Halloween 2011

Another year of Halloween has come and gone, and unfortunately, I don't have near enough pictures to show from it.  The Friday before Halloween we tried to fit in two Halloween parties, unsuccessfully I might add.  We had our church Halloween party that evening, and Dave had also heard that a Microsoft building(about 10 minutes from the main campus he works at, at least without traffic) was having a huge haunted house complete with Star Wars and Harry Potter themes.  So, knowing how our kids love both of those, we decided to go.  Well, after driving in the pouring rain for 45 minutes, we finally get there and saw that everyone else in the area had the same thought.  I later heard that about 7-8,000 people had come to this.  And since it had taken so long to get there, we couldn't just leave when we saw how many people were there.  Instead, we waited in line for another hour(outside in the cold wind...but hey, at least no snow), to get inside the building and see that the line continued at a snails pace throughout the entire building.  At this point we had a decision to make.  Stick it out at the Microsoft building, or give up, and count all that time wasted, but make it to our church Halloween party, at least for the games and trunk or treating parts (had already missed the dinner).  So we decided to just go, as much as it killed me to walk away without seeing any of the Harry Potter and Star Wars stuff, and count the last 2 1/2 hours as a waste.  So, we rushed to the ward Halloween party where the kids had fun, but Dave and I were kind of just exhausted and wanted to be home at that point.  Finally at 8:00 that night, we were on our way home and able to get some dinner for us and the kids.  Whew. 
So. moving on from that night, that weekend we carved our pumpkins too.  We had Scott and Madeline clean out their own pumpkins this year, much to their dismay.  They were not too thrilled to stick their hands in the "guts" of the pumpkin, but hey, if I can do it, so can they.:)  We thought about carving cool pictures on the pumpkins, using templates, but after seeing how much more time that would take, just carved them free hand.:)

Sorry, the picture is not the greatest.  Scott's is the one the left, and it is a vampire, Madeline's is a girlie pumpkin with eyelashes and full lips:), and Dylan's is a Mickey Mouse.  Dave started to carve the Transformers symbol one one of them, but it quickly just became a Cyclops:) A picture of that one isn't posted.

Here is Scott and Dylan, more commonly known as, Bumblebee and Optimus Prime Transformers.  Now, this really was Dylan's Halloween costume this year, but Scott's costume he is wearing is a few years old and he only put it on for playing around with Dylan.  They both had so much fun playing Transformers together though, that Scott wants me to get him a new Optimus Prime Costume for next year(since this costume was getting a little too short), so he and Dylan can be Transformers again:)

On Halloween, the kids were able to wear their costumes to school, and had their Harvest Party.  Since I am the Room Parent for their class this year, and in charge of all the parties, Dylan was able to dress up and come with me too:) Here is Scott coloring his scarecrow craft at the party. And yes, he has a black line on his face.  Scott was dressed up as Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, where Anakin has a scar on his face.  Scott wanted one just like it:)

Here we are about to go Trick or Treating.  There were so many kids out in our neighborhood!  And so many of the houses around here go all out with the decorations and special effects!  Seriously, Dave and I should probably step up our game for next year:)  Lucky for us, it was not raining,but it was a little cold, so the kids weren't out a terribly long time.

After getting home, they quickly dumped out their candy and started trading.:)  I loved seeing them do this, it reminded me when my sister Nicole and I used to trade our candy around.:)  It was a little bit of an exhausting holiday this year, but the kids had fun, so that made it all worth it:)  We hope everyone had a Happy Halloween too!