A Dragon, A Ninja, A Teenager in Orange and Black

Our entire family dresses up each year for Halloween.  Blood, guts and horror are not allowed and we encourage creativity and thriftiness.  For years, I dressed up as a pumpkin.  One year Hannah asked why I was always a pumpkin.  She couldn't imagine choosing the same costume year after year.  In my mind, I thought it was great for my kids that their mom would dress up.  Perspective.  The last couple of years, I have been a scarecrow.  It was a cheap costume to put together: overalls, raffia to look like straw, some hot glue, a flannel shirt from the Goodwill and a straw hat.



This year Hannah wanted to be a dragon queen.  She has some dragon wings she bought at the Renaissance Festival.  She bought red paint for her face and I bought a set that is supposed to be a devil's tail and horns for a few dollars.  Dressing as a devil is on our "no" list, but she just used the tail which worked well for a dragon.  She has a couple dragon puppets she also bought a the Renaissance Festival and she put one on her shoulder.

Aaron decided to go as a ninja.  He has a black belt and just wore black.  He made a throwing star out of paper.



PK was his usual wizard sporting his Harvard robe and a hat.



Rachel wore the same thing she did last year.  There is a rule in the county that kids over twelve can't trick-or-treat, so Rachel happily walked around with us.



Hannah spent several hours making a costume for Holly.  She was a princess.  The costume lasted about two minutes, but Hannah was just glad that we managed to snap a few pictures.



Several years ago roast and veggies with pumpkin muffins became our traditional Halloween dinner.  It is an easy crockpot meal which is helpful on a night where kids need to get into costumes and have some fun before bedtime since Halloween usually falls on a school night.



We enjoyed our yummy dinner and then met up with our neighbors to trick-or-treat through the neighborhood.

Aaron and Hannah finished up the night with their annual candy swap.  They set up a place to conduct the swap and make a boundary line (in this case the computer cord).

Then on of them will put down a piece of candy they are willing to trade.  Aaron has offered up a FULL size Hershey Bar.

The other person offers up a trade.  Hannah has offered up a miniature Twix, Milk Duds and Rolos.



The trade is either accepted or rejected.  They continue this until they one person has no more candy they are willing to trade.

Pumpkins and Power Tools

Carving pumpkins is a favorite tradition.  Rachel didn't want to carve one this year.  The kids' least favorite part has always been scooping out the "guts" and I think she was just over it.  Maybe next year.



Aaron and Hannah enjoy having free use of the sharp knives and I cringe with each move they making praying they don't miss and stab themselves.  PK really enjoys this activity, too.  Again, I think it is the use of sharp objects. 

 



This year power tools were mentioned and PK thought that was a great idea, so he pulled out the drill to help Hannah with some details.  I was a bit worried when the power tools came out.

 



In the end, everyone had all the fingers and blood they started with, cute pumpkins and seeds to roast.

Next year I am going to carve a pumpkin using the drill and just make small holes all over it.  I think it will be really pretty when the lights shines through.

Dorothy, Captain Kirk, A Trick-or-Treater, A Scarecrow and A Wizard



P.K. was off work on Halloween this year which made it extra fun.  We had pot roast for dinner which for some reason has become our traditional Halloween dinner.  Then we all went out to trick-or-treat.

 

Dorothy with Toto

 





A Trick-or-Treater

 

 

Captain Kirk

 



A wizard with his favorite Trick-or-Treater

 



A Candy Corn Witch, A Navy Seal, A Lady GaGa Trash Bag and A Scarecrow

I'm pretty certain that "Candy Corn Witch" and "Navy Seal" have made the title of the Halloween post before.  However, I am not going to argue with kids who want to recycle Halloween costumes.

Aaron decided he wanted to be a Navy Seal again because he gave his friend, Coleman, a set of Navy cammies for his birthday and they could match.

Hannah was going to be a character from a movie called Legally Blonde and carry Holly in a purse because the main character has a chihuahua.  A couple weeks before Halloween she decided she wanted to wear one of Rachel's old costumes.  I was glad because I really didn't want to take Holly trick-or-treating with us.

A few weeks ago Rachel went on a three day field trip to Jekyll Island with the science class from school.  One of her friends, Roxie, didn't pack a rain poncho so when it started raining the teacher made one from a garbage bag.  The girls thought that was hilarious, so they decided to wear garbage bags for Halloween.  One of the girls decided that Lady Gaga would dress them up with yellow caution tape.  Since they couldn't find yellow caution tape, they just used duct tape.  Honestly, I thought it was ridiculous.  However, I didn't say anything.  It wasn't a scary costume (at least monster scary) and they were having fun.

I have always dressed up with the kids.  For many years I have worn my pumpkin costume.  My thought was that the kids would look back and think it was cool that their mom always dressed up with them, but Hannah just can't figure out why I would want to be "the same ol' boring pumpkin every year."  For Hannah's sake, I decided to find a new costume.  I thought a scarecrow would be fun.  I hot glued on some patches and straw, used a hat from Hannah's safari themed birthday party a few years ago and painted my face.  To Rachel's horror, I wore my costume to pick her up in carpool.

Aaron went to Coleman's house so they could go trick-or-treating together.

Sarah was trying to get a picture of them together and told them to act like they liked each other so they pretended like they were going to kiss.  They were mortified that Sarah actually took the picture.  This will haunt them for years to come.

A Herpetologist, A Zookeeper and Candy Corn

Rachel was invited to trick or treat with a friend this year and sleepover at the friend's house, so this is the first year that we trick or treated without her. We made it to about six houses with Aaron and Hannah before it began pouring rain. There was trick or treating at the mall, but by the time we got there all the stores were already out of candy. The kids were so disappointed. We felt so bad for them that we took them to WalMart and let them pick out their own bag of candy. Aaron said, "I can't say this is the best Halloween I've ever had, but I can say it is one I will never forget."

As usual PK and I dressed up this year, but we neglected to get a picture.

Aaron was a herpetologist.

Hannah was a zookeeper. She pulled several of her stuffed jungle animals in the the wagon until it started to rain.

Rachel was candy corn. The costume was actually a candy corn witch, but we just said candy corn. She tried on a costume that actually was candy corn, but it was too small.

A Fall Celebration

Friday was Hannah's Fall Celebration (we all know it was really a Halloween Party, but some people don't celebrate Halloween which I can respect and each class is only allowed one party a year so if we call it a celebration it really isn't a party) at school. I am privileged to be the room parent her class, as well as Aaron's class this year. Luckily, the third graders don't celebrate as much as the kindergartners or I couldn't keep up.

Aaron's class was easy. They were neither partying nor celebrating for Halloween or Fall, so I sent in some cookies (store bought even) that they could have as a snack and some treat bags to go home at the end of the day.

For Hannah's class celebration I set up three stations: snack, craft and games. We all know I love to do kids' parties! Hannah's teacher had suggested the little spiders made out of crackers and chow mein noodles for the snack. I like those, but I wanted it to be a bit more fun, so I adjusted a recipe for homemade Oreos that Aaron's teacher had given me. It starts with a devil's food cake mix and uses cream cheese frosting as the center. I used chocolate frosting because I wanted the spiders to be all brown. I used pretzels for the legs and a dot of gel to hold red hots in place for the eyes. I made a batch early in the week and let my kids try it out as a trial run.

I love these silly faces I managed to capture! Hannah decided to give her spider fangs.

These went over really well at the party.

This is Hannah and her half eaten spider at the class party.

This is Hannah's teacher, Mrs. Honeycutt, eating her spider. She is being so expressive because the kids at the snack station were instructing her on how to make and eat her spider. It was hilarious.

We had two games at the game station. One was pumpkin bowling and the other was a take on the Grand Prize Game from the old Bozo Show. (Does anyone remember that? I must have dated myself when I tried to explain it to some people because I got several blank stares.) In my version, there were four Halloween buckets set up in a row. Each child took a turn trying to toss a ball into each bucket. Instead of doing goody bags, the kids got a prize for each bucket and bowling.

This is one of Hannah's classmates playing the bucket toss. It is the only picture I took of that game.

These are the pumpkins that Hannah and I made for the bowling. They are the larger plastic bottles from flavored water. We poured orange paint inside with just a couple drops of water and shook the bottles to cover the insides with paint. Then I glued on the lids and added a brown piece of felt for the stems. The vines are some green twisty things my kids had used to make their Leprechaun traps. They had shamrocks on them, but they worked perfectly.

Here is Hannah taking her turn at Pumpkin Bowling.

P.K. was able to come in and run the game station. After each child played the bucket toss game, P.K. would ask them a Halloween riddle for a bonus prize. That was his own special touch.

The craft was a pumpkin sun catcher. Each child was given a pumpkin shape cut out of contact paper. We taped it to the table sticky side up. The kids then covered it with a variety of orange things (feathers, ribbon, sequence, etc.).

This is a shot of orange things spread across the table.

Here is Hannah hard at work on her pumpkin. The brown spot at the top of her pumpkin is the stem made out of felt.

There were enough parent volunteers to have two parents at each station and allow me to walk around and supervise or help as needed and allow the teachers to enjoy the party. I was very happy with the way the party turned out.

Scary Spiritual Pumpkins

Since Rachel has been really little, we have usually painted our pumpkins instead of carving them. It is easier and believe it or not less messy.

Last year the kids decided they wanted to carve instead of paint.

This picture of Aaron is from last year (makes me miss our old house just a little) and the expression on his face pretty much sums up how all three of the kids felt about actually getting the "guts" out of the pumpkin. I was sure they would all want to go back to painting this year.

However, Rachel is the only one who decided to paint.

Yesterday I took the three kiddos to WalMart and let them each pick a pumpkin. Rachel found hers right away. Aaron looked at a couple and Hannah made me dig through the boxes to find what she had imagined to be the perfect pumpkin.

The pumpkins before the kids apply their creative abilities. Isn't the tablecloth fun? I found it on clearance last year. It is vinyl and easy to clean.

I think this is a sweet picture.

They cleaned their pumpkins.

They used dry erase markers to draw the faces they wanted to be carved in their pumpkins.

Their expressions clearly show that they aren't thrilled about scooping out the insides of the pumpkin. Aaron is actually helping Hannah clean out her pumpkin.

Hannah's heart seed.

Rachel painting hers.

P.K. helped Aaron carve his.

The finished products.

We obviously have Halloween traditions that we follow in our home each year. Our whole family dresses up. I'm always a pumpkin, P.K. is always a wizard (he puts his robe from his Harvard graduation to good use once a year) and the kids choose whatever they want to be. I steer them away from anything scary or gory and we just have fun as a family. (P.K. won't be here this year, but that is a different post.) That said, this is where the title of this post comes in. I carved Hannah's pumpkin and then P.K. carved Aaron's. While Hannah was waiting for them to finish she was making her pumpkin say things. Her pumpkin starts saying, "I'm a scary spiritual pumpkin. I'm a scary spiritual pumpkin." Go figure.