Halloween Festivites 2011

This year our Halloween celebrations began with our church Trunk-or-Treat. It's an absolutely brilliant idea. We started the evening with an Italian style dinner in the all-out decorated gym in the church. After dinner, they had a bunch of different games for the kids in various classrooms. Then, we all head out to the parking lot. Everyone parks their car in the first row of parking spots, decorates their trunk, and hands out candy to the kids as they go from one trunk to the next. It's an awesome way to trick-or-treat. It's fast, so no one can get too cold. There's not much walking, so there's no complaining of tired legs. And the kids walk away with a good loot of candy.

Alicia invited 2 of her friends from our neighborhood. A hippie, a doctor, and Alicia was super creative as a soccer player (it was her uniform from her soccer season this fall...I'm not complaining...made it a lot easier for me!!).

Avery was a flower. Remember when Adelaide wore the same one?? click here

Adelaide was Rainbow Brite. Who remembers her?? She was my favorite when I was a kid. My girls have a Rainbow Brite book that they love to read, so they are familiar with her. My mom sent me out a package at the beginning of October, and at the bottom I found my old Rainbow Brite costume that SHE made for me when I was about 5 years old. It was my favorite costume when I was a kid. I loved it! Especially the wig. So I was excited that Addi wanted to wear my old costume. No one her age had any clue who she was, but the adults thought it was great. It's seriously a vintage costume...25 years old and still looks amazing.

I had to dig up a photo of myself in the costume to compare.... What a cute kid.

On Sunday afternoon we carved pumpkins while Avery napped. Turns out we couldn't get Tristan up from his nap either, so it was just Adelaide, Alicia, Daniel, and I. I love carving pumpkins...not because of all the gooey guts, but because of the roasted pumpkin seeds afterwards! YUMMMM!

This pretty much sums up how Alicia feels about hollowing out her pumpkin. She's come a long way...she used to barely touch the stuff with her finger tips...now at least she gets in there. I helped her out at the end. Hollowing the pumpkin was always my least favorite part as a kid as well.

Addi with her pumpkin.

I just thought this was a pretty photo that Daniel took.

Our finished products:

L-R: mine, Adelaide's (it was a sticker kit, and Daniel did the actual carving), and Alicia's

Poor Alicia tried using a sticker kit as well, but for some reason her stickers wouldn't stick to her pumpkin...finally she lost her patience with it, got fed up, and just made it a cyclops. It's Halloween...totally fitting.

On Halloween night, we went to our neighbors for chili, hot dogs, and a Halloween Trick-or-Treating hayride. We spent Halloween with them last year as well. They have 2 boys...one Tristan's age, and one 2 years younger. We had a really good time. It's nice for Tristan for us to do things with other boys his age...doesn't happen often enough, but he's a good sport. Anyway, it is quite brilliant in our neighborhood to have a hayride. The houses are so far apart that having the hayride gives you a chance to rest your legs. The hayride lets you off at the beginning of a string of houses that have their lights on...drives to the end to pick you up and drives you past all the houses without their lights on.

This was Avery's first year of Trick-or-Treating where she really caught on to what was going on. She loved running after the other kids to a front door. When she got there, she often tried to go IN the house. Quite hilarious. I got her to say "Trick-or-Treat" but it sounded more like just "treat." So cute. Then she'd carefully select her candy...turn around to moved onto the next house and say a "thank you" over her shoulder. SO CUTE. I found it was a lot of work for ME to trick-or-treat with her, so we stayed on the hayride for the majority of the time while she ate lots of candy. Daniel stayed behind at our friends house so that if Avery lost it, he could drive his car to meet the hayride and take her home, but she made it the whole time!

I realized I didn't get any photos of Tristan...except for the one on the hayride. He was a soccer coach this year...branching out from just a soccer player. Alicia kept her same costume/uniform as the church party. Adelaide decided at the last minute to be a pirate...she could have been a bunch of different things...my mom has sent her a million different kinds of dress-ups over the years. Avery was a puppy. When my mom first sent me the costume, I was kind of disappointed. Of all the cute things Avery could be...she picked a DOG? But it was actually quite perfect! Avery LOVES dogs...all dogs, and we all lovingly called her "puppy" all night long.

Avery the puppy and Adelaide the pirate.

Avery with our friends dog, Dixie. She was loving on Dixie, and Dixie tolerated her really well (might have helped that Avery slipped her a few tastes of hot dog and candy).

The hayride...you can see Tristan there in the back. There was 17 of us on the hayride and I was responsible for counting everyone each time they all got back in so that we were sure not to leave anyone behind.