My sister Laura was able to come for a visit, so the boys wanted to carve their Jack O' Lanterns while she was here. They worked hard to help us scrape out all the pulp, we saved the seeds for roasting, then they drew their faces & Daddy carved them. They even worked together to make one for Colin.Here they are after all of their hard work:
At Daniel's preschool, they have a "Harvest Party" for Halloween. All of the kids in his class made owl masks & then they got to trick or treat around the preschool. Afterward, they had some Halloween cupcakes, then got to bowl with pumpkins. All of that excitement was followed by a spooky Halloween song! Daniel had a blast:
Will and Daniel enjoying their cupcakes:
Daniel LOVING the spooky Halloween song. Lucas not liking it so much!
For costumes this year, I went to Costco & got a great deal on a fireman and an astronaut. William is very into all-things-space-related & Daniel was having a fireman party, so I (very mistakenly!) figured he'd be so excited to be a fireman with a real fireman costume. When I told them what I'd bought, William's face lit up as expected, but Daniel's just FELL. He got very quiet & sad and said, "But I don't want to be a fireman, Mommy. I want to be Frank the Combine." Now, if you have no boys, you may not know exactly what that means. Frank the Combine is the big, mean "bull" character from the Disney "Cars" movie. For some reason, Daniel has just fallen in love with ole Frank. Every time we pass any kind of big truck or tractor that even remotely resembles a combine, I hear a ton of shouting from the rear of my van. It's such excited chatter that I seriously doubt you could understand it if you didn't know what he was saying! So, being the good Mommy that I try to be, I immediately fired up the computer and looked online :-) Of course, Frank the Combine is NOT one of the "Cars" characters you have the option to purchase as a Halloween costume. I tried and tried to convince the D-man that he REALLY wanted to be a fireman, even holding out hope that his birthday party would change his mind. NO DICE! So, I then dredged up my non-existent artistic skills, found a large cardboard box in the basement, grabbed some packing tape, spray paint, and tin foil, and went to work. Here is the finished product. Looks pretty darn good, if I do say so myself!
Our little space man (with a super-scary witch getting ready in the background!):
One very happy Frank the Combine:
And our resident "Spooky Spider":
Super-scary witch-girl and pink Batgirl (aka "Allie" and "Maddie") who trick or treated with us:
And, Spooky Spider all settled into his wagon with his paci. He was AWESOME all evening & we only had to ply him with candy for about the last 30 minutes. He was so in awe of all the costumes, lights, and noise that he forgot to ask to get out & run around!
Overall, the boys had a wonderful night! Things got a little hairy when we first started out because I was concentrating only on making Frank look nice, and forgot to find out if my design actually WORKED! He was a little front-heavy and kept tipping forward, which meant his front dragged on the ground when Daniel went up driveways to get his loot. When Daniel realized how far behind he was getting, he was agreeable to letting Frank "rest" in the garage & just wore the Little Einsteins Rocket costume that was hiding under Frank. PHEW! Scott & I got to walk around with our (cough, cough) hot chocolate and visit with the other grown-ups while pulling Spooky Spider in the wagon, while the big boys ran ahead with Allie & Maddie. So nice that this year, everyone knew what to do & no one was scared!!!
