Punkin Fun

We had a great Halloween weekend filled with candy, pumpkin carving, downtown Halloween celebrations, and pumpkin painting parties!

Late Thursday night, after frantically driving around to numerous places desperately seeking pumpkins (the ones we had at home molded), we got to carve and paint. Dylan was the most excited about his Batman pumpkin—which I also enjoyed since there is no carving involved! We initially let Ava help, but as with anything that comes within inches of her, she starting eating the pumpkin insides. So, she was sequestered in her high chair reading Halloween books and eating candy corn.

The Big Man and Batman

Witchy Ava and her pumpkins

Say Cheese!!!

Friday afternoon, Dylan’s school had a trunk or treat. We cannot say enough good things about his school! All of the teachers, administrators and owner-we love them dearly! They care so much about the children, and know each and every one of them. Dylan runs to the office on the way out to give them hugs goodbye – it makes me smile :-) We knew we wanted to participate in decorating and handing out candy to the students. Michael dressed up as Batman and handed out candy. There were about 25 cars and a lot were all decked out in decorations. I (as usual) was late due to traffic, so our car did not have much decorating to it! But the kids had a blast. Each class went at a different time, and they all seemed to love Batman Michael. After trunk or treat, we went out to eat with BJ, Stacy and Parker and then to Boo on Ballard. It was so much fun – Dylan got to sit in a firetruck decked out in his fireman outfit, and also sit in a race car, so it was worth being cold just to see his face.

Batman and a Trick-or-Treater

Parker the Dalmation and Mommy Stacy

Dylan the Fireman and his idol BJ the Real Fireman

Saturday morning Ella and Natalie had a pumpkin painting birthday party and it was too cute how Amy had everything decorated and set up. Ava, like everything else (see the paragraph above about pumpkin carving) tried to eat the paint, so Michael helped her finish decorating her pumpkin. Pumpkin painting was such a neat idea! And we get to take home the kids creation which are now on our front porch.

Later on in the day we all got dressed up to go trick-or-treating. For those that don’t know or haven’t seen us in the past, Michael and I dress up every Halloween. I’ve missed out on one or two lately while I was pregnant, but got back into the swing of things this year. It was actually a last minute costume. I ordered Ava Grace’s online, and several weeks later we were looking for a costume for Michael and found mine. I had to get it since it matched Ava's!

I was so impressed at how the kids, particularly Ava who had never gone before, caught on to trick-or-treating. Ava was so cute, she was dragging her pumpkin filled with candy to every house and would not let anyone help her carry it. I guess she was afraid someone would steal her candy. You ask Dylan what you are supposed to do for Halloween, and he says “Knock on doors!!” We walked the block with the Cheeks and Wendlings and headed home to hand out candy. We bought two huge Sam’s-size candy bags, and were completely out within minutes. I always underestimate how much to buy, because there are so many kids in our neighborhood!
I took the kids to a couple of houses on our block, and one of our neighbors had a movie screen hanging from their garage door playing Monsters v. Aliens, the dad was grilling hot dogs for the parents of trick-or-treaters, and had a huge table spread with candy and hand sanitizers. They thought of everything!

Flapper Aves Showing Her Moves

Mommy and Ava - Flapper Girls

The Crew

The Best Attempt at Getting a Group Picture!

Nana and Dyl

It took awhile to unglue the kids hands from their treat bags and put them to bed. The next morning we went through their candy and consolidated everything into one basket, which Dylan was not too pleased about :-) But with all of the candy collected from trunk or treat and trick-or-treating, along with cupcakes and pumpkin pie, we will all be on a sugar high until Thanksgiving!