Happy Halloween!!!!

Halloween!

After picking up the boys from school, the afternoon passed quickly getting ready for the big night. The kids were SO excited.

The boys were asking why our house doesn't have any "spooky" decorations. I am not a fan of "spooky" on my house. But while they were at school I surprised them and decorated the chandelier with a paper ghost and some doily spider webs that were given to me. They were delighted. :)



This is as spooky as I get.



I managed to set a cute table with things that I already had on hand.



And we had our traditional dinner ~ papa murphy's pumpkin pizza!



Then it was time for some photos.



Matthew was Mario.
This costume was something else. ;)



Andrew was a storm trooper.
Gone are the days of the firefighter and the dalmatian puppy.

Sigh.

And while I miss those sweet costumes, the tradeoff is the joy in the expressions of the children as they are transformed into a favorite character and exuberantly run around the house.



Just like last year, the Bug was not having the photos. Turkey!
She curled up in a little ball and refused to participate.



It worked out just fine as the pouting made lovely photos.

I don't remember exactly what I said that prompted the next photo, but probably expressed some disappointment in her behavior because this was the response....



Which is always accompanied with, "Mama, you made me sad."

That cry is complete fakery, so don't feel too badly for her.  I am a complete cream puff when it comes to my kids being (authentically) sad, so don't let this make you feel badly.  (Ahem, Nana).  :)



She did finally do her signature pose for me.





And then we were off! The kids were thrilled. Katie was sprinting from house to house and yelling, "I LOVE trick-or-treating!!!!" As usual, she was confident and had no concerns about approaching a stranger's door and asking for candy!



Andrew was a little pouty that night, but snapped right out of it whenever we approached a "spooky" house. He would bravely lead his siblings to the steps with scary witches and spider webs, while Matthew and Katie hung back.

Matthew had received an invitation to go trick or treating with some classmates. He really wanted to go, and so after we did some family time, he and Dan broke off and found the big group of 2nd grade boys and dads. We bumped into them at one point...



It was a little bit of mayhem.

Andrew and Katie lasted an hour and then we headed back to the house to hand out candy.  I didn't think they would last that long and felt badly that our house was unattended.

They had a GREAT time answering the door ~ taking turns holding the candy and opening the door.  Andrew saw classmates and Katie got lots of attention from the bigger kids for being little and cute, which she just eats up.



They wasted no time dumping their bags and enjoying the fruits of their labor. Matthew and Dan returned later with cold pink cheeks and a bag FULL of candy.

It was a wonderful night, we had a GREAT Halloween. I admit, I am not a huge fan of Halloween. I don't like scary things and it's just not my thing. But am happy to pretend otherwise for the kids. And I have to say, the kids are just at the perfect ages for these holidays to be so much fun. I'm enjoying every second of it.

Harvest Party

Katie's harvest party was the morning of Halloween. She was SO excited to be wearing her costume to school! I made some cute little treats for her pre-school friends that I saw on Pintrest (along with free printables found there too! What a fun resource!)



When we arrived we saw Miss Sharon (the director of the school).  I had forgotten that she dresses as the tooth fairy each year, and thought it was so cute that she and Katie looked so much alike.  A photo was in order.



I took a quick picture of the Bug and Super Gracie!



Andrew got Katie settled in her chair.  He loves to see the little kids ~ I think he'd be happy to leave kindergarten and go back to pre-school again.



I would have loved to have stayed, but we have a standing Tuesday appointment for therapy for Andrew, so I'll be missing a lot of the fun things at school this year.  I feel disappointed about that, and it makes me sad, but hopefully I'll get to go next year.  And I do know that I need to prioritize Andrew's development right now.  However, Shannon got to stay and was able to take some photos for me, which I really appreciated.  Here is the whole class....



I love the awkwardness of three year olds in photos like this.  I think it's so cute. :)

This next one is darling. :)



Shannon said that Katie got to be "line leader" as they went trick or treating around the building and that she was loving it. 

Miss Sharon always talks to the kids about brushing their teeth and gives them toothbrushes.  I love how Katie is looking at miss Sharon.  Mesmerized.

Katie returned home happy as could be.  She had a wonderful time ~ I am so grateful for this little school and their fun traditions.  I can hardly believe our last child is on her way through.



The fun didn't end there ~ up next, Trick or Treating!

Pumpkin Carving!

The afternoon before Halloween we carved pumpkins.





Such focus!



The kids drew the faces that they wanted Dan to carve on their pumpkins.



Except Katie who sort of just colored in some pieces and then decided she'd rather me draw the face per her dication.

The finished artwork, ready to carve!





Pumpkin carving is serious business at our house.

:)



The kids were anxious to see inside.



Ewwwwww!

There was some mild drama over someone not wanting their pumpkin "to be killed."



We broke the news that it was already dead.

Someone else had to pretend to be a baby.



Dan is so NOT a fan of this.

Our tradition has become taking the kids' photos with their pumpkins in their halloween jammies. It started by accident one year and made such a cute picture, I've just kept doing it.
Katie was SO excited about her skeleton jammies, she made up a song all about the "bones in her body."





All ready for Halloween!!!

Trick-Or-Treat!!

 

Halloween was a lot of fun this year.  

I really missed Dan who left early that morning for Austria (he was very sad to go), but I was glad Mom was there with me.  The kids are at such fun ages for this!

We had pizza for dinner, which is our tradition.

(Papa Murphy's has a fun Jack-o-lantern pizza each year).

The children ate and were SO excited to get started. Oh, they were so cute in their costumes! :) 

Here is Matthew a Jedi Master O-B-Wan-Kenobi. He was more than happy to strike Jedi poses for me...

This is actually the same costume he wore last year, but with the addition of a Jedi Robe.

Andrew was our brave Knight. My Mom made him this amazing costume for his birthday.

And the Bug was an angel this year. I received the wings and hair piece at her baby shower and I was excited that she fit into it this year!  I put together a costume around it and she just looked so sweet. It's unfortunate that she didn't feel like posing for a photo.

Have you ever seen a pouting angel?

Here she is "dancing"...

A duel broke out on the front yard between a medieval knight and a futuristic Jedi.

You don't see that every day.

Love this next one. That's my cheerful Andrew.   This captures the activity level during my days.

It was finally the moment the children had been waiting for. Time to Trick-Or-Treat!

Of course, Halloween is always an opportunity to discuss manners and the kids did great.  Matthew decided to take it to the next level and went beyond "Thank You" and started complimenting people on their Halloween decor.  He is something else.
 
Andrew is at the age where he is making observations about people and how they might be different and then commenting on those differences--whether positive or negative.  I'm now at the point where if we're at the grocery store and I see Andrew studying someone closely I try to move quickly away before he has a chance to remark (last time it was "Mama, she looks OLD."  When someone stopped to admire Kaitlin.)  When we were trick or treating, we went to the door of one house and when they answered Andrew said really loudly, "Mama! Their house smells STINKY."  The worst part?  We are acquaintances with those people.

Then, at the very next house he said, "Mama, their house isn't sticky!"  With the emphasis placed in a way that made it sound like perhaps I had told him it really was stinky and he was in disagreement.  Life is never dull or boring with our little Andrew around!  :)

Here they are at our pastor's house...(where they were sweetly given "special" treatment with extra candy.) :) It's so neat that we live so close to them.

Andrew and Kaitlin lasted a while, but then Andrew asked, "Mama, do I have to fill the whole thing?" (his bag).   Nana took Andrew and Kaitlin home, while Matthew and I pressed on. (Nana later said they had a great time answering the door).

We walked up to Matthew's friend's house where his mom called the group he was trick or treating with and they met up with me and Matthew. It was me and four Dads. :) I wasn't sure about how that would go, but they were so nice.  I'm sure they probably were wishing that I would just stop talking! Matthew had a great time with his friends. We stayed out for an hour and a half--our Trick-Or-Treating record!

We returned home where Matthew promptly organized, categorized and counted his candy.

This isn't a great photo, but I loved how the evening ended. Andrew and Kaitlin came downstairs from being bathed. When Andrew saw Matthew the first thing he said was, "Matthew! I saved some candy for you!" Because while we haven't quite gotten down the social graces, Andrew is hands down our most generous child.  Then we sat down and had a sweet feast.

A big Thank you to Nana for helping out!