My all time favorite of Halloween sweets are wax lips. I still remember them from my youth. With boys I get to add wax mustaches to the mix. FUN!!!
I couldn't decide which picture made me laugh the most...so I included nearly all of the shots :) Each one is just different enough with someone being just enough "off" that I giggle at every one.
Hmmmm...let me think about that a moment.
I told the kids that we would absolutely NOT decorate for Halloween if they couldn't get their messes cleaned up. I'm not really a decorate-for-the-holidays kind of a girl and I most certaintly was not about to add decor on top of clutter. Well the really long story short is that they never did it until this afternoon. By then putting up decorations just to take them down less then 24 hours later seemed silly. And that is exactly what I told Karaia when she asked if we could decorate now. Her reply?
"It's ok, mom. I'll do everything. I put it all up and I'll take it all down! Please!!!"
I thought that sounded very reasonable and gave her free range of the decorations on hand. Everything you see was 100% her idea. I didn't suggest one little thing. Right down to the choice of accessories and the placement of them. The only thing I helped with was placing some of the webbing a bit higher than she could reach. But that was by her request.
When she asked if she could move a table to the porch, throw gauzy fabric over it, and "put a bunch of Halloween stuff." on top, I may have teared up just a little. Be still my heart! My daughter is a natural decorator!
She was even moving the very few decorations we had inside to the outside and reusing them. *love*
We had SO many comments on our decorations tonight. Even I was surprised at how many people loved it enough to tell me so. Nice work Karaia!
Here's the foursome. All decked out ready to go.
Tennyson's pumpkin is a dinosaur. Sanders wanted a happy face. Karaia carved a bat.
This is Beckham's masterpiece. He did a wonderful job and was pretty stinkin' proud of himself. As he should be :)
The big Family pumpkin designed and carved by Karaia and the pumpkin she painted.
At the end of October, Tennyson told us he was big enough to ride with out training wheels. We gave it a shot.
Turns out it's a bit harder than he expected so he said he would like to wait until he was a "little bit bigger." :)
On October 30th, Karaia and Beckham had a piano recital. They prepared two pieces. One of their choice and then one that they would use to accompany the audience.
I was SOOOOO proud of them! They did so well. They practiced really hard and it showed. They memorized every note.
Karaia powered through her shyness and kept going.
Way to go Karaia and Beckham!!!!!
PS I made Karaia's dress...I borrowed a pattern I liked the basic shape of, but then added my own touches :)
That evening it was time for Trick or Treating! It was raining SO hard!
Before going out
This is what a wet elephant looks like after Trick or Treating in the rain for 20 minutes.
Look at how wet he was!
Karaia didn't care if it was raining. She has jumped over into a new realm of childhood in which the pursuit of candy on Halloween trumps all other obstacles. She dragged Kevin out for another hour and a half and came home with a big smile and way too much candy!
Halloween has come and gone. But this year marks a difference for me. This is the first year that I made costumes.....huge chance it's the last. Not because I didn't enjoy it. I adored making something flat into something 3-D, but it is cheaper to buy the costumes......unless I start in June and hit all the 50% off sales. So, OK, there might be a chance I make more next year. BUT anyway.
I made Karaia's Tinkerbell costume.
Nobody recognized her in that wig!
And Sanders' elephant costume.
Can you believe I made that?!? I can hardly believe it myself!
I really loved making both. The fabric on Karaia's spoke to my girly-girl side, but the pride of actually completing (and doing a good job of it) the elephant could just make my heart burst.
It was the first time I had read a clothing pattern from start to finish without any outside help. Well, if we are honest I did look up a few crazy-pattern-language terms on line, but once those where translated I totally got it. All by myself!
Beckham LOVED being a skeleton. I love that it is the simple things that tickle his fancy.
This is the face he gave me when I asked for his scary skeleton face......hmmm I know I don't want to be in the same room as him when he is making that face, but not necessarily because he is scaring me. It's more of an olfactory issue.
Tennyson was going to be Lighting McQueen but decided against it at the last minute. Luckily we have many dress ups that he was able to chose from. He ended up going with Spiderman and could not have been any happier.
Except for when we asked if he wanted to wear the mask.
This is the only way he would agree to such an audacious request and then, of course, he would NOT be posing for any pictures.
We went to the Pumpkin Patch on Halloween because Karaia had not been able to go yet this year. Beckham had already gone for Pre-school.
Yes. I am aware that I am missing a child in these photos. Yes, he is prone to running away, but thankfully this was not the case here.Tennyson fell asleep on the way down there and we thought it best not to wake him up for the photo shoot considering the amount of walking and the scheduled late night he had later on.
Grandma Candace grew just enough pumpkins for all of her grandkids this year! The kids were a little bummed about not picking a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch until I reminded them of this little fact.
Actually, we didn't even carve the pumpkins before Halloween. Kevin was out of town the week before and Halloween day became too busy. So we carved Welcome-to-November Jack-o-lanterns last night for FHE.
The great thing this year was we got one of those pumpkin carving kits and Karaia and Beckham carved their pumpkins all by themselves! Thankfully my mom was there to help the too, too tired Tennyson figure out what to do while his older brother and sibbling got to use a saw that his mean ol' mom wouldn't let him use on his own. Thanks, Mom! I forgot to take pictures last night of their cute pumpkins, but I will do so tonight. They turned out darling.
Plus it means we get to smell pumpkin roasting over an open flame which is one of my most favorite smells and mean fall is officially here......now that it's almost winter.
Anyone else feel like they are always days behind?
