Halloween

Pre-Halloween excitement:

Clockwise, starting from top left:

1. Ghosts, bats, and jack-o-lanterns hanging over our kitchen table. The kids created this all by themselves at the beginning of October, and they've been super pleased with it all month. I got so used to it, I forgot I can take it down now that Halloween is over. It might become a permanent decoration.
2. Mini-pumpkins that the kids painted. Only Tristan's pumpkin (the greenish one on the end) was left bare, because he claimed he "wasn't really into painting pumpkins anymore." Whatever.
3. Elizabeth trying to be very brave and reach into the gutted pumpkin to grab a seed (the kids are always grossed out by the stringy pumpkin guts, so this year I offered 10 cents to anyone who would reach in and grab out a seed. It almost wasn't worth it for Lizza, but in the end she decided she couldn't let everyone else be braver than she was. Mostly she just wanted 10 cents though.)
4. Triumphant Lizza with her pumpkin seed.
5. The door of the girls' room. I told Rachel and Lizza they couldn't hang their Halloween drawings all over the house, but they could hang whatever they wanted in their room.
6. Creepy spider web. I always feel bad that I don't do more holiday decorations for the kids (see here and here)- they were thrilled (and shocked) when I bought this spider web and hung it upstairs by their rooms. $2 goes a long way when expectations are low, I guess.
7. Tristan made an awesome Halloween bingo game for us to play.
8. Rachel bravely reaching into the pumpkin.

Posing with the jack-o-lantern:


Rachel, Lizza, and Henry getting ready to go to a party (they were waiting at the window for our ride). This was one of Lizza's many costumes - we went to a few different Halloween events, and every time she would grab something different out of the dress-up box. I think here she is a ballerina queen (Rachel's a dancer, and Henry's a pirate).


Rachel won the oreo stacking contest:



Halloween Night:

Tristan. Pirate.


Oliver. Pirate. He lost his first tooth a few hours before we went trick-or-treating (he pulled it out himself) and was very pleased with the authentic pirate look it gave him.


Rachel. Dancer. She's never been in any dance classes, but recieved this little dance outfit as a hand-me-down, and there was no talking her out of it. (I tried - the original plan was for them all to be pirates).

And of course, because she's Rachel, she added a special twist - she was wearing this weird necklace thing with a big fake pink watch attached to it. She told me it was her special dancing watch that let her know when it was time to start dancing. She made a big point of checking it all the time, and requested that I get a picture of her looking down at it.

Elizabeth. Pirate princess.

She wasn't sure how she felt about the clip-on earring. Rachel, on the other hand, was thrilled to learn about clip-ons. Both she and Elizabeth have vowed that they will never get their ears pierced and will just "wear bracelets, necklaces, and rings to be fancy" (not a moral stance - they are just scared of the pain). Rachel has now decided that her future will be in clip-ons. I told her she might change her mind when she's older, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Henry. Little pirate baby who wouldn't stand still for the camera.

The whole gang getting ready to go - four pirates and a time-conscious dancer:

We let Henry go out trick-or-treating to a few houses before I took him home and put him to bed. I thought he would get the hang of it and be excited about getting treats. He wasn't. He was just excited to run around through people's yards. He did go up to a few doors, but he'd always turn around and run away before he even got any treats.

Handing out treats after they got back - one of the highlights of their evening:

The Day After:

We always do a candy "draft" after Halloween that the kids (and Daniel) take pretty seriously. All the candy is combined and then sorted into different types.

Daniel then gave a little pre-draft talk, touching on different draft strategies, and also letting the kids know what some of his favorites were ("This is a Butterfinger. If you choose this, you will get a spanking because I want them all. These are suckers. Some kids like them, but they are gross. If you choose them, that is unacceptable and you will be out of the draft." Etc.) Poor Elizabeth was nodding her head solemnly through all of this - I had to quickly explain that he was joking.

Then a draft order was determined and each kid got to choose 15 pieces, to be eaten whenever they want. It's funny to watch what they do with it. Lizza plowed through 4 or 5 of hers right away. Tristan has decided to save all of his, and only eat a few pieces on the weekends, and none during the week. The other kids are somewhere in between.

And I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do (Daniel and I got all the leftovers).