Halloween 2009

The kids made out like bandits this year! We attended our wards Trunk or Treat and also let the kids go trick or treating around our neighborhood. Ben was a saint and wore his same costume from last year (Iron Man), Ryley insisted on being a Black Cat, and Livi was the cutest little ladybug. Sweet baby Ethan got stuck with the frog costume this year. I'm excited that the kids candy is almost gone and I can pack the pumpkins away. We found the cutest little pumpkin patch the weekend Grandma Marti came to visit, and made our way home with four fabulous pumpkins.

The funny one in the front is my pumpkin, it's the kind you make pies out of.

All carved an ready to go!

Ryley/ Dad, Ben, Olivia, Ethan/ Mom

Some how I missed getting single shots of the older two.

Tilly stayed behind and passed out candy with Kevin, here she is

all dressed up, eyes a glow.

This was Ethan after a night of Trick or Treating.

(Don't worry those are pretzels, not candy corns)

The Best Halloween Ever

The only chance we got to carve our pumpkins happened to be the afternoon of Halloween. Kev had three tests this last week and we didn't want them to wilt to bad before the big day.

The kids didn't mind the guts at all.


Ben was so proud of his little pumpkin.

Ryley and Ben were extremely excited for Halloween this year. I'm sure the older they get the more fun it will be for Kev and I. We decided to ditch our ward trunk-or-treat and just stay here on base. There is a large circle of homes in the middle of the base that is the officers housing and so everyone goes there. It was so organized and people went all out. The kids really liked going door to door and Ryley practically saw everyone she goes to school with. We have three pumpkins full of candy and will soon all be in a sugar coma.

Ryley is a pink Pegasus/ Unicorn, Ben is Iron Man and Olivia is Cinderella

Ryley insisted on a close up, and the other two wouldn't hold still long enough

After two hours of Trick-or-Treating

The Pumpkin Patch

I was hoping to find a fabulous little pumpkin patch, like the one Nate and Lori have gone to the last two years, but no such luck. Apparently Texas had a drought and the pumpkin farms didn't have enough water so they shipped in all their pumpkins and the ticket to get in most of them was just ridiculous. It was going to cost us $20 just to get into the farm and then each pumpkin was either $8, $10, or $12 depending upon their size. Oh, and the little ones that the kids got were 2 for a $1. The ticket in covered a hay maze, pumpkin and face painting, and a lawn mower train ride for the kids. We're cheap and talked the people into letting us just pick a pumpkin and leave. There weren't even any pretty fall tress or a hay ride to get your pumpkin involved. It did beat buying a pumpkin at Wal-mart though, even if it would have been cheaper.

Halloween

Like most people I've been a little Scrooge like about the 'holidays' that require any type of participation. Then I realized that it's not about me. I can never remember my mom being grumpy (or a t least showing it to us kids) about any holiday celebration, in fact she seemed to always encourage our participation. So I'm going to try and turn over a new leaf and be happy, for my children's sake, at all the "fun" holiday activities. On that note here are pics of the Halloween celebrations we attended.

Ryley posing before her school party,

and yes her eyes are flash crazy again

Ryley got her RED Ariel hair when we went to

trunk r' treat with the Thornhill's (thanks Rachelle)

This is Ben saying, "Batman to the rescue!"

So with two trunk r' treats and a school party we are ready to retire the costumes for play time. They still think that if they put them on then they can ask for candy. One thing I did realize this year is that one of my favorite smells is that of candy inside a plastic pumpkin.