Halloween

Saturday, we trick-or-treated at Meijer. After church on Sunday we carved pumpkins, got into costume & handed out candy until it was gone, then went trick-or-treating.

Meijer:

Carving Pumpkins:

Going out to trick-or-treat:

Our yard. We made tombstones to make a path up to our front door, since it isn't super obvious. We had lights that were meant to go along with the tombstones, but we didn't have enough to go the entire way.

The kids' pumpkins on the porch:

Some of the tombstones we made (I drew the patterns, Jason cut them out, I painted and decorated them) were silly, but some of them hold special meaning. This one is to honor our little niece Jessica who died when she was 6 months old:

The "forever" pumpkin I carved for Benjamin:

Peter's Snoopy pumpkin was one we found already carved at Kmart, Anna's I carved for her:

Halloween Party

On Saturday, October 30th, 2010 we had our annual Halloween party with my brother & his family and my sister Becky & her family. This year, it was held at my brother's house. My family dressed as "Aladdin" characters.

Baxter, my brother's family dog:

Us, as "Aladdin" characters. I'm Jasmine(I had made necklaces for Anna & I but forgot them in the rush to get out the door), Peter as Abu, Jason as Aladdin, Anna as Jasmine (In the end of the movie outfit), and Benjamin as the Genie:

"Pre-Halloween" Trick-or-Treating

The kids and I went with my sister Becky and her kids along with Grandpa and Grandma to trick-or-treat downtown again this year. Thankfully, it wasn't raining like last year!! I decided to re-use the costumes I had made the kids for Star Wars Celebration V, so we all went as Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back characters. Ben was Luke, Anna was Leia (wearing her Cloud City/Bespin outfit), and Peter was Yoda. I wore my snow speeder pilot costume.

School Halloween Party

Benjamin's class party was on Thursday, October 28th, 2010. I signed up to help, hoping that I could make Halloween themed sugar cookies to bring like my Mom used to do. However, I was asked to bring grapes and Ritz-type crackers because they're trying to focus on more healthy options. The kids aren't allowed to wear costumes at school, which was always the highlight of the Halloween parties for me when I was a kid, so I was disappointed about that. But, Benjamin still had a lot of fun. I was in charge of helping the kids make spiders out of pipe cleaners and Tootsie Roll Pops.

Benjamin's first "station" was making a scarecrow from a brown paper bag:

The second station Benjamin had was to dress his teacher as a scarecrow, but I didn't get a picture of that one since it wasn't in the classroom, where I was stationed.

Here is the third station Benjamin had, mine: making spiders:

This classmate of Benjamin's was particularly proud of her spider!

Benjamin with his spider:

"Pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern"

Beanbag toss:

Playing with plastic bugs and "creepy" animals in a table of shaving cream (Mommy wasn't so thrilled with this one) :

Snack-time: