Halloween 2011

Last night we went over to my cousin's house so our whole crew could trick or treat together.  This is something that we've done for a few years now and we always look forward to it! We get to pig out, hang with the family, and the kids get to trick or treat and then play with each other for awhile.  I was bummed that it was on a school day, but we still had a great time anyway.

Aiden could barely stand still which explains why I don't have any pictures of him with just Emma while he's in his full costume. There were 7 kids total so he had better things to do than stand next to Emma and get pictures taken.  Oh well.  Emma wasn't too sure of what to think of some costumes.  She was slightly terrified of Ronnie's skeleton costume and really scared of the mummy in Ron & Kelly's front yard!

The older kids ran house to house getting all kinds of candy. Yum! Can't wait to eat some of that myself!  Emma would walk up to the houses with you, but once you got up there her fear of strangers kicked in and she would make that "I'm freaking out" noise and want you to hold her.  She still made out pretty well and cleaned up at one house.  Must have been because she was the cutest little Snow White you've ever seen!

The kids had an awesome time and after running around getting all hopped up on M & M's and Skittles it was time to call it a night.

Emma's chunky feet squished into her pretty shoes

Minnie Mouse Ava

Checking out all the spooky stuff in the front yard

Minnie, Wario, & Mario

Wario (Hunter) & Mario (Aiden)

Trying to get a group shot

Emma does NOT want to be a part of this picture

Minus Ava and Emma

All the kids are ready for trick or treat!

Scary Ronnie!

Elmo

She couldn't take her eyes off the stuff in the yard

Brynn

Ava and her date :-)

Trick or Treat!!

Emma trick or treating at the first house

I got a toothbrush!!

 

 

 

 

 

 And since I didn't really get them by themselves last night, here are a couple I got Sunday.

 

Trick or treat!!!

Happy Halloween!!!!

BOO!!!

 

Did their little ghost feet scare you??  :-)  I can't take the credit for coming up with these. My cousin, Kelly, made them with her kids and I'm all about a craft that's fun and not too difficult so I stole the idea, of course! Thanks Kelly! :-)

Aiden wants to also make sure that I show his "5 Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate" so here's that too

Yesterday we took the kids up to watch the Newark Halloween parade. Oh man it was COLD!! But they seemed to enjoy it and it was worth the drive because it ended up being about an hour long.  The down side was that we sat in a shadowy spot, which probably made it feel even colder and no one wanted to throw candy where we were sitting!  That's okay because their was lots of great costumes to look at!

 

 

 

 

 

And the really cool thing is that after the parade is over (for about an hour after) the kids can go down Main Street and trick or treat at all the stores.  Sounds like lots of fun, right?  Total chaos!!  I swear there was at least 50,000 people crammed on Main Street trying to get into all the stores.  I tried to get a picture but it in no way shows the madness because I was able to escape it in the road with Emma!

Aiden had fun going to a couple of stores, but waiting in line for like 15 minutes for one piece of candy didn't seem worth it to him.  Thank God! It was freezing! I didn't even unbundle Emma to go anywhere.  So with Aiden's permission we were able to pack it up and head back home.

Waiting for Daddy and Aiden to come out of a store

What did I get?

Trying to decide if the wait is worth the candy

People, people everywhere!!!

Tonight we're off to my cousin's house to trick or treat with our whole group of kids! Mario and Snow White can't wait!  Here's a preview of their costume (minus Mario's mustache and gloves) because you know I'll have lots more after tomorrow night!

Happy Halloween!!

Pumpkin Carving Time!

We decided to carve our pumpkins on Sunday.  We were going to wait a little longer so it would be closer to Halloween, but when we got up Sunday morning, we discovered someone stole 3 of the little pumpkins the kids painted at Fifer's.  Who does that? It made me very mad that I had to explain to Aiden that someone came up and took them AND that somebody was that close to my front door with me inside, having no idea. Grrrr! So I figured, we might as well carve the big ones before someone messes with those, so at least we already did the fun part.

Luckily we still had one little pumpkin left from Fifer's and 2 more from Mom-mom aka Aunt Bonnie from when we went camping.  While Patrick and I poked holes in our stencils, the kids got to paint their little pumpkins.

That's a lot of pumpkins!!!

Getting ready to paint her pumpkin

Getting situated

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emma's finished! She couldn't decide whether to paint the pumpkin or the paper!

Aiden's beautiful work!

Working with the extra pumpkin we had

After the kids were done painting it was time to clean out the big pumpkins so Patrick and I could carve them. Don't let these pictures fool you, Aiden has always been disgusted by the "guts" of the pumpkin and will not stick his hand in there.  I think he may have pulled out 2 seeds today. :-)  Emma didn't care for the cleaning out part either.  She did try and touch it, but would then pull her hand away and laugh.  She kept saying "yuck" over and over again. :-)

Pulling out a seed

Probably the farthest he put his hand in

Ewe! This is disgusting!

Em's turn

"Uck!"

 

 

I'll just use this instead of my hands!

Let's just let Daddy finish for us!

Once they were cleaned up, the kids were over the whole thing and ran around and played while we worked.  I have to admit, after doing Emma's I was kind of over it myself, but I stayed with it and got mine done too. I think next year 2 pumpkins should be plenty!

Em's plan

Finished pumpkin

Aiden's original plan...

What he ended up getting because choice 1 was too much trouble!

Watching Patrick work on his Mario pumpkin

Finished Mario, with a giant nose!

Emma "cooking" while we carve pumpkins

Patrick's ghost pumpkin

My bat in the moon pumpkin...yeah I know, I see the bat but not the moon so much

 Then we had to put them outside, of course.  Aiden had a place planned out for each one of them.

 

 

 And last, which I think was Aiden favorite part was to light a candle in each one so we could see how they glowed!

 

 

 

I hope that no one touches those pumpkins! I want to put a picture of the kids out there so they can see who's heart they'll break if they touch them. Fingers crossed!!