Halloween Fun 2011

These first few pictures are from Andy's cell phone, but hopefully you can see how much fun these kids had getting their pumpkins ready for Halloween. We have a traditional Family Home Evening Activity of carving pumpkins and the lesson is always about the scriptures from Matthew 5:15-16 that read, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." and "Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house." Then we have to light the pumpkins of course! Kassi opted to paint her pumpkin this year and had a blast:

I bet you haven't seen a pumpkin with legs and heels before?!? She is quite the creative artist lately. She just started her own book and had a meltdown over the fact that she accidentally drew 2 ears on one side of the head. She wasn't too happy with my attempts to help her hide the 2nd ear with some hair. She is too much fun!!!

Jesi added her own creative touches by making her very own paper witch hat, shoes and arms! She never ceases to amaze us with her creativity! Drew did a great job carving most of his at scouts and then we finished it up at home. I tried to coax him back to the table for a picture, but he was having too much fun playing with our neighbor friends who you will notice are inseparable with our kiddos! They enjoyed this night together and then you will notice they trick-or-treated with our kiddos on Halloween night!

Hanging out with our friends and the tomato cage ghosts on the front porch. The kids LOVE helping me put up these ghosts each year - it is like lighting the Christmas tree each year! (And, the best part is they cost me about 10 cents for the felt on their faces since the fabric was free at a yard sale and the tomato cages and lights were already around - I promise they look much better at night without a flashing camera!) Halloween night Kassi decided to be a bumble bee, Kassi was a fairy princess, Drew was a golfer and for sake of warmth, Nathan was a bunny rabbit!

I think maybe he wanted to be a cowboy instead?!? He kept sitting on his little pumpkin.

This is one of the monster pumpkins we grew in the garden this year. Andy opted for us to carve the smaller ones since they had a little less gunk in them and they weren't quite as lopsided - these had to be propped up to not fall over. But, then again, the one Andy helped Kassi pick out was very lopsided too and had to be propped up. I didn't tease him too bad about that :).

Kassi Halloween night with her pumpkin.

Notice all the finishing touches she added to her pumpkin!

Our princess fairy Jesi with her pumpkin and the other monster pumpkin from the garden.

Golfer Drew with his pumpkin.

So far the kids take after their mom and dad who don't care to spend a lot of time or money on Halloween costumes - they always just want to pick something out of our dress up box, which is fine with us :). It's a woman's prerogative to change her mind right? We've had enough experiences in the past with crying girls to know that it isn't worth it to spend lots of time or money on a costume - it usually changes 2 or 3 times before Halloween anyway! I borrowed a beautiful Cinderella dress for Jesi to wear this year and Kassi cried for an hour when she saw that Jesi was going to get to wear it. Then Jesi decided not to wear it anyway. :). Drew doesn't take part in the drama. He just decides last minute what he wants to be and goes for it (and never rolls his eyes at the frequent eruptions from our occasional drama queens).

Two days before Halloween we had a neighborhood dinner and trunk-or-treat at the church. I was planning on Nathan being a sailor, but somehow misplaced his hat. We had some conductor hats from Andy's grandpa's 90th b-day party where all the kids sang "I've been working on the Railroad" to grandpa since he worked on the railroad. It was so cute. Anyway, so Nathan and I last minute decided to be train conductors and Andy last minute decided to be "WARM" since he was assigned to direct parking :). His dad used to wear this outfit skiing. The next photo is cute of little train conductor Nathan and not too bad of the little miss "ballerina princess fairy" that snuck into the picture either!

Kassi originally wanted to be a "ballerina princess fairy" - so that is what she dressed up as for the trunk-or-treat party - she just didn't have her wings and wand with her yet. Jesi actually decided to be the same thing both nights! Maybe she has outgrown that indecisive phase?!? Then again, she was very excited about being Cinderella for about 24 hours a few days before :)!

Drew was more of an old-fashioned golfer for the trunk-or-treat. Pretty handsome kid if you ask me! I'm trying to think if I have a picture of him without this peace sign. He is such a cool dude these days!

At the party, our pumpkins were used to help decorate the tables. Kassi's pumpkin won the "Most Artsy Award" - no surprise there! Drew won the "Funniest Jack-o-Lantern Award" and Jesi won the "Outstanding Traditional Carving Award". Unfortunately the awards got a little water damage, so this will have to do for posterity :).

I had to post this picture for those of you who would be grossed out like I was! We found this dead bat under our deck a month or two before Halloween. Isn't that nasty?!? We let Andy dispose of it when he got home from work. Anyway, hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!!!