-o-lanterns.









Anders and Liam came along too.











The Big Day:


Every year I let the kids choose what they want to be and then I do my darnedest to make it happen. Nico picked a skeleton. I was simply delighted! We already had a skeleton costume in our dress up bin, and he was happy to wear it. Hallelujah! Ellie however, picked a phoenix. We did not have a phoenix costume and I defy any of you to find one for sale. They simply don't exist. So, yet again I got to make a costume. Let me just say that my $12 hot glue gun is one of my better life's purchases. The costume turned out better than I could have hoped and the most important part is that Ellie loves it. Wahoo!

Here you can see Ellie "in flight," and the kids in action at our neighbor's house.












The kids also got to carve their pumpkins today - with Alex's help. Nico went with a more traditional approach while Ellie decided to model her pumpkin after her phoenix self.

Nico was happy about his pumpkin, just not having his picture taken.












It was a great Halloween, and if the candy haul is any indication, the kids will be enjoying it for many days to come.