Halloween 2010

For the first time, this year the kids actually helped clean out the pumpkin.
Oops, I guess didn't get any pictures of the finished product. It was Jack Skellington's head. It started growing mold the next day and was really spooky-looking by Halloween (complete with ooze).

This year, the only item I made for the kids costumes was Seth's scarf, his Harry Potter look needed something more identifying than the glasses and scar. I bought the Captain Hook costume for Jonas over a year ago when he started wanting to play dress up with Maryn and wear her princess dresses, so happy it still fits and that he wanted to wear it. His favorite part of his costume was his mustache. Maryn wore a sparkly witch dress which we borrowed from a friend. And I love an excuse to doll her up with makeup, so she's wearing sparkly purple eyeshadow, mascara and blush!

Oh look! There's the pumpkin we carved.

This is the only picture I took during actual trick or treating. It got dark pretty quickly after we left home. The kids had lots of fun and we (unfortunately) got tons and tons of candy. For the first time since we moved here, we trick-or-treated in our own little neighborhood. Because it's an older neighborhood with really nice, big homes- I was surprised at how many kids and families we saw on the streets.
Phew...I'm glad that holiday is over. It is my least favorite by a mile. Now the countdown is on for our exciting Christmas vacation! More on this later....so much to do.

For the grandparents.....the rest of the (very few) pictures taken are here.

Halloween 2009

Before I posted pics of Halloween last weekend, I decided to share some pics of last year when I actually made all of my kids' costumes for the first time ever. Meaning I actually sewed everything you see here (except for the fairy wings and almost everything Jonas is wearing- except for the mask and R badge- which I did make...so I guess not everything...)
Not sure why I didn't share any of these last year, you would think I would have been proud of all my hard work. Guess I felt like I didn't need any validation. (That doesn't sound quite right, does it?)

I think the actual reason was because this was my first venture into sewing costumes for my kids and they didn't turn out exactly like the vision I had in my head- meaning they weren't perfect, people!
But in reality, who knows what the heck I was thinking. It was a year ago!

Halloween 2008

Happy Halloween to all!

For costumes this year, Seth chose to be Indiana Jones (thanks to Aunt Carlie for the hat and "man-purse") Maryn chose to be a kitty, and Jonas was a cowboy (with a too big hat and no boots- don't worry, he still looked cute). Jon was also Indiana Jones for some of the festivities (picture below).

We participated in a variety of Halloween activities this year: our ward trunk-or-treat, trick-or-treating at Daddy's office building, and trick-or-treating with our friends on Halloween night. (See those pumpkin buckets in the picture above? By the time we were done with all of these festivities, we had accumulated 6 bucket-fulls of candy. Sick. We let the kids pick out 10 pieces each and are going to give the rest to our Bishop- he keeps a stash in his office.)

Seth had been practicing the Indiana Jones half-smile, it shows up in a lot of the pictures.

Jonas's bandana functioned well as a bib to keep candy goo off of his coat.

By the time we remembered to take a picture of Indy father and son- Seth had had enough of the festivities.

The next few pics are of our kids and their BFFs. We all went trick-or-treating together in their neighborhood. (Which is a few residential streets away from a fancy country club, we even went to his house- but he wasn't handing out subs.)

Henry Jones, Jr. and Henry Jones, III.Little witch and kitty girl.

I'm sure the kids had a lot of fun over the past few days. They enjoyed trick-or-treating (for while, until they realized how much walking it took) and enjoying playing with their friends late into the evening (past their bedtimes). Jonas showed no hesitation and walked right up to people on their porches with his hands outstretched. We also had freakishly-good, AZ-type fall weather, not too cold at all.

As usual, for the grandparents, more pics of the events can be seen here.

Halloween preview

Halloween cookies (on the good ship lollipop)

Last week, the kids had a great time decorating cookies. After the sticky mess of frosting and sprinkles was cleaned up, I realized that I probably shouldn't have had them do this right before dinner.

Jonas (with pink eye) licked all the frosting up with the little knife and left the cookie.

This is pretty much what Maryn does when I ask her to smile, she screams.

For more pictures of the event, click here.

I'll end with a little Shirley lovin'.

Halloween fun

Hoorah for Halloween! For pictures of all the festivities, click here.

When I asked Maryn what she wanted to be for Halloween, she simply said "pink". So that's what she was- pink. I guess you could also say she's a fairy princess. (Thanks to Aunt Wendy for the cute tutu!)

Seth was very specific about his costume. He wanted to be Luke Skywalker from Star Wars 6 (Return of the Jedi). So he may look Sith to the uncultured, but to those who know- he's Jedi Master Luke.

In true third-child fashion, Jonas wore the baby dragon costume handed down from Seth. I was excited to take pictures of Jonas in this costume and compare them to the pictures of Seth in the same costume 4 years ago. I was a little bit disappointed to see that they don't really look that much alike. They really are brothers, I promise!

R.I.P., autumn beauty, and JONAS! (with updated pic)

The jack-o-lanterns that we carved last week didn't make it. (Although, they look way more "mooky" now!) Thank you pyscho Illinois weather: pouring rain one day and 80 degrees the next.

This tree is right outside our front door. I have been watching it everyday as the leaves slowly change color. Isn't it beautiful? Experiencing an actual autumn season for the first time in my life has been...um...can't think of a good word- cool, educational, breathtaking?

One last note, last night Jonas did it. He climbed up the stairs. We were all sitting on the couch watching a movie and suddenly Jon said, "Oh my goodness, Jonas!" We all looked over to see him standing up on the first step holding onto the banister, smiling- obviously very pleased with himself. He continues to exceed my expectations of his mobility. I am almost afraid of what he'll do next. I find myself wondering, is it a coincidence that he is my first "climbing" child and we just moved into the first home we've ever lived in that has stairs? (Two staircases to be exact!) He is keeping me on my toes.

(I added the pic to illustrate the paragraph above. Imagine this position- which he does all of the time- only up one step. Yikes!)

a mooky little girl like you

Last night we carved pumpkins for Halloween. (To see the rest of the pictures, click here.) The night went something like this...

• Mom cut the tops off of the two pumpkins.
  
• Seth and Maryn each scooped out maybe two handfuls of pumpkin innards then turned the rest of the yucky scooping work over to (you guessed it) Mom.
  
• Dad carved the scary tree and Mom carved the ghost into the pumpkins.
  
• Everyone went outside to admire all of the hard work.

(And this activity was supposed to be for the kids?)

The cutest/strangest part of the evening was Maryn. She kept saying that the pumpkins were "berry berry mooky". It took us a while to figure out that she meant "spooky". That was the cute part, the strange part was this- Maryn has started stuttering. She has always stuttered a little bit but in the past few days, the frequency has increased more than 100%. She stutters on almost every word she says. I'm a bit concerned and totally shocked because it came on so suddenly. My parents tell me that I stuttered a lot as a child (and frankly, I still do). And Seth stutters too at times, usually when he's trying hard to get my attention. But this is way worse that anything I have heard from either of my kids. I realize that she does this because her little brain is moving faster than her speech can keep up with. But it still worries me. Above all, doesn't every mother want their kids to be normal and not have anything "wrong" with them?