Halloween

Our Halloween started early this year with our Ward Trunk or Treat weeks ago. The week before, we started decorating the house, pulling out the costumes, hanging nets, setting jack-o-lanterns everywhere. With Halloween on Sunday this year, we had decided to have a party on Saturday night to make up for not going out trick-or-treating. So, I wanted to really make the house look eerily festive.

McKenna got these cute pumpkin earrings, which she wore for about 5 minutes.

Weeks before, McKenna and Hayden had picked their costumes. Sabrina said she wasn't going to dress up. McKenna wanted to be a clown again, and Hayden wanted to be a vampire (I think that makes 4 years in a row???) I talked McKenna into trying a queen's dress we picked up during Fasching in Germany. I think it was the glittery bling and getting to wear makeup that swayed her. Sabrina ended up deciding to be a "bad babysitter." I told her she was probably doing herself wrong...no one would ask her to babysit anymore, but she stuck to it. Sabrina was a little old to beg for candy, but she had fun walking around with her friends. Here they are the night of the trunk-or-treat:

And here's the Queen with her BFF, Princess Peach (aka Claire).

The night of our Halloween Spooktakular, we welcomed witches and clowns, skeletons and super heroes...

We started by bobbing for apples, then had games, crafts and ended with watching Disney's Haunted Mansion. The grown ups got to hang out and enjoy all the yummy treats.

The monster punch with the alien ice was a hit. Especially in the mini martini glasses. They only hold a swallow, so you have to constantly refill, which I think was part of the fun for the kids.

On Sunday night, I hadn't planned to hand out candy, figuring it was a little hypocritical to not let the kids go, but then support it for others. But, it was still light out when the trick-or-treating started. So, the porch light off didn't help. And, McKenna actually enjoyed handing some out. But, it was short-lived, because after dark, no one else stopped by. Problem solved.

Trunk or treat + Cute kids in costumes + fun with friends + sweet candy = success. It was a great Halloween.

Hawaiian Halloween

With all of this warm weather, it's very difficult for me to get into the spirit of these holidays coming up that we've spent our whole lives associating with cooler weather. It's barely dropping to 87 and 86 degrees this week...still so hot. On the one hand, it was fun to really decorate our porch for Halloween this year, but on the other hand difficult to do with sweat running down my forehead.

We had the annual Trunk or Treat at church last week, which gives the kids an additional option for costumes. For that, they were an indian, a black belt (big stretch, Sabrina), and the cutest little witch...McKenna did a great job keeping the wig on. Sabrina wore that same costume at her age and it only lasted 5 minutes, and that was in the cold of Colorado. It was actually harder to come up with costumes the kids wouldn't be sweating in. They usually ended us sweating indoors as it was, and now they would broil outdoors...But these worked ok.

This was also the first year we've taken them all to the pumpkin patch. It was pretty large...albeit hot as heck walking through the rows picking pumpkins. We also picked our own yummy corn.

Then, for Halloween, they were a renaissance maiden, a knight, and a clown. The cutest clown ever! If I may say so...Sabrina took McKenna around the neighborhood here on base, and Hayden went out with a couple of his friends. It was hard letting them go by themselves, but it solved the problem of who was going to stay home and hand out candy. It's always a leap of faith to trust Dennis to do it...he always threatened to give it all to the first 3 kids and turn off the porch light. Plus, when they were younger, it was more fun for me to watch them at the door and the reactions. Now that they are growing up, watching them go door-to-door is losing some charm.
So, I sat home, with Dennis studying for his next promotion test, watching my recordings of Criminal Minds and CSI:NY in between door bells. We didn't have near the amount of kids I thought we would have, though. I noticed that neighbors were sitting in their driveways and porches on chairs handing out candy. They seemed to be getting more action. Since when did kids stop knocking on doors? Have I been overseas too long?

Now I'm stuck with more packages of Lik'em sticks than I care to have. On top of the gallon ziplock each of my children have of their own candy. We never had this much candy in Germany. And, when I was a kid, it seemed all the good stuff was gone in a week and the rest was there til you tossed it after New Years. Now, it all seems like good stuff....what are we going to do with all that candy? In the past, it would have ended up on my desk at work...I'd notice the real estate agents stopping to chat a little more often...voila! Gone before Thanksgiving...but not now that I'm staying at home...and now with a cheating diabetic daughter in the house. It's gonna be a little tougher this year.