Happy Halloween and Trick or Treat!

Halloween started off for us much like any other day except that the kids were wearing their costumes all day instead of their regular clothes (or pajamas.)

Peter was grumpy and tired and moody so he just lounged around a lot and watched television.

A.J. was tired too, but she actually went down for a good morning nap. 

After they ate lunch they both crashed back down for a couple more hours which was good because I had some errands to run so SIL stayed home with them while they slept and let me run out.  By the time I was back and they were up again, their cousins were home from school and the excitement buzz of trick or treat  was in full swing around the house.

A.J. just wanted to get into trouble.

Mostly by bothering her brother.

I think she was miffed her costum didn't come with a hat.

Or a dagger.

Then she tried to make some phone calls.  Or possibly send some text messages.  (Uncle Jono you didn't get anything random from me/her again today did you?)

 Once the cousins were all ready, we gathered all the kids on the front porch for photos in their costumes.

And we got one of just my kids.

Just the girls:

And one with Peter and his favorite cousin.

No offense to his other cousins, he really just does like him the best.

 I also got a quick shot of all our pumpkins together.

Then it was time to prepare the bowls of candy in case any trick or treaters started showing up during dinner.

Yummy Candy!

 For dinner, we got a pumpkin shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's.

They really need to open some franchises in southern California.

 After we'd eaten, I gathered my little munchkins up and we headed out to collect treats since i didn't know for sure how long they'd do (especially after dark) or how long they'd last.

To start with, I had him ring our doorbell and get candy from out niece so he'd know what to expect at the other houses.

And then we headed out.

Here we were at the neighbors.

And the house right after that.

 After those first 2 or 3 houses he was starting to get the hang of the concept, which to him I'd imagine it went something like this "Dress up in silly outfit.  Bravely climb onto people's porches.  Ring doorbell.  GET CANDY!!!"

Peter enjoyed all the decorations people had set up around the neighborhood.

This is probably house number 6.  By this time he was brave enough that the people who answered their doors in costumed didn't scare him.  Well, the people with masks did, but once they took them off he would smile and laugh.

I needed to retie my glowstick lanyard so we took a quick break on the sidewalk and AJ took the chance to dig in her bucket for some candy.  She really find those Kit Kats interesting.

Peter looked through his stash some as well.

Here Peter looks at some particularly scary/intriguing decorations that kept him from willingly climbing up onto the porch.

Eventually he got brave enough that he would even ring the doorbells him self and then try to peer in the windows to see if anyone was coming.

After we went around the block he was NOT ready to be done and we went around about half of the whole rest of the neighborhood, probably hitting one out of every 4 houses... choosing to skip any without clear signs of life, Halloween decorations and/or observable residents handing out candy.

Peter all but would not say anything for awhile.  Then he started thanking everyone for the candy and saying goodbye.  After each hosue he'd look in his bucket and say "CANDIES!" happily.  Eventually he even started saying "Truck or Tweat" randomly while we were walking as he was happily yamering on at random. 

And it was good.

Like really really good.

I will admit to half a moment or two of sadness that he's already big enough to trick or treat properly, and that his Dad wasn't here to go with him, but I got over it and we just enjoyed the night.

Running ahead through the little park across the street once we were finished (because he could barely keep lifing his bucket and kept telling me he needed a break) and were heading home.

Me, with A.J., who, as it turns out was back to chewing on her Kit Kat bar through the wrapper.

Having handed his heavy bucket of candy over to me at the bottom of the driveway (as if I didn't have enough in my arms what with his sister and her candy and his hat and my camera) he charged ahead to the front door calling out for his Uncle until he appeared at the door to let him in.

 And then, it was time for me to inspect what we had collected and the kids to have a treat.

A.J. was still working on chewing through the wrapper on that Kit Kat.

Peter started with some Gummy Life Savers.

Peter's haul

While Peter was digging into his sweets, his sister made a break for it with her Kit Kat.  I guess she'd had enogh of me taking it from her while we were still going door o door so she assumed I was going to do it again.

While her Uncle got A.J. started properly on her chocolate bar, Peter moved on to some Mike and Ike's.

I'm sure there are a laundry list of reasons why I should not allow my 11 month old to eat chocolate, but she's ahs small amounts before and been fine and just look how happy she is?

Peter with his candy dumped out in a heap on the floor while he works on those MIke and Ike's some more.

A.J. finishing up her hard earner chocolate.

Mommy's little Trick or Treaters

And with that I sent the kids upstairs to run amock for a few moments to burn off some of that sugar before I started bed and bath time.

Meanwhile, I needed one good shot of my pumpkin lit up.

That was supposed to be my last photo for this post.  I was supposed to then wish everyone a good night and say Happy Halloween and that should have been the end of it.

Except, in order to get Peter to STOP asking me for more candy and into the tub, I put the buckets up high atop a pile of moving boxes. 

And guess where he went immediately after his bath, literally the moment I got him into his jammies and sent him on his way.

I don't know why I even let this surprise me.

Anyway, it was a great night.  Peter was so cute trick or treating!  So was A.J., and my arms will be sore from carrying her for a good week to remind me of that. 

But it was worth it because in the end we'd had a great Halloween.

Pumpkin Carving (with pictures taken by my 7 year old Niece)

It's pouring rain outside again today, but yesterday while the weather was cool, we had a few glorious hours of blissful sunshine.  And since this sunshine coincided with the kids nap time I took the opportunity to sit out on the front porch and carve our pumpkin into a Jack-O-Lantern.

Yes, I know that if I was a better mother I would have found a way to involve my chidren in carving their pumpkin, but seriously?  Sharp Objects!  Messiness!  A street they could potentially crawl or run into while I was distracted saving the other one from the messiness and sharp objects!! 

There was just no way....

So I did it by myself.

And my niece helped me by offering helpful advice and playing with my camera documenting my work through photography.

My pumpkin to begin with

After a tremendous amount of effort (and breaking the stem off) I finally got the top off.  Yummy!

Looks spectacular.  My oldest nephew might even say it's "Disgrossting!"  :)

After about 30 minutes of gutting the thing I taped my pattern on and got started.

Here I am poking little holes in the pattern to transfer it onto my pumpkin.

See?

Then I started carving.

Here it is after I finished the eyes and the eyebrows.

Then I started on the mouth.

More working on the mouth.

No idea.  I suppose maybe I am dumping a piece of removed pumpkin into the compost pile I had going. 

Did I mention my 7 year old niece took these pictures?  I didn't need a head anyway... :)

About halfway through with the mouth....

I'm going to go out on a crazy limb here and say I was still doing the mouth....

Did I mention that my design was almost all mouth?  Oh well.  At least I have a head in this photo. 

I guess my niece got bored and started finding other subjects to photograph.  Like this tree in front of the house.  It has been showing some SPECTACULAR autumn colors all week, and I've been meaning to take a picture of it, so I guess she saved me the trouble.

One of the spider lights decorating the front bushes and porch.  (Yick!)



A self portrait!



Oh look... it's me again... and guess what?  I'm still working on the mouth.

The front door

The window next to the front door

My cutting tool

After I finished cutting and cleaning up my work, I found some glue and reattached the stem.  (Sort of looks like my pumpkin's brains are leaking out of it's head or something....)

And finally:

My completed pumpkin.

Certainly not my best work ever, but I was on a time crunch as I didn't know how long the kids would stay asleep, so I'd say I'm please with how it turned out.

Hopefully tomorrow I will get a picture of it all lit up.  That is of course, assuming it is not too water logged from all the rain today and I can actually get a candle to burn inside of it.