Nothing like a throwback to Halloween in the throes of Christmas preparation, right? Consider this post my Advent gift to you.
Seriously though, this Halloween with my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces was so much fun - it was the first year BB said "trick or treat"! After we got home, he called his candy "trick or treat" too. "Moe twick-oh-teat?"
But let's start with pumpkin carving. In the nick of time (seriously, we had already hollowed out our pumpkin!) I suddenly remembered I had seen a toddler-friendly pumpkin decorating activity online that I wanted to try and was able to throw it together, thanks to cousin M lending us some paint she had on hand.
Seriously though, this Halloween with my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces was so much fun - it was the first year BB said "trick or treat"! After we got home, he called his candy "trick or treat" too. "Moe twick-oh-teat?"
But let's start with pumpkin carving. In the nick of time (seriously, we had already hollowed out our pumpkin!) I suddenly remembered I had seen a toddler-friendly pumpkin decorating activity online that I wanted to try and was able to throw it together, thanks to cousin M lending us some paint she had on hand.
Hollowing out our pumpkin before I remembered pumpkin painting
I used painters tape to make a face on the pumpkin
Then BB finger-painted away (in his diaper to minimize clothing casualities)
I tried to get him to make a handprint but it only sort of worked
And once he was all done, I removed the tape and this is what we had!
The half-handprint on the back
Then BB did some old-fashioned finger painting while everyone else continued carving
Daddy carved a Yo Gabba Gabba pumpkin design to surprise BB with - here BB is seeing it:
My fam was not messing around with our pumpkin carving - here are some of the others:
A wanted to do a ninja riding a unicorn, but settled for a pretty awesome ninja design Uncle J and M helped come up with (but A did all the carving)
Uncle A came up with this design, also very cool
Everyone with their pumpkins
All lit up
Another thing we did not mess around with were Halloween treats. These spooky witch fingers my sister and I shaped awesomely creeped me out!
That's homemade strawberry jam under those "nails" - I told you, we were NOT messing around
And here are the witch fingers (my sister made those crooked ones - CREEPY!) with candy corn rice crispy treats. We enjoyed these while my sister manned the trick-or-treaters at the door. Seriously, she had a whole system, including handing out a mix of warm nuts and candy corn in little Halloween muffin liners to keep the trick-or-treaters hands' warm, along with Halloween candy, of course. Don't you wish you lived in her neighborhood?
My sister in action
My sister is quite the Halloween enthusiast. We went out pretty early with BB and SS, since we knew they wouldn't go for very long (and certainly didn't need a huge bucketload of candy). As soon as my sister spotted crowds of trick-or-treaters on the street, she raced back to her house to arrange pumpkins and heat up the peanuts to be ready while we stayed out and went to a couple more houses. She even told her neighbors on the main road to be sure and send the kids down her cul-de-sac. If we hadn't visited during Halloween, I would never have known this about her, and it makes me smile a lot, so I'm extra-glad we got to celebrate this holiday together.
Here's the house with all the pumpkins lit, lining the way to the front door.
Awesome pumpkins
And now for my favoritest part of Halloween - the costumes:
Woody and Buzz Lightyear
I originally wanted to dress the boys as gnomes, in honor of our fun surprise gnomings this year, but once we decided to take this trip I knew I needed something easy to pack, warm, and easy to put together. BB has been a Toy Story 3 fan for a while now, and already had Woody jammies and cowboy boots. When I asked if he wanted to be a gnome or a cowboy, he voted cowboy, and voila! It was decided. I knew I wanted to dress the boys in a theme, so Buzz Lightyear was an obvious (and adorable) choice. And I knew SS would be comfortable in these Buzz Lightyear jammies too. BB's entire costume was free, and I just bought SS's with some coupons at the Disney store. Not our most creative year, but comfy, packable, and cute. Plus SS can wear the Buzz outfit for jammies, since that's what it actually is.
To infinity and beyond!
Bunny-bee and a jailbird
Cousins
Cousins
Trick or Treat!
Family pic
The cowboy galloping
I used painters tape to make a face on the pumpkin
Then BB finger-painted away (in his diaper to minimize clothing casualities)
I tried to get him to make a handprint but it only sort of worked
And once he was all done, I removed the tape and this is what we had!
The half-handprint on the back
Then BB did some old-fashioned finger painting while everyone else continued carving
Daddy carved a Yo Gabba Gabba pumpkin design to surprise BB with - here BB is seeing it:
My fam was not messing around with our pumpkin carving - here are some of the others:
A wanted to do a ninja riding a unicorn, but settled for a pretty awesome ninja design Uncle J and M helped come up with (but A did all the carving)
Uncle A came up with this design, also very cool
Everyone with their pumpkins
All lit up
Another thing we did not mess around with were Halloween treats. These spooky witch fingers my sister and I shaped awesomely creeped me out!
That's homemade strawberry jam under those "nails" - I told you, we were NOT messing around
And here are the witch fingers (my sister made those crooked ones - CREEPY!) with candy corn rice crispy treats. We enjoyed these while my sister manned the trick-or-treaters at the door. Seriously, she had a whole system, including handing out a mix of warm nuts and candy corn in little Halloween muffin liners to keep the trick-or-treaters hands' warm, along with Halloween candy, of course. Don't you wish you lived in her neighborhood?
My sister in action
My sister is quite the Halloween enthusiast. We went out pretty early with BB and SS, since we knew they wouldn't go for very long (and certainly didn't need a huge bucketload of candy). As soon as my sister spotted crowds of trick-or-treaters on the street, she raced back to her house to arrange pumpkins and heat up the peanuts to be ready while we stayed out and went to a couple more houses. She even told her neighbors on the main road to be sure and send the kids down her cul-de-sac. If we hadn't visited during Halloween, I would never have known this about her, and it makes me smile a lot, so I'm extra-glad we got to celebrate this holiday together.
Here's the house with all the pumpkins lit, lining the way to the front door.
Awesome pumpkins
And now for my favoritest part of Halloween - the costumes:
Woody and Buzz Lightyear
I originally wanted to dress the boys as gnomes, in honor of our fun surprise gnomings this year, but once we decided to take this trip I knew I needed something easy to pack, warm, and easy to put together. BB has been a Toy Story 3 fan for a while now, and already had Woody jammies and cowboy boots. When I asked if he wanted to be a gnome or a cowboy, he voted cowboy, and voila! It was decided. I knew I wanted to dress the boys in a theme, so Buzz Lightyear was an obvious (and adorable) choice. And I knew SS would be comfortable in these Buzz Lightyear jammies too. BB's entire costume was free, and I just bought SS's with some coupons at the Disney store. Not our most creative year, but comfy, packable, and cute. Plus SS can wear the Buzz outfit for jammies, since that's what it actually is.
To infinity and beyond!
Bunny-bee and a jailbird
Cousins
Cousins
Trick or Treat!
Family pic
The cowboy galloping
Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!
Beautiful girls. beautiful leaves
The grown-ups :)
After trick-or-treating, BB showing off his cat flasher light, courtesy of Auntie Jen. He still wears this around. And there's all his candy.
A went out for more serious trick-or-treating afterwards and here's her loot
Auntie pics
Happy Halloween-in-December!
Like!! Like!! Like!! :) So much fun - I had SUCH a ball having you all here & love seeing the pics & reading your story. XOXOX Love you guys!! Love all the pictures you picked!
ReplyDeletePS the soccer team loved those witch finger cookies - they snarfed them up like *that*!! hee hee (they just made me giggle - cackle? hee hee hee!!)