Halloween!!

With all the build-up, I just knew Halloween was going to be so exciting.  And it did not disappoint!  The kids had a pretty wild day at school, and got home to find Ahh in town to visit for the holiday/birthday weekend.  Then Audra came over to trick or treat with us, Daddy got home early, Charlie got "black things" under his eyes and shoulder pads in his uniform, Evie got "ponies," and by that point, excitement was sky high.  Charlie was still a bit unsure if trick or treating was going to be quite as fun as trunk or treating, but he was willing to give it a try.  First, obligatory costume photos.  Some of our friends were already coming over to trick or treat at this point already, so getting the kids to sit still was almost impossible...hence the Halloween candy bribe they are each holding. :)

It was impossible to get their attention.

Johnny Football took the whole thing quite seriously.

Evie was super excited about her glow bracelets, but they didn't stay on her tiny wrists so well.  I must have heard a loud, panicked, "my bwacelet!" about 20 times.  Good thing they were glow-in-the-dark!

I think the #2 on his jersey was one of the highlights of the evening for him. :)

Trying to convince this girl to only take one piece of candy per house was not the easiest feat, but we eventually prevailed (after her bag got heavy enough to satisfy her).  Here she is double-fisting her candy already.

It was a perfectly cool, gorgeous evening--the best Halloween weather I can imagine!

Neither of the kids were nervous at all about walking up to strangers' houses.  Just a guess, but it might have had something to do with all the free candy. ;)

Walking around became more and more treacherous as it got dark because our neighborhood doesn't have a ton of streetlights.  Luckily, most of the streets in the area were closed to traffic, so that eased my mind a bit, as Charlie was pretty bad about darting across the street if he saw a particularly spooky house.  At one point, as it was getting very dark, we started crossing a street and I heard a loud "caaaan't see!" out of Evie.  Something about the way she says this is so funny, and it has become one of our favorite expressions because she uses it so often (anytime it is dark or she is trying to find something hard to see, like the camouflaged tree frog in one of our books :).

The little Texas fans were thrilled to find a friendly skeleton.  We learned there are a lot of Aggies in our neighborhood!

After covering several blocks, we headed back to the house to hand out candy.  This was just as fun as the trick or treating, especially for Charlie.  Mr. Hospitable loved seeing everyone in their costumes and kept running out to recruit people to come get candy from our house.  Evie, on the other hand, was a little more unsure.  Even though we made every effort to show her that her bag of candy was safe, she panicked every time we handed candy to someone.  At one point, she was growling/yelling "no!" at some trick or treaters and had 12-year-old boys backing away and saying, "it's ok, we really don't need any more candy."  Apparently, our feisty little 2-year-old is just as spooky as a haunted house!

Sitting with Auga, fending off those nasty trick-or-treaters.  If you come to our house, beware!

Charlie, trying to be much more welcoming.

Johnny Football and our neighbor, Nico the Ninja, had so much fun staying up late and playing.

I think this photo was taken at 9:30 or 10:00, when he was still hoping for more trick-or-treaters.  We could not pull him inside!

Happy Halloween!  We were so sad to see the "spookies" go away after it was all over. :(

Pre-Halloween Fun

Halloween was never my favorite holiday, until this year.  Once everyone started putting out pumpkins and Halloween decorations, Charlie and Evie got super excited about Halloween and every drive through our neighborhood became thrilling.  As soon as we got in the car, they would beg to "go see spookies!"  Their favorite drive involved several large, blow-up "bad cats," and they would get extremely excited each time we saw one.  I loved hearing Evie's low, growling "baaaad caaaat!" every time we drove past.  The also loved all the pumpkins, ghosts, spider webs, and everything else--apparently, the spookier, the better for these two.  Dreaming about trick or treating was so fun too.  I think I probably answered 100+ questions about what trick or treating is, what it entails, why we do it, how we get candy, how much candy we get, what we say, what do the people at the houses say, etc., etc., etc.  Very exciting stuff. :)

Here we are picking our Halloween pumpkins.  As you can imagine, there were lots of strong opinions.  After several rounds of negotiation, Clint and I escaped with "only" 5 pumpkins (one for each member of the family, including the baby :).

The other best part of the holiday was Charlie's Halloween costume.  One of my favorite traits about Charlie--which he certainly did not inherit from me!--is his complete and utter decisiveness.  Once he makes a decision, Charlie never wavers; he just remains perfectly happy with his choice.  And once he decided to be a football player (more specifically, Johnny Football, although, as you will notice, there are some inconsistencies with his costume), he was just pumped about that decision.  I thought some of his friends with super hero costumes might make him regret his choice, but he just thought he looked fabulous.  He begged (still begs) to wear the costume every day, and just loves himself in it.  Although I limited its wear to inside before Halloween, he now has free rein with it and Johnny Football has appeared in numerous different venues. :)

Here is Johnny Football and his cheerleader.  Evie became quite adept at saying "Go Football!" 

One fun event this year was a pumpkin carving party at our neighbors', the Zavalas', house.  The kids mostly ran around and played, and once Clint learned that there was a pumpkin carving contest, we lost him for the duration of the party. :)

Still carving...not sure he spoke with anyone there. :)

Evie was more interested in the pizza and cookies than the pumpkins.  Big surprise. :)

When I walked home, I was surprised to see Johnny relieving himself in our front yard.  Better than wet football pants, I guess!

From there, we headed to the kids' school for trunk or treating.  This was a big hit and up until we actually tried trick or treating, Charlie swore that trunk or treating was what he liked best (that all changed on Halloween night, however).

Charlie was so frustrated with me that night for not having ironed his #2 on his jersey yet.  I think he asked me the first thing every morning if I had done it, but I had a hard time finding a time when it was clean but not being worn to do it!

Once Evie figured out everyone was handing out candy, she became much less trepidatious than normal.  Makes me wonder if she's all that shy after all...

Johnny and the very very friendly cheerleader.

Miss Chocolate Face loved her candy!

We also had to do some pumpkin carving of our own, when the kids could pay attention.  First, here is the final product from the party (Evie's "bad cat"):

Charlie and Evie were very good helpers, and loved cleaning out the pumpkin.  They were so helpful that I ultimately had to take them up for a bath so Daddy could finish carving without worrying about someone grabbing the knife from him. :)

We came down after the bath to find Charlie's ghost pumpkin!  He was so torn because he had badly wanted a spooky ghost, but he wasn't so sure about Evie having a bigger pumpkin.

Not 100% thrilled with his ghost.

A few days later, the kids and I got another shot at pumpkin decorating at the McDonough's pumpkin decorating party.  I didn't try carving one on my own, but the kids had a blast playing, eating and painting pumpkins.  Charlie was most pumped about the "black things under my eyes."  He just loves looking at this photo. :)

Our amazing creation. :)

After all that, we were very ready to see what Halloween had in store for us...