I should have made a post yesterday and again today but...who has time for that? So starting on Monday, Tessa had her Halloween party at preschool. Ben doesn't get to have a costume party anymore because...well, I'm not sure. It's a public school fairness/inclusivity/avoiding controversy thing I guess. They did have a "fall festival" and he has been bringing home Halloween themed art projects and little prizes so maybe it has to do with not wanting kids to feel left out if they can't afford a costume? I don't know. Or maybe it's just a big nuisance for the teachers which I can imagine it is.
I was glad Tessa was able to have her school party because for two years she has watched with envy as Ben returned home from Halloween and Valentine parties with bounties of little treats and prizes and party favor junk sent by the other kids.
It was a busy morning and the preschool mornings are crazy because we have to be about 30 minutes earlier than the non preschool days and I didn't remember to take her picture before her jacket was on. And even then...it was tough.
Notice the glitter shoes-a Wal-Mart impulse purchase by me because she asked and looked so desperate to have those beautiful things. Don't worry, they cost a few dollars since they basically made of cardboard.
She can really pull off the "Elsa" look except for the hair style. She'll have that braid one day if she can ever keep her scissors away from her head.
She exited the school victorious with her full bucket.
It's always fun to see what the other kids bring for their treats to share.
None of these assorted variety bags were provided by me. This was:
I made those for Ben for his two years of preschool. I've made them since I was a little kid. They look a bit lame compared to the cellophane bagged assortments but I think they are fun.
Milo has just turned into a candy fiend. He's terrible. He loves suckers and he knows where to find them. I had some stashed in our travel bag for a distraction and he found those this weekend and I caught him ripping open Tessa's from her bucket.
We carved pumpkins later that night. We had two very large ones to carve. Tessa said she wanted an owl like our neighbor had so Justin found some pictures and helped her pick an attainable design.
Thanks, Internet, for always being there!
I helped Ben which was kind of exhausting because he wanted to do it ALL himself. It was a very large and deep pumpkin to scrape out and very stringy.
He wanted his design to match the face on his candy bucket. I thought that sounded like the best idea EVER! Triangle eyes and nose with a smile...perfect. I drew the face and he ended up cutting the whole thing himself with the little carving tool that comes with the carving kits you can buy.
Milo was feeling a big overlooked during this time since he wasn't part of the action and at one point he ran into the kitchen with his blanket over his head pretending to be a ghost.
Too quick for a picture but it was pretty funny. He was saying "woooo".
All done!
Ben was crying about something here having to do with being too wild and acting crazy. We had to come back for another round of pictures later.
Tessa and Daddy's special pumpkin.
They really are huge pumpkins. They are still sitting on the kitchen floor and are holding up quite well. Last year we had one last for weeks into November on our front step but some years they start getting soft after a day. We (Justin) cleaned and dried the seeds from these two so we can plant them in our patch next year. They produced enough to plant a whole patch of the size we had this year. Plants are so cool...all that from just two pumpkins.
It's been hard not baking and eating these plump and perfect seeds but we can harvest from the other ones we have on the front step later.
Milo had to have his moment of attention on this night too.
He was pretty intrigued with the candles.
I got him to pose and look cute for a few seconds.
Then came the big event...Trick or Treating. It was freezing this year. Last year was really nice and we hardly needed to wear jackets before the sun went down and the year before that was horribly windy. I was looking at old pictures and Ben's first Halloween was very warm and we were outside without coats and took many pictures outside with him. This year it was not windy or snowy but it was just cold. So, behold, the stereotypical Midwestern "snowsuits under the costume" look. They weren't exactly wearing snowsuits but had winter hats and mittens and Milo is wearing his snow boots because that costume was like capri pants on him.
Tessa reprised the Elsa dress, Ben was a fisherman and Milo was Spider-Man.
He made me laugh all night. He looked so funny. We went to our neighbors' houses on our cul de sac and then drove to our old street to see our old neighbors. We walked a few blocks around there. It's nice because Ben's school is right there and he saw a few kids he knew and the houses are small and close together. Then we drove to a friend's house and walked their street for a block and decided we were done. And we ended up with 12 POUNDS of candy. From walking up and down three blocks. I can't imagine the haul a kid who was at it for a few hours would end up with.
The kids had their own buckets and we transferred it all into this huge bucket in the back of the vehicle because their buckets were heavy to carry.
The kids were in a candy frenzy. Milo, especially, was going nuts. He got a very appealing purple sucker-one of the big round flat ones as opposed to a dum dum or tootsie roll pop-and he would not let it out of his sticky little grip. We got them all to bed and then I poured the candy out and we sorted it and partitioned it and applied the "parent tax" which equals approximately 50 percent. In the case of Heath bars, it equals 100 percent.
Allan is up there in the corner thinking, "gross, where is the turkey? Where is the yogurt? Where are the hot dogs?"
Milo cannot see that pile of suckers.
Also, we made time to take Allan's annual costume photo. He looks downright obese. I had to crop myself out because so did I.
And finally, I have to show my favorite Halloween picture beyond my ridiculous college and drinking years because there are some GOOD ones out there from those days. I have favorites pre-2011 and post-2011. This was 2012 on Ben's first Halloween.
