All of our Halloweeney-ness...

We started the festivities off with a delicious neighborhood soup and chili potluck dinner and trunk-or-treat and carnival. The boys were excited to finally wear their costumes. Charlie was a cowboy (Or a CHARLIE HORSE!). Jack was a puppy (complete with cowboy boots too). At the last minute Greg pulled Sponge Bob out of the costume box and I of course then had to grab my devil horns.

(Note: the boys take turns wearing Sponge Bob - it is a child's costume after all - and calling him "French Bob" - no idea why - and then turning it inside out and running around yelling "I'm the cheese, I'm the cheese!")

On Monday night for Family Home Evening (a brand new tradition at our house) we decided to carve our pumpkins. I had NO IDEA how much fun it was going to be with the boys. I guess all the other years Charlie was just too little to even pay attention to what we were doing.. oh no, not this year.

While Greg was meticulously working on his pumpkin - it's more of an art form for him. I let charlie draw the face on his then explained that before we started carving - he couldn't wait to get his hands on those little knives - that we had to remove all of the pumpkin guts, the brains.

I couldn't have enjoyed his reaction more:



And to further demonstrate my entertainment, a video clip:


Charlie decided that his pumpkin actually need to have 4 nostrils. He showed me where to drill and he started cutting. I realized that he was actually doing a really good job! I also realized that Jack was not enjoying the activity as much.. he tried to help, but it was a little frustrating. And I realized that I was hovering over charlie too much. I decided that he probably wasn't going to amputate his arm with the tiny pumpkin carving saw and left him with Greg while I put Jack in the bath (which even at 2, he can't get enough of-- baths are the highlight of his day, nearly equivalent to the value of candy).


Anyway, Charlie carved his pumpkin all by himself. Then, Greg drew a face on the little one and Charlie completely cut it out. Charlie carved yet another pumpkin on Halloween night. It featured a sad face, and a bum. Yeah, he cut out a bum on the back because he heard his dad comment about an interesting groove on the back of the pumpkin.



We've been really consistent at going to story time every week and we couldn't miss the costume parade on Tuesday. Jack chose to be a doctor since it was nearly 70 degrees and his dog costume was full fur.

On Wednesday we had a special playgroup brunch (see below) where the kids decorated little gourds with markers, stickers, and googly eyes.

Jacks was honestly my very favorite. It was SO CUTE! I honestly don't know if he meant to make the stem work as a nose of if that's just how it turned out, but I was very impressed.

Finally, it was time for trick-or-treating. We picked up Avalon, who usually comes over and plays on Wednesday afternoons and headed to Greg's office for an enormously huge load of candy. The kids couldn't even carry their buckets by the end and we didn't even make it to my old department.

It was so fun to borrow Avalon and have a little princess. Jack grabbed 2 pieces for everyone the others got then would says "Come on! Let's go find more candy!" Jack also thinks that Shrek has his own office at daddy's work and reminded me so the next day.

When we got home it was time for the REAL trick or treating but after only visiting a couple of our neighbors Charlie wanted to get back to his job of passing out the candy. (Which was great, because we already have more candy than we'll ever know what to do with.)