Halloween overload

Halloween is truly a kids' holiday.  Dress up and candy and sweets and parties.  So much fun.  And I enjoy watching my kids enjoy it.  It all starts with a costume...

Going back a few years to my first Halloween as a mother.  Of course I had to dress up my first child for his first Halloween as a race car driver:

You can definitely tell Clara is his baby sister!  Anyway it was getting together with families, Ward Halloween party, and trick or treating through our circle.

The next year I thought Spencer would make the cutest Fireman.  We even drove up to Park City where Brodie's cousin is a Fireman to show Spencer a real Firehouse and Firetruck and Firemen.  Also the same getting together with family, Ward Halloween party, and trick or treating through our circle.

 















By the next year Spencer was big into Cars and Toy Story so I decided it would be fun for him to be Buzz Lightyear.  This became one of his favorite dress ups which opened my eyes to the fact that boys love dressing up as much as girls.  Hence the current toy boxes in each kids' room stuffed FULL of dress ups.  Later on this Buzz Lightyear costume became one of Tessa's favorite dress ups (along with Wolverine) before she realized she was a girl.  However this year Tessa was only 6 weeks old so I got one of those bunting bags (like a sleeping bag with arms and a hood) and had her be a little frog.  This year my sisters and I went to a Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point (not Cornbelly's) with the little ones.

 

So by the next Halloween Tessa was just over a year old.  She was at the cute, wobbly just walking stage.  She was also so small for age and had such big emotions--up and down--that I just knew I had to have her be Tinkerbell for Halloween.  And Spencer was her best friend so I thought he should be Peter Pan.  This year I decided to actually do something more than the usual routines so I tried Boo at the Zoo.  But Spencer didn't want to wear his Peter Pan costume so I let him choose a dress up he had and he chose Buzz again.  Then I dressed Tessa in Spencer's old race car driver costume.  We also went to Wheeler Farm where we played some games, saw the farm, took a wagon ride, and even made a Scarecrow.  This was also Spencer's first school Halloween parade in preschool.  And after taking the kids through the circle Brodie took them through some of the rest of the neighborhood.

For the next year I already had decided Tessa would be a ballerina cuz I had gotten a great deal on clearance costumes in 2008 (Tinkerbell year).  As Spencer was really into space when he was 4 years old I decided to spend the most money I had spent yet on a costume for him to be an astronaut with a really cool helmet.  I was in early pregnancy stage and was really sick this year so we just did the family stuff, ward Halloween party, and trick or treating.

 













Clara came summer of 2011.  And this year Spencer decided on his own that he wanted to be Ghost Rider.  I tried SOOOO hard to convince him otherwise, but he wouldn't budge.  He was big into superheroes and understood that Halloween had a "scary" element so he wanted to be a superhero who was also a little scary.  Luckily Spencer didn't really know much about Ghost Rider and I actually did find a costume online.  But he couldn't wear a mask to school and his costume didn't make any sense without the mask.  So I also bought him a flame wig and painted his face on school day and for the Ward Halloween Party.  Tessa was adamant on being a Disney princess so I guided her towards choosing Snow White.  I even dared buy spray paint and sprayed Tessa's hair black.  Of course I couldn't get it completely out of the white part of her dress so now it's gray.  And I found a very cute little strawberry costume for Clara.  This year Brodie was in Germany over Halloween but my awesome sister came over with her kids so I could take all the kids trick or treating and still have someone at my house passing out candy.  (By the way in the picture my sister, Janelle, is the witch and my neices are Annie and a monarch butterfly).  I also did the whole Halloween themed dinner this time.

 

So that brings us to this year.  After last year Tessa told me she was going to be Ariel for Halloween this year.  She never changed her mind.  But all the Ariel costumes we found were more of a dress with a tail colored skirt and Tessa kept asking where the tail was.  So I finally found her a mermaid costume with a tail, but she pointed out it wasn't Ariel.  So I got her an Ariel wig.  She kept telling people she was "a mermaid with Ariel hair" rather than Ariel.  What a girl.  Spencer was going to be Ash--from Pokemon.  Period.  Once again we ran into the mask issue so for school I put paper over his red hat and used eyeliner to draw marks like Ash's under his eyes and make the part of hair that comes down Ash's forehead.  I wasn't going to spend money on a costume for Clara--just have her wear a small ladybug dressup of Tessa's.  But then a few days before Halloween I found this cute peacock costume on sale that I just couldn't pass up on.  And the kids kept asking what I was going to be so I gave in and got a Malificent costume.  But I thought painting my face green would be a little too scary to my kids so I just went with purple eyeshadow. 

This year we started the festivities by going to Cornbelly's (prior post).  Then on Tuesday we made and decorated caramel apples with a really yummy caramel recipe I got off Our Best Bites (look at my following list).  Super delicious and the kids LOVED making and eating them.  Of course the kids first just ate off all their toppings (mini M&Ms, Heath bits, Halloween Oreos, and melted chocolate).  Then Spencer let me cut his apple into slices but Tessa wanted to keep hers whole so she continued to eat all the caramel off and leave the apple.

On Wednesday Tessa got to wear her costume to gymnastics but the hair kept getting in her eyes and even fell off when she was on the bars.  Wednesday night was our Ward Halloween Party with a trunk or treat and then some games inside including the cake walk and fishing games.  On Thursday both kids wore their costumes to school and had Halloween parties.  Tessa's didn't include a parade or parents so I just went to Spencer's with Clara.  Their parade went outside the school and through the neighborhoods.  Of course this morning was the coldest yet, at 32 degrees.  However, I didn't see another Ash in his whole school.  At least his odd choices are original.

Thursday evening Spencer's play practice was a combined Halloween party where they did fun theatrical Halloween games and we brought candy that was combined and bagged and sent home with each kid.  Friday Spencer didn't have school so we went to IHOP for free creepy face pancakes for the kids.  I originally ordered one for each kid, but she only brought them out for Spencer and Tessa.  No problem as I had ordered pumpkin pancake combo plate and had way more than I could eat so Clara got some eggs, hashbrowns, a sausage, and part of my pumpkin pancake.  The older kids made their faces by putting mini-Oreos and candy corns on top of the whipped topping on their large pancakes.  Then they put some of each of the four different types of syrup (strawberry, blueberry, butter pecan, and maple) on top.  Spencer ate his whole pancake but after picking off the toppings Tessa only ate a couple bits of pancake.  So Clara also had some of hers.  After IHOP we headed to the library for the Monster in the Bathtub puppet show.  Which the kids of course loved.  Then we spent an hour reading books before checking out some books and DVDs to bring home.  After lunch Spencer's friend from school came over for a couple of hours.

On Saturday we headed over to Brodie's parents for a family Halloween Party.  Grandma Julie made cheese soup, Papa made chili and I brought some sliced baguettes and made some spinach artichoke dip.  After eating the kids painted and carved pumpkins.  I had a horrible cold, as did Clara, so I stayed in with her and put Brodie in charge of pumpkin time.

Then, of course, Monday was Halloween.  After school the kids watched TV and played while I worked on dinner.  I made breadsticks for Monster Fingers, tomato soup as blood soup, olives for bat brains, frog eye salad that I topped with green dyed pineapple rings and marchino cherries in the middle, cheese jack-o-lanterns (I cut pumpkin shapes out of cheese and used a toothpick to "carve" them), and apple juice concentrate mixed with Club Soda for witches brew.  Then we headed out.  I took the kids through our circle and then packed them in the car to drive them to the neighborhood where their primary teachers live (Tessa said she HAD to go trick-or-treating at their houses).  Then since we were in the car anyway we stopped by my folks before coming home.  Brodie then took the kids out to a few other houses in the neighborhood while I put Clara to bed.  When they got home I let them each eat one candy before getting them in their pajamas and to bed.  Now while I'm typing this they are devouring a huge box of Bottlecaps.  We'll see how well they eat dinner tonight.  Speaking of which, I should probably go figure out what I'm going to make and get started on it.