Halloween

We planned to carve our pumpkins earlier in the week but Casey had a quick 2-day business trip in the middle of that. So, maybe this will be a new tradition: carving pumpkins on Halloween morning! Of course, it only works when it falls on the weekend. Maybe we'll try Halloween Eve like my sister-in-law Nicole does. All in all, we had fun. The kids ate popcorn while the parents did the carving.
Of course neither child wanted to put their hands in the goo. But that's okay. Lucy enjoyed watching me get messy.
The boys. (looking like they just woke up).
But they were working hard. Steady, steady...
I told Lucy to get her face in close to the pumpkin and I would take her picture with it. This is how she interpreted that. Frozen, with this funny face. Made me laugh:
Voila! (or Grrrrr, ooooooo, schreeeech!) Our spooky pumpkins. Mine and Lucy's ended up being Pumpkin 101 (I didn't even cut the mouth out properly and chopped the teeth off on accident). But Casey and Owen stepped it up a notch with Frankenstein.
After the carving we headed out for lunch. But on the way we found this cute little carnival just down the street from our house. So we had to stop.
The kids got to pet the animals,
eat candy,
and go for a pony ride!
while mom enjoyed this:
only for a short bit though cause my appetite was really looking forward to this:
That evening we got the kids back in their costumes and as we headed out the door, I noticed that the candy feast had already begun. I caught Lucy looking like this:
We walked down to our neighborhood park where the HOA had a small get-together and gave prizes to all the kids who were dressed up.
I thought this hot-dog was cute (and I don't even like dogs. The real ones, that is. I like the hot ones).
I couldn't get over what a perfect pirate our neighbor made. His eyes, his smile? Dead on.
The kids played on the park toys for a bit and then we hit the streets for candy.
Lots of fun decor.
One house had a haunted yard that went all through the backyard and they had the coolest smoke bubbles. I'd never seen anything like it. Owen got a little freaked out back there though.
At first people weren't answering their doors. Maybe we were too early? But Lucy didn't seem to mind. She'd just say, okay....let's head to the next one. Great attitude Luce. As the night went on though we found plenty of houses with treats. And Owen really got into it. He totally got the concept of "get the candy and put it in your bucket" and even more-so the concept that "it's YOUR bucket. This is ALL for YOU." At one point we tried to carry his pumpkin for him (since it was getting pretty heavy) and he quickly replied, "no no no!" Already grasping the concept of wealth!
The kids went for about an hour but I could tell that Lucy was getting tired. I asked her, do you want to go to that house over there or do you want to just go home? And she replied, I want to go home. Of course once we were home and I let them eat as much candy as they wanted, she was jumping off the walls (while watching Clifford episodes galore).
Owen and Casey hung out on the front porch with Frankenstein and handed out candy to kids. And that was our spooky night! It was very fun to be in a real neighborhood where we could trick or treat and also give out treats. Ever since we've been married we've been in an apartment or somewhere that's not "knocking friendly". So this year felt like a fun old-fashioned Halloween. It seems that a lot of what we're experiencing in our new life is just old-fashioned American fun. It's really great. Happy Halloween!