Halloween Fun!

Kids make holidays so much more fun-- especially Halloween. We had a very busy month full of fun festive activities!

Halloween Decorations

We have a big box of Halloween decorations we've collected over the past few years (thanks, Mom!). We really enjoyed having a festive home with some pumpkins, cute witches, autumn leaves, and bats hanging from the ceiling. The boys especially enjoyed the new decor and Halloween toys and books that had been stored the past year.

Carving Pumpkins

What would Halloween be without the traditional Jack-o-Lanterns? Benjamin, with his blossoming artistic talent, drew three faces on his pumpkin, and Dustin carved all three. Pretty funky looking pumpkin, but cute nonetheless. Jonathan was more fascinated by the seeds and guts of his pumpkin. He really got a kick out of pulling out the guts and putting them back in. Eventually we finished our masterpieces and they lasted just long enough through trick-or-treating.

Baking Halloween Cookies

I grew up baking Halloween cookies with my mom and siblings. My mom gave me the cookie cutters we used as kids. I suppose they're not really superior quality cutters, but there is so much sentimentality attached to that screaming ghost, hissing kitty, spooky owl, jolly pumpkin, and broken bat. It was so fun to use them with my own child. We even frosted them the same that my mom used to. Seeing them all set out brought back a flood of sweet nostalgia. Benjamin was my little helper since the only time of day available to us for accomplishing our baking palooza was durning Jonathan's naptime (I'm sure next year he'll be a very eager participant). Benjamin loved being so involved in the process and did a great job mixing, cutting, and frosting. When all was baked, decorated, and cleaned up, we (including Jonathan ;) ) walked down the street deliving plates of treats to our neighbors.

Halloween Parties
We had several Halloween parties, including the ward Trunk-or-Treat and Benjamin's pre-school party. Our whole family dressed up for the Trunk-or-Treat. I was having a hard time deciding what to dress us all up as, so I finally just asked Benjamin, who as-a-matter-of-factly told me, "Daddy will be a ghost, Mommy with be a princess, Benjamin will be Superman, and Jonathan will be a Jack-o-Lantern". So that's what we did. :) We had fun chatting, eating chile, and, of course, the kids enjoyed gathering more candy than they should ever eat.
One of the gals in our pre-school group hosted a Halloween party for our kids. It was so fun, with festive games, a craft, and snacks. Since I remembered my camera (amazingly enough), I was the photographer, so, Pre-school Moms-- the rest of the pics are linked "here" if you'd like to download them. Thanks for the Halloween fun! :)

Halloween Dinner

My mom made Dead Man's Meatloaf for Halloween dinner, which I always liked, but with Benjamin in the middle of his superhero phase and trying to wean him from the word "kill" (which I'm still not sure where he picked up... what can ya do?), I decided to stick to the cutesy side of Halloween and made "pumpkin pizzas". They're a work in progress... a nice attempt to establish a holiday tradition. ;)

Trick-or-Treating

We did double trick-or-treating with one go around Halloween afternoon at the offices at Dustin's school. They host an annual Halloween carnival with bouncers, games (like a cake walk, fishing, etc.), crafts, and, of course, trick-or-treating when the faculty decorate and hand out candy. It's fun to see a ususally so intense atmosphere transformed into a casual, fun-filled ambience. We love that the school goes all out each year and have enjoyed going these past few Halloweens.We also trick-or-treated up and down our neighborhood street--- not because we needed more candy, to be sure, but rather because we were curious who our neighbors were that seem to only come out during this time of year. We actually ended up chatting quite awhile with a couple neighbors we had only met a couple times. They are awesome people and we're glad to have gotten to know them better. I wish we would've had more trick-or-treaters come by our house though. Anyone want some extra candy? Lots of it? ;)

So that's our Halloween fun for the year! We've packed our Halloween-y decor, bought a little bit more 70% off, and look forward to another bundle of sugary, spooky fun next year. Now, I think we'll pig out on our loot. Mmmmm... which chocolate to choose???