Halloween Happenings

Finally, a whole day full of Halloween fun with the entire family!

In the past several years, Mike has been super busy with work or school and has only been able to share in some of the fun.  With Halloween on Saturday this year, the best treat of all was having him home to spend the day with.

The night before was our annual Halloween dinner at Grandpa and Grammie Carpenter's house.

We started off our morning with some "ghostie" pancakes.  Whip up your favorite pancake batter, pour onto pan in ghost shapes and add chocolate chip eyes.  A tip I saw somewhere said to use one of those restaraunt-type ketchup squirters to draw your pancake shapes with.  I thought that was a great idea.  I just used my Pyrex measuring cup, but ghosts are supposed to look blobby anyhow.  (Are "blobby" and "squirters" even real words?)

Later in the morning, we read some Halloween books and lazed around the house while Daddy went target shooting with the men-folk.

We gathered our things and headed to my parents' home for the afternoon and evening.

We carved pumpkins.  Mr. One was not interested in taking out the guts and seeds.  He preferred "carving" the insides and pieces with the safety knives.

Mr. Two got his hands dirty for a bit, but then soon lost interest.  I think he was disappointed that it didn't taste good, so he moved on.

Mike carved a fabulous, Tim Burton-esque smiley jack-o-lantern and enjoyed taking lots of pumpkin pictures.

I enjoyed watching and capturing the moment without having to get my hands dirty.

We ate leftovers from the night before, with some wings and potstickers for the adults and hot dogs for the kiddies.

We got ready to go trick or treating.  The boys loved getting dressed up, getting candy, and having so many people admire their cuteness.

Mike gets all the credit for Mr. One's robot costume.  I only offered a few suggestions.  The Architect was in charge.  The body is made from a cardboard box, the hat is a regular cap covered in foil, the headset is from an old cordless phone, and the arms are dryer flex duct.

I constructed Mr. Two's zookeeper getup.  I found the overalls on clearance at Target, made the felt banana and name tag, added an old belt from my mom, letter stickers onto a baseball cap we had on hand, a ring of old keys and a beanie monkey from Auntie Jenny.  His favorite book now is Goodnight Gorilla, hence the costume.

We had fun taking the boys around part of our ward neighborhood and visiting with friends along the way.

We went back to Grandpa and Grammie's house for a few (few meaning two, I am a "mean" mommy) pieces of candy and a late-night viewing of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Then, off to bed for two tired little boys and two tired parents...

Happy Halloween!