Halloween

This picture was actually taken at our Trunk-or-Treat. Ryan was only 3 weeks old, but we didn't want to miss it. The only downside to the night was that it was raining out, so it wasn't a true TRUNK-or-Treat. Instead, all the adults set up camp around the hallways of the church building with thier bowls of candy, then the kids went around collecting it in assembly line fashion. Honestly, I'm sure the kids could have cared less. They were only concerned with making sure their pumpkins got filled with candy, and that they did! I actually took other pictures of the candy-collecting madness, but none turned out very well due to packed and cramped hallways and poor lighting.
After doing our first Halloween themed dinner last year, Vanessa and I vowed to get an earlier start on it this year so that Trick-or-Treating could happen before 8:00! We did really well, and I think we were Trick-or-Treating by 6:00! Here are some pictures of our dinner. Everything was the same this year except for the dessert. To save on time, we decided to make these super cute and easy spider web cupcakes instead of the graveyard desserts we did last year.

Trick-or-Treating was quite fun even if it was cold and drizzly out. It took quite a bit of effort to find Tyler's requested costume this year. Unless you're going for TMNT, turtle costumes are VERY hard to come by. I had to search ebay, and got outbit on quite a few others before finally finding this one with a "buy it now" option. He was one happy little boy the day it arrived!

Allison is still obsessed with Disney Princesses (especially Cinderella), and I really thought I wouldn't be able to convince her to be anything else. However, when I dug out our box of costumes, Allison was in awe over this butterfly. I think it helped that it is her most favorite color! She was so fun to watch this year. She showed a little reservation when she went up to the first house. She said "it's spooky" and then stayed back to watch all the other kids go to the door to collect their treats. When she saw they made it back in one piece, she decided to go for it. The third picture shows her reaction after getting her very first treat at that house. She was so proud of herself and exclaimed, "I trick-uh-treating!" The rest of the night she kept saying "I LOVE Trick-uh-Treating!"

My little Tiger had to go Trick-or Treating too of course! He was bundled quite nicely, and stayed very warm next to Mommy. (He was also covered with a blanket the whole time except to take the picture!)

I added this next picture for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's really the only picture that I got that shows what the back of Tyler's costume looks like. Second, it was quite comical to watch the kids racing up the walkway to this house until they turned the corner and were faced by the spooky guy standing at the top of the steps. They stopped dead in their tracks and after a few moments, proceded with extreme caution. That's why Allison can't even be seen in this shot. She was the most cautious of them all!

The last couple houses we went too ended the night with a bang. The kids got hooked up with glow in the dark bracelets AND necklaces! Here they are showing them off.

It was a great ending to a fun night!

*Keep scrolling for yet another chatch-up post!*

How to Carve a Pumpkin

**Pumpkin carving directions courtesy of Tyler and Allison.**

First you have to cut the top part off.

Next you have to "scarf" (Allison's word for scrape) inside with the "Scoopiger" (Tyler's word for the scooper).

And take the seeds out.

And scarf some more!

Then you have to check your scooping and scarfing progress.

After the pumpkin is all cleaned out, you tape the pattern on the pumpkin and poke holes to make the outline.

Then it's time to carve it!

Remember to be careful with the knife.

And TA-DA....

The Best of Halloween '08: HALLOWEEN NIGHT!

This is a LOOOONG one!

My sister and I decided to do a spooky Halloween dinner to surprise the kids this year. We received some inspiration for this dinner from a few online sources and were very excited to put it all together. A couple last minute interuptions got thrown at us that day, so we got a little bit of a later start on things than we wanted to. However, most everything turned out the way we wanted and it was certainly well worth the time and effort. It is definitely going to be a new tradition for us!

Mummy Dogs

Pumpkin Burgers

Creepy Crawly Banana Bug and Monster Mouths

Graveyard Dirt Desserts

The first look at the Spooky Halloween Dinner.

Tyler's favorite part of the whole dinner was the "Spider Juice."

This Mummy Dog sure is good!

After enjoying our spooky dinner, we headed out to do a little Trick-or-Treating. Allison took a little while to warm up to the situation. Luckily, she was content with holding my hand so I didn't have to carry her around from house to house. She did have one mishap as a result of running down a VERY steep driveway. Uncle Jon did his best to get to her before she toppled down, but she was cruisin' too fast. She ended up face first on the concrete and received a small scrape on her cheek and nose, and two very LARGE scrapes on her pretty black shoes (thank goodness for shoe polish). After recovering, Allison decided she no longer needed moral support from Mommy and did her very best to keep up with Tyler and Lana the remainder of the time. She said "Tee Teet!" (Trick-or-Treat) and "tay too" (thank you) at almost every house, and stayed as possesive as ever over her pumpkin! I especially loved the way she carried her pumpkin on her arm in total girl fashion. She is a natural! Tyler had a blast and enjoyed the opportunity to roar at any and everyone he came in contact with! He greatly enjoyed seeing all the festive Halloween decor, especially all the spiders and webs (I'm not sure what his facination with spiders is lately). At the kid's request, we headed home after only about an hour of candy collecting madness. Tyler told me, "I'm cold. Let's go home." I responded with, "You don't want to get any more candy?" "Nope," he replied, "I'm done!" So until next year...

The whole gang - T. Rex, "Buddy's Bones," Sleeping Beauty, and the sassy Black Cat.

Trick-or-Treat!

Tyler just scared the pants off these unsuspecting souls with his BIG Tyrannosaurus Rex roar!

A purrr-fect pair!

Hey guys, WAIT for me!!!

Checking out the Halloween decor.

Tyler said this was like the car wash.

Checking out his earnings.

Let's do this Trick-or-Treat thing again real soon!

The Best of Halloween '08: Family Pumpkin Carving

Another one of our yearly family traditions is to carve the pumpkins we choose from Bert's Pumpkin Patch. Last year, Tyler had a smaller one that we carved in addition to the large family one. But since he chose a green one this year, he opted not to carve it so that it will last longer. When it comes to pumpkin templates, I am more in favor of the traditional pumpkin faces. Tyler, however, was very persistant about doing a spider this year for some reason. Since I am not a big fan of spiders, I wasn't so excited about the choice. I had already talked him out of a spider template at the Pumpkin Carving party we attended, because our pumpkin wasn't the right shape for the particular one he wanted. I told him we could save the spider one to do on our other pumpkin, hoping he would want something different by then. No such luck...he was dead set on a spider! I have to admit that it turned out looking pretty cool!

Billy and Tyler opened up the pumpkin and scooped it out.

Allison wasn't too enthusiastic about the opportunity to experiment with the top of the pumpkin. After touching it once, she made a "this is disgusting" face and pushed it away!

The inside of the hollowed out pumpkin seemed to be very interesting!

Tyler helped me with the carving.

I must say that this just wasn't my year for carving pumpkins! I completely butchered the bat template that we chose to do at the Pumpkin Carving party by cutting a line that I shouldn't have. As a result, the large bat came out with the moon, leaving a huge hole instead. That's the reason I didn't post a picture of the finished product in my last post. I ended up letting Tyler decorate the back of it with plastic pumpkin face pieces! So after this mishap, I was determined not to make the same mistake twice. Tyler even reminded me ahead of time. "Don't mess this one up like the bat one!" Well I didn't cut in the wrong spot this time, but I still managed to "mess it up." The design was supposed to have the spider holding on to a small Jack-o-Lantern (hence the big hole in that spot in the picture above). Things were going great - even with the skinny spider legs - up until I reached the little Jack-Lantern. When I tried to pull the pieces out from around the Jack-o-Lantern, he broke right in half and I had to cut him completely out! In my defense, it was a very thick pumpkin, but I was disappointed nonetheless! The spider looked pretty neat on his own, but I just wasn't satisfied. So the next morning, I cut out a new pumpkin from the back of our messed up bat pumpkin and attached it with toothpicks. This is the way it was intended to look...

Now that's better! (The cat is the Quan family pumpkin.)

The Best of Halloween '08: Costume and Pumpkin Carving Party

We were invited to a friend's house this year for a Halloween Costume and Pumpkin Carving Party. Tyler eargerly awaited this party, since it was one more opportunity to wear his beloved T. Rex costume! He was also very excited for the pumpkin carving and asked each and every day leading up to the party if it was time to go and carve our pumpkin.

On the day of the party I went down to my parents' house to rummage around for some old costumes I had, in hopes of convincing Billy to join me in dressing up for the occasion. I found Pinnochio, a Scarecrow, and a Pirate. Of the 3, I figured he would be most willing to go as a pirate (he would at least get to carry a sword, right?!). On my way home, I called and told him I found a pirate costume for him to wear and I think I got a chuckle or something. To make a long story short, I have proof that he actually wore the costume! He made a pretty good looking pirate if you ask me. He even won 2nd place for the Best Male Costume award!

Billy added the gun (unloaded, of course!) accessory himself - go figure!

Hard at work, scooping out the pumpkin!

On to the best part - carving!

The Best of Halloween '08: Trunk-or-Treat

Despite the cold and rainy weather conditions on the day of our Trunk-or-Treat at church, there was still a great turn-out! We had a chili cook-off and pie contest, and the lines to get dinner wrapped all the way around one side of the gym! It was decided to go ahead and do the Trunk-or-Treat outside even though it was still quite cold and misty. The water spots on my lens in all the pictures show proof of this! Our scary, roaring T. Rex and sassy Black Cat still had a blast and collected quite the stash of candy!

Favorite moments from the night:

• Even though Tyler had been wearing his costume since the beginning of October, he acted as though this night was the first time he had seen it and eagerly put in on with excitment and anticipation!
• After remembering to say "Trick-or-Treat," Tyler found it necessary to ROAR at each and every unsuspecting candy-passer-outer! (And he came up with this all on his own!)
• Many cars had fun music playing and Allison just couldn't resist the urge to dance!
• Upon receiving a pack of M&M's - one of Allison's most favorite types of candy - she exclaimed, "WOWWW!" and then was given a 2nd pack just for being so cute!
• Allison was very enthralled and excited about the fact that every person she came in contact with freely offered her candy and other goodies. So much so, in fact, that she kept both hands full of candy and if we so much as layed a hand on her pumpkin she began to scream and wail!

The dynamic duo! And they both decided to look in the right direction and smile at the same time!

Allison collecting another one of her favorites - "pops"

"Alright, filler up!"

This was one of the cars with music playing and Allison was bustin' a move! Also, notice what's in her hands - M&M's and a "pop!"

Tyler showing off his loot!

There will be several more "Best of Halloween '08" entries, so stay tuned!