Happy Halloween! Seems like Halloween was slowly beginning to take over our lives-- so I'm kind of relieved it's finally November. Now we have a couple of weeks to get back to our normal routine before Thanksgiving and Christmas hit!
Wednesday evening we had a pizza party and carved the pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch last weekend. Unfortunately they were a bit mushy (it's been hot here! In the upper 70's all week), but Lucy was determined to do hers all by herself-- and true to her word she mucked it out and poked the holes.
I finished my jack o' lantern (in honor of Leah's little grin) fairly quickly, and Jon finished Zach's Batman pumpkin in a snap, so meanwhile we watched "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" cartoon while Lucy finished poking her holes. Leah loved the Headless Horseman part-- it had very exciting music!
Jon did the carving on Lucy's beautiful owl pumpkin, and all 3 turned out great! I think one of my favorite scents of Halloween is that faintly cooked pumpkin smell when you've left a burning candle inside for a little while. Reminds me of my childhood!
On Halloween night we threw a party and invited our friends the Durtschi's over. I hardly ever go all out on things like this, but I got excited about some of the things I'd seen on Pinterest, so the kids and I had a blast getting ready. Here are our "Witchy Fingers"--sugar cookies with cocoa powder dusted over, and a slivered almond for a fingernail.
Chocolate dipped Oreo cookie brains and eyeballs.
Donut Vampires!
Monster Mouths with apples, peanut butter, and marshmallows (probably the only slightly healthy item on the menu).
Mummy Dogs and "Three Witches Potions" (cream soda and root beer). We also had taco soup which I loaded with veggies to make up for the complete lack of vitamins in this meal, ha, ha. It's only once a year, right?
Poor Zach could not wait to dig in, and asked like every 20 min. all day long if he could have an eyeball, or a donut, etc. I had some friends post on Facebook yesterday how much they hate Halloween, but I love that Halloween is so fun for kids! I really don't have a problem with all the candy and costumes, etc. I guess it does make more work for me, but it's nice to see my kids happy!
Lucy and Lizzie drinking their potions and chowing down on mummy dogs before the main event.
All the kids lined up and rearin' to go trick or treating. So cute!
Lucy and Lizzie are two very beautiful witches!
My little Minion! She was very tired and lasted about 2 houses in the stroller, and then was a good sport as long as she was being carried. Jon had competed in a 6 mile "Zombie Rucksack Run" on base earlier that day with the Special Forces guys, where they have to run with a backpack weighing 30 lbs., so he was exhausted. And he finished in 3rd place. I know. He's awesome. But it meant I got stuck carrying Leah on our 90 minute trick or treating trek, and she's heavy! I kept remembering last year when I was hugely pregnant and lugging that kid around, so it put it in perspective. And then she was born 1 week later!
My little ghosties all set to cover some serious ground. I love Zach's action pose!
Aaaaand 2 miles, 90 minutes later. Zach ended up riding in the stroller, but Lucy and Lizzie walked, er, or ran at breakneck speed the whole time and were absolutely exhausted by the time we finished. The houses in our neighborhood are seriously far apart-- so they had to work for that candy! You can see how full their buckets are though, so it was worth it. Happy Halloween!
