Halloween 2013

The beginning of Oct I came home from Costco with a Army Ranger costume and a Fireman costume.  I told Marcus to pick one.  He said that he was going to be Spiderman (for the third year in a row!).  I try to let my kids make some decisions so I said that was fine but I wasn't buying another Spiderman costume and that he would have to find his from last year.  After a week of looking Marcus couldn't find the mask.  I told him no mask, no candy.  He finally tried on the Army Ranger costume and was hooked.  After that, he put it on every chance he got.  

Me spying on them as they have a dress-up picnic.

They got vampire teeth from school and wore them for days.

  Addy didn't want to be a princess this year (might have had something to do with me telling her I wouldn't buy a new dress) but she still wanted to wear jewelry and be sparkly, so we decided on a gypsy.  Katie was going to be a cowgirl but change her mind 2 weeks before Halloween and wanted to be a pioneer.  She asked is I could make her a bonnet.  I agreed, but tortured her with stories of my mom sewing the final stitches on my prom dress while my date waited in the kitchen with my dad.  Everyday she came home from school and nothing had been done.  At one point I made it to Goodwill and found her a dress to wear, that made her feel a little better but I still had to alter the dress.  

The Friday before Halloween was the day of the school Halloween hop, and Katie was really hoping I would have the dress and bonnet done for that.  She came off the bus that afternoon and looked at me with hopeful eyes.  I couldn't resist shaking my head.  Katie held back tears and put on a brave face before she realized I was teasing her.  I had worked all day and she was ecstatic with the results.

The day after the school party we had the church trunk or treat.  Some time before Halloween we found time to carve the pumpkin.

yes, that is him eating pumpkin guts.

We live in a neighborhood where there are no sidewalks and everyone had acre lots, so we headed to  our friends neighborhood, where the houses were closer together, to trick or treat. 

(Top) Daniel, Marcus, Jay (Bottom) Addy, Eva, Zoe, Katie and Jax

Marcus and Eli

Katie decided I was going to be a witch this year and that she was going to paint my face green with this fabulous face painting kit she bought at a yardsale for $2.  She bugged me about painting my face before the school party and before the church party, but with so much going on, I didn't have time to dress up, BUT, I finally let her paint my facing before we left to trick or treat.  She was pretty happy about that.

As always there was lots of candy to be had and my kids were very proactive in getting it.  Stinken CT doesn't believe in sidewalks so it was a little nerve racking for me at times as they were trying to dart ahead of the group.  But we all made back safe.   Jaxon even managed to score his first lollipop by crying to get out of the stroller.  Mark is such a sucker (no pun intended).