Halloween 2012

This year Halloween fell on a Wednesday. With Hurricane Sandy and its after-effects, it seemed like the day kind of snuck up on us. I was out of work on Monday and the kids were out Monday and Tuesday.  We had picked plenty of pumpkins during our many pumpkin patch trips, but having left them on the porch they had gotten eaten by bugs and squirrels.  The big one we got in order to carve had completely rotted from the inside out. (Be glad we don't have smell-i-vision on the internet yet!) I bought a new carving pumpkin from the store on Sunday and had left in rolling around in my car until Tuesday night.  We brought in the surviving porch pumpkins and let the kids decorate with these cute pieces.  Then we carved the (freezing cold) pumpkin.

The kids had fun scooping out the gunk inside the pumpkin and then I let them draw a picture of how they wanted to face to look.  Since there was only one pumpkin (and we have been working on cooperation and getting along), I switched Frances and Henry's drawings when they were done.  I had Henry pick his favorite part of Frances' drawing and let her pick her favorite part of his.  He picked the mouth she had drawn, and she picked his nose (hahahahahahahahha!!!)  That left the eyes, so I drew some shapes on a piece of paper and asked Benjamin which eyes he liked.  The result was a pumpkin with everyone's input and creativity:

Yesterday was such a fun day! I am glad to work in a place that not only allows, but encourages, costumes for the day. I dressed as Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games. One co-worker dressed in biker gear and another dressed as Steve Jobs.  We had students participate too with a pirate, a cat, a baseball player's wife (complete with jersey and HUGE ring), and Harry Potter.

 Ken dressed as the 11th Doctor from Dr. Who. I eve tied his bow tie (the first time I've ever attempted such a thing).  I bought him a sonic screwdriver, but apparently I bought the 10th Doctor's version, so he had to go buy  the correct one. We went from not owning any sonic screwdrivers to owning 2 (or maybe three) in less than 24 hours!!

 Benjamin refused all the costumes I offered him. We had been trying off and on all month, but he didn't want any part of it.  He ended up wearing the pants from last year's mouse costume, the jacket from Henry's dog costume last year and a frog hat.  He wouldn't say trick or treat, but he did say thank you at every house.  Henry was a knight and Frances was a witch.  They wanted to be Mike and Evie from one of their cartoons, Mike The Knight.

I told them to yell "Boo!"

 We didn't end up going out for very long because it was cold and windy. We went about two blocks of our regular route and then visited the ABC store and the ETMC.  All in all, they had a bunch of fun and got enough candy to make them happy but not enough to make them sick.