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| The butterfly witch. |
Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. It’s a combination of the beautiful weather, the gorgeous leaves, a hint of spookiness amid the fun, dressing up and of course, candy.
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| Kate aged overnight! |
We always put up our decorations early in October and after Jack discovered the face paints at the bottom of one of the boxes and immediately began decorating the girls, I’ve endured a month long barrage of queries regarding when they’d be able to go trick or treating. Try explaining to children who really can’t grasp the concept of time that they have to wait almost a month to do something fun. I’m asked multiple times a day whether or not Halloween has arrived. No girls. Not yet.
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| At a pirate themed haunted house! |
Thankfully, there have been plenty of other pre-Halloween activities to keep us entertained (and give our costumes a test run!) before any actual trick or treating. We went to everything from the Indianapolis Children’s Museum Pirate’s Revenge Haunted House…
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| Posing with Dorothy. |
…to the Boo at the Zoo…
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| This is what happens with you try to sneeze with your eyes open… |
…to goofing around with some sticky eyeballs…
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| They tried to make a team effort but couldn’t pick the big one up. |
…to picking out pumpkins at the pumpkin patch.
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| One pumpkin down! |
Since Jack had to go out of town this week, we had family night on Sunday and did our traditional pumpkin carving together. I can still manage to carve three pumpkins to Jack’s one (and this year, with a baby on my lap!) but while I’m stuck in doing two dimensional work, Jack whipped up a devilish little 3-D goblin.
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| Creeeeepy! |
Jack did such a good job on his pumpkin that the next day, Raven walked upstairs, took one hard look outside to the table where Jack’s goblin had been placed, let out a low (and very rare!) growl and bark and immediately went back downstairs. She’s convinced it’s real enough to be freaked out by it.
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| Kate’s face makes me laugh every time! She looks like an ewok in a bat costume. |
The highlight of the weekend though was a trip to a fun Halloween party at a small town nearby. There were games for the girls, CANDY!, and a fateful costume contest. Why fateful? We happened to be there in time for the youngest kids to line up to be judged so Kate, following our instructions, walked onto the line and awkwardly held out her bat wings. She won scariest costume in her group. Hooray!
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| Evelyn, the cheetah and Claire, the snow leopard, ready to be judged! |
After Kate stood and grinned for her photo with the winners, Evelyn and Claire, who were in the same age group, stepped up to the line. A zombie won scariest, a girl dressed as Elsa won the prettiest and lo and behold, Evelyn won best overall costume. She was so pleased, and so were we, except for poor Claire, who immediately burst into tears. Is a snow leopard not as cool as a cheetah?!
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| Posing with the winners. |
One of the wonderful things about being close with your siblings is that they’ve always got your back. Though Evelyn won the big prize, she marched right over to Claire and handed over the best gifts and candies to make her baby sister feel better. There will always be more candy, but sisters are forever.
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| Winning a costume contest is hard work! |
So far, our pre-Halloween celebrations have been wonderful and there are already a few more parties lined up this week. It’s been a spooky, sugary, heartwarming time already!
