This year was a small victory for me in that we actually carved our pumpkins - something I usually put off because it is so low down on my "like-to-do" list. But the kids loved it and they had a really good time drawing the faces (mom and dad cut) and made some cute pumpkins. Annica made the batman jack-o-lantern and I liked how Grace's wide-eyed pumpkin is looking down at the bat in fear. Clara's is the pumpkin with the eyebrows (nice touch I think) and then Benjamin's looks just like all his drawings these days - monsters with "scary mouths."
Annica is in the background here sorting through stringy pumpkin muck (the stuff my mom accidently used to bake my dad his first homemade pumpkin pie, two months into their marriage - she's improved, thankfully). After picking out a huge pile of seeds, we roasted them in the oven. They were delish!
Halloween morning, I took Benjamin to preschool in his fireman costume with Max (his side-kick Dalmation puppy) in tow.
Then we went over to the elementary school to watch Clara in the costume parade. Here she is with her wonderful aide, Mrs. Daniels.
Our first trick-or-treating stop was Grandma and Grandpa Shippen's house. Grace (along with her friend Ireland) was a biker chick. Annica was some sort of last-minute gothic witch/vampiress. She had decided not to dress up this year, but then couldn't stand it when she saw everyone else getting ready and she quickly threw something together. She seems to go with the white-faced, eerie, witch theme often. What does this mean?
Clara was my cute little pirate girl. She looks pretty good with black hair!
Grace and Ireland ran around frantically gathering candy until they were sure it was close to bedtime - turns out it had only been an hour. So they spent the rest of the night passing candy out on our front porch. With blankets over their heads. And a weird mask Scott once found on the ground in Greenfield Village. They had fun scaring trick-or-treaters.
You gonna share that with Mommy? Good Dog, Max.
