Halloween 2012

Some Halloweens are better than others, and this year was SO FUN! Maybe it was because the older kids were capable enough to make their own pumpkins and costumes, maybe it was because the weather was awesomely perfect with a big moon coming up over the mountains, maybe it was because the kids actually appreciated and ate my spooky (healthy) dinner before trick-or-treating, maybe it was because of all the fun and creative things our neighbors did that made me feel like I'm lucky to live around so many great people . . . who knows! But with all those things combined together, it made for a really great Halloween. Here are the pics . . .

I still don't know how I feel about Will and Elizabeth's elementary school NOT having a Halloween parade (who ever heard of such a thing?), but part of me was actually relieved not have to rush out the door with a camera in hand at 9am. (Especially since I am rarely showered at that hour . . .) At least Rachael's pre-school had a parade in the afternoon, and you better believe I was there. She was a bat, and very proud of it. We found this semi-homemade (it called for safety pins, no sewing) costume on "Activity TV" under "Kids" when I was trying to navigate the ON DEMAND cable feature one day that I hardly ever use. There was an entire section of "how-to" videos for Halloween costumes and she was dead set on this one for weeks leading up to Halloween: 

  

The hysterical principal and his minions:

Again, with Halloween landing in the middle of a busy school week, we were scrambling a bit to finish up Jack-o-Lanterns and costumes after school on Wednesday. I actually let Will skip orchestra (gasp!) and even called Kate's harp teacher to re-schedule. I mean, really, people! It's Halloween!

The little girls helped me with some of the "spooky" food I was preparing for dinner. I was so relieved that everyone ate a fairly decent amount of real food before heading out for trick-or-treating. (As I wipe the Reese's from the corners of my mouth. . . I'm not the only mother who swipes from their kids' stash while they're at school, right?)

Monster Jaws:

(Those are slivered almonds . . .)

Black bean soup with a sour cream spider web on top:

(Just put the sour cream a baggie and snip a hole in the end to pipe.)

Bloody worm burgers:

(Gotta love the sucker resting on the bowl between the soup and the sandwhich . . .)

(Sliced and boiled hot dogs dipped in BBQ sauce.)

The kids watching "Nightmare Before Christmas" while eating. Kate is a HUGE Time Burton fan:

This cute and easy craft came home with Elizabeth from her class party:

Kate decided MONTHS ago she wanted to be "No Face" from Spirited Away for Halloween. Other than taking her to JoAnn's for the fabric, she made this entire costume on her own. Sewed the cloak, painted the mask, attached it with hot glue to the cloak . . . I think it turned out really cool!

And creepy . . .

Elizabeth made life easy by resurrecting Kate's old devil costume. Don't tell her, but she's way too cute to be a devil:

She's not at all shy about posing--which I didn't even ask her to do. What a riot:

The Bat, in character, with her baby bat on her chest (in case you were wondering). It's just a toy we already had in the house that has magnetic wings for clipping onto things:

I kind of talked Will into being a garden gnome. (Those cheeks! He'd be perfect!) He went for it, and ended up having a lot of fun pulling this costume together. Brandon and I helped him a bit with the hat and beard, but otherwise he pretty much did it by himself:

(If you're going to make a homemade beard, buy something called "wool roving"--it's perfect! And the "boots" are just black soccer socks pulled over his hiking shoes and sweats. The hat is made from a red gift bag, cut and hot glued together.)

The Fearsome Foursome:

Our first trick or treaters. Our neighborhood isn't completely filled in yet, so I didn't anticipate we'd get many people coming by, but then I quickly rememered when these boys asked where the "castle house" was that we do have a home in the neighborhood that is a draw. These funny boys (who thanked me for not being "racist" against "children" of their age who still want to go trick-or-treating--they were so funny) were dressed as a pioneer woman, Harry Styles from One Direction, and "Indy" the individual, he said. I pointed out to him that he could also be "Indy the Indian" because of his tee. . .

I took Kate to her friend's house so they could go out together, and on the way back home stopped by this awesome house for Will to trick-or-treat since he was in the car with me:

Elizabeth took off with her friends, but Will's friend couldn't go until later, so he hung around with me, Brandon, and Rachael for an hour or so. Rachael adores Will, so she loved having him take her door to door:

 Couldn't resist this picture:

This guy won Fun Neighbor Of The Night--hands down. First of all, he and his wife teach Rachael's Sunday School class, so when we noticed her looking like she was about to wet her pants we felt comfortable asking them if she could use their bathroom. (Whew!) Next, I found out he is the man behind Stephen's Gourmet Hot Cocoa which is pretty much how all Utahans sustain themselves through the long, cold winters here (MAJOR points right there . . .), but what really won me over was that this guy was sitting in a big upholstered chair on his porch DOING KARAOKE all night! I couldn't stop smiling when we came back down the other side of the street later on and he was out there with a big group of teenagers just rockin' it. SO fun:

Runner-up for Fun Neighbor Of The Night was a guy across the way from us whose dad, we found out, happens to be a mortician. Check out his ride (and wig) every year on Halloween night:

His girls and their friends were riding in the back with sleeping bags. Isn't that just awesome?

Love the skeletons scaling the wall . . .

You've got to appreciate a bearded man in a dress:

This was oin his front lawn:

 Next stop, our old neighborhood!

LOVE these guys for mowing their lawn into a "Y" the entire football season:

The must-stop house where (rumor has it) cute Marci makes about 500 doughnuts a year. Brandon got a little carried away with the powdered sugar:

And you can't miss the annual showing of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" on the side of their house:

Here comes that gorgeous moon:

No picture, but the other "must-stop" house in our old neighborhood rigged a pulley system on their porch this year with a seriously freaky "thing" that would fly into the faces of Trick-or-Treaters who approached the porch. You should have heard Elizabeth scream! But she was just fine once she got home and surveyed her stash:

The bat sheds her wings for a dip in the candy:

Watching the rest of the movie while stuffing their faces:

 Happy days are here again . . .

The combination of the orange pumpkins and the orange lights on our porch made for a warm and fun atmosphere. Like I said, we didn't anticipate many trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood, so we all went to the neighborhood next door and just left a big bucket of candy behind for people to help themselves. I don't know how many people actually came by, but it was totally empty when we got home!

A fun, fun night.

Next up, Thanksgiving!

For a seriously inspiring and heart-warming read, you must click here NOW! Talk about putting motherhood into perspective. (But get out the tissues first . . .)