There are certain days in the Halloween "season" where I abhor it: way too much candy, dressing kids up over and over, cleaning up all the paraphernalia for days on end after it's over.
But there are other days where I think it's the best day ever: when I sit in awe of all the creative ideas people come up with, feeling the warm camaraderie in our neighborhood running into old friends as we walk the streets, and watching my children glow from excitement.
Oh, and the Kit Kats and Twix. Mmmmm.
Plus, Halloween marks the time of year for me each year when I can count on the weather finally starting to cool down a little bit.
And I'm here to tell you, after days and days of hot, hot, hot, that feels mighty good.
One of my favorite parts of Halloween is the pumpkin carving:
Apparently we missed the boat on the big pumpkins this year because after searching at four different stores Dave came home with these little puppies.
The size sure made it more manageable...I have to say that.
But Max was still yearning for a bigger one.
So we decided to carve our watermelon:
I think it turned out pretty cool:
(Max did all that teeth-work himself.)
We all know that you can be really good things for Halloween, not just scary, crazy things, right?
So Max and his friend decided to be Mormon missionaries. 
In my opinion, you can't get better than that:)
It made my heart jump a beat or two envisioning him in a few years dressing like that for real.
Whoa. Let's just stop right there.
Elle was some sort of crazy (cute) mad-hatter:
When Grace found this head-piece in our dress-up box she decided she had to be a flapper.
And apparently flapper girls have to have fake eyelashes.
We didn't have any real eyelash glue (not something we generally have on hand I guess) so we glued those babies on with an Elmer's glue stick. Not a method I'd recommend if you want them to stay on for more than two seconds.
Claire went through many various stages of her witch outfit. She started out a blond witch (back here). Then we added some black spray-paint for her hair:
But what she really wanted was a green face.
I was trying to catch the light so she had to wait.
...and wait...
...and wait...
(But let's pause here for a minute because seriously, I like these kids.)
Ok, back to Claire waiting for her green face happily:
...then not so happily:
And finally, there we go:
A real witch.
Lucy, of course, was Sleeping Beauty: 
...and never worried for a second about anything but her crown (that we seriously have scarcely been able to pry off for two weeks), and her ratty dress that Elle wore when she was Sleeping Beauty years ago.
She was pleased as punch about the whole ordeal.
Then it was on to the main event: Trick-or-Treating.
One of my most favorite things about Halloween was Lucy's candy bucket because we had been so worried about all the candy coming her way.
It was miniscule, which, of course, makes for very scanty candy gathering.
But she was so darn pleased about that thing and the little bat plastered on the front that she hardly recognized that it didn't really change weight from house to house. I have no idea what happened to all the candy after the first few houses because there was no room for more. She kept trick-or-treating with a big smile on her face. It was like the opposite of the loaves and the fishes story in the Bible....the candy just miraculously disappeared.
She dumped out her three or four pieces when the girls and their friends dumped out their mounds and she was just as happy as could be. Then she started playing with her squinkies and my brother and I ate her candy. It was awesome.
Let's take a closer look at that green face by the end of the night:
Nice.
Ok, so I do love Halloween.
But I'm ok for it not to come back for another whole year:)Labels: Halloween, kids
(Max did all that teeth-work himself.)
In my opinion, you can't get better than that:)
We didn't have any real eyelash glue (not something we generally have on hand I guess) so we glued those babies on with an Elmer's glue stick. Not a method I'd recommend if you want them to stay on for more than two seconds.
(But let's pause here for a minute because seriously, I like these kids.)
...and never worried for a second about anything but her crown (that we seriously have scarcely been able to pry off for two weeks), and her ratty dress that Elle wore when she was Sleeping Beauty years ago.
Nice.
Ok, so I do love Halloween.