Halloween Festivities

We had a fun Halloween this year.  Our first big Halloween activity was our church Halloween party on the Friday before Halloween.  The kids have been planning forever what to wear to this party.  Kate invited her friend from school, Kathryn, to go as an Indian with her.  These girls are practically twins!  They have the same name (luckily Kate goes by Kate to lessen the confusion) spelled exactly the same.  They have the same color and length of hair and birthdays only 5 days apart.  Kathryn moved here just this year and her and Kate have become instant, inseparable friends.  They had a fun time dressing alike in the Indian dresses I sewed for Sarah and Rachel years ago.

Rachel and her two friends dressed up like Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather, the three fairies from Sleeping Beauty.  They worked hard on their costumes, making the hats themselves, and finding the dresses at Goodwill.

William was set for weeks ahead of time to be a firetruck.  We had a cute little costume from when Ben was his age.  We talked about it for weeks.  But when it came down to getting ready to go, he insisted upon wearing his monkey costume from last year, which is WAY TOO SMALL (size 18 months).  But, he was as happy as could be, so that is all that matters, right?

The party was tons of fun.  I should have taken more pictures of the cute decorations (it was a candy corn theme) with yellow, orange and white balloons, amazing Halloween themed food, and even candy corn parfaits on each table.  I was in charge of the craft room and we made pasta skeletons (different shapes of dry pasta glued onto black cardstock).  It was fun, but I was too busy helping and forgot to take any pictures).  I also didn't get any pictures of Sarah who dressed up as a butterfly princess.

A couple of days before Halloween we carved our pumpkins.  

 Kate showing off her gooey hands.

Unfortunately, Rachel's pumpkin she picked at the pumpkin patch started to rot before we could even carve it.  She sold Ben on her idea of a cannibal pumpkin and so the two of them worked together in a moment of sibling cooperation that must be documented.  It was wonderful.  

 The finished products:

On the day of Halloween, this is how Sarah left for school.  She called this her version of a princess.  Footy pajamas, a tutu, and rainboots. 

Since Rachel's two friends that she had dressed up with as the Sleeping Beauty Fairies go to another school, she opted to be a "quarterback" for school.

During the day, William and I stopped in to Kate's class for her party.  William decided to wear his superman costume.  He was so excited to go. 

 William showed me how he was going to fly just like superman.

I loved seeing how sweet Kate was to William.

After school we headed down to the Harbor for trick-or-treating.

 We had some friends join us for the fun.

 The third fairy joined us later.

I love trick-or-treating around the Harbor.  It is so fun to see the beautiful fall colors and everyone in their costumes--in the daylight. 

 Ben got the most compliments of anyone on his costume this year. 

We came home from the Harbor and had a warm dinner of chili from the crock pot.  We had lots of people coming in and out of our house that evening, so it was good that I made a lot.

We did the donuts on the string game.  David hung them from the balcony.

 The big kids went first.

 and then headed up stairs to watch a scary movie.

 Then the little kids had a turn.  It was so funny to watch Kate chase that donut in circles.