Halloween Traditions

Cookies at Grandma's

Carving Pumpkins

Halloween Treat

Fun Halloween Dinner

School Halloween Program

Party at the Pump House

Every year my sister-in-Law hosts a Halloween party at the "Pump House". Cindy LOVES Halloween and always goes all out when it comes to decorating and making it fun for the kids. This year was no exception. She had once again spent at least a month decorating the entrance to the pump house, created a haunted maze in the reeds by the lake, and set a pirate ship in the water on the lake near the boat dock. Her decorations are AMAZING!!! - Next year I am going to try to remember to take pictures.

Kim, Jason, and Ryker came as "Pigs in a Blanket". Gina, Cory, Mason and McQuade were a Princess/Queen, Knight, Dragon and Court Jester. Lindsay and B.J. - Olive Oyle and Popeye, and Cindy and Greg were Wizards/Sorcerers. Take a look at Cindy's AMAZING green "cat-eye" contacts. CREEPY!

Jason and I were supposed to be the Prom King and Prom Queen. After spending so much time on Gavin's costume, ours got left until the last minute.

Gavin, Jayden, Britton and Tegan are cousins and best friends. They ran all night long back and forth from one room to the next and found new freedom this year at the Halloween party. They were "FINALLY", as they put it, old enough to run outside to the maze and the pirate ship WITHOUT a dad tagging along.

Addi and Mayci are always our little princesses. Addi was Cinderella and Mayci was Belle. We couldn't get pictures of them together at the party so we settled for Halloween night.

Addi was so cute getting ready for Cindy's party. She kept telling me she wasn't going to get scared this time at Cindy's party. As soon as we got to Cindy's, Addi saw Jason's cousin Jake who always dresses really creepy. This year he was a very scary clown and as soon as Addi saw him she grabbed me and said "I don't like him". Then, as we were walking through the pump house she started covering her eyes and trying to get out. When I said "I thought you weren't going to get scared this time" she said "I'M NOT, I AM JUST FREAKING OUT".

The party was once again a success, complete with several creative, amazing costumes.

Trick-Or-Treat!

Halloween 2009

Halloween couldn't have been over soon enough for me this year. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Halloween, but once again I was FRANTICALLY trying to MAKE another costume. I thought I was going to have it easy this year.

CINDERELLA

Addi decided to be Cinderella and she NEVER changed her mind. She was so excited when the cute neighbor girls brought over "her dress". She came running into my room all excited telling me "mom, my dress came!" After that, everyone that came to our house got to see her Cinderella dress. We even made her a cute necklace out of ribbon to match Cinderella's. The only thing she wanted that she didn't get was blue Cinderella hair. She has a Cinderella Barbie with a streak of blue hair and she decided the night before that I should spray her hair blue like Cinderella.

GRIM REAPER

After Britton's werewolf costume last year I was ECSTATIC when he said he wanted to be the grim reaper this year. I already had the make-up and the robe, I just had to make the robe a little shorter. The only thing I had to find for him was his scythe which only required a quick trip to Party Land.

LEPRECHAUN

Gavin, on the other hand, made Halloween very challenging this year. In March we walked into Target and he saw the stuff out for St. Patrick's Day. He got all excited and said he was going to be a Leprechaun for Halloween. So, I bought a hat and a bow tie thinking this will be great! What an easy costume right? WRONG!!! Have you ever tried to find stuff for a Leprechaun in October!?!?!

I made a trip to DI and got lucky. I found a very small pair of boys dress pants that were a dark, sage green. I found a green crochet vest in the women's department and another small cream colored vest in the boys department. I thought I could dye the small vest green. - DIDN'T WORK - the dark green R.I.T dye turned it khaki brown. SO, I got to sew once again and make his vest smaller, remover the buttons and sew on new gold ones, cut off the pants and sew elastic in the bottom of them, sew elastic to his hat to make it smaller, and try to make a beard. After looking at fabric stores I ended up at the Dollar Store and found an orange fuzzy purse that I cut off and sewed elastic to. To finish it all of he wore white tights - because I could NOT find any green and white ones, and we sprayed his hair orange with orange hair spray. He was a little upset in this picture because we ran out of hair spray Halloween night. He had already been in his costume 3 other times for a school program, a school parade/party, and his aunt Cindy's Halloween party.

Needless to say, I made several trips to several stores and was completely ready for Halloween to be over.

Britton , Gavin, and Addi were lucky this year. They got to trick-or-treat with two sets of cousins. First Kim showed up with Ryker and Haylee and the five of them took off around the neighborhood and then around 6:30 Jayden, Tegan and Mayci came over to trick-or-treat the rest of the night. Once the kids were done trick-or-treating, we headed over to Kim's to hang out and enjoy the rest of Halloween.

Just for you Sis.

I know it is a little early for Halloween pictures but my One and ONLY sister keeps reminding me that Halloween is coming and that she still hasn't seen my kids Halloween pictures from last year.

Every time I look at these pictures I just smile and hope that this year won't be so hectic.
I am reminded of what a challenge it was to find a cape for Gavin.  It shouldn't have been so difficult but we could NOT find a kids cape anywhere and finally found a short adult cape which luckily worked just fine. Plus, I borrowed a red vest that had to be tailored to fit. 

Then there was Britton who wanted to be a Werewolf - BUT - he didn't want the werewolf costumes in the store that had masks and "just made you look like a wolf."  So, after looking at every possible Halloween/Costume store, I ended buying fake fur, ripping a pair of old jeans and a flannel shirt, and SEWING, his costume together. Then, we had to put brown make-up on his face and glue, yes GLUE fur to his face.

I am actually really proud of myself, because I am not a seemstress.  What should take no time at all or looks like it should be really easy takes me FOREVER! 

Regardless, their costumes were super cute and they LOVED them.

The other reason I can't quit smiling when I look at these pictures is that little Addi was
TERRIFIED
of her brothers.  It took a long time to convince her that they were not going to hurt her and that they were "nice monsters".  In fact, it took a lot of convincing for her to believe that the "monsters" were actually Britton and Gavin.