Preparations

Halloween isn't my favorite holiday.  Well, maybe I should be a bit more specific.  I strongly dislike scary halloween.  Skulls, guts, blood, gore - no.thank.you.  Cute halloween, however - princesses, animals, children dressed as fruit - I can do cute.  And while my children are still young enough to do "cute," and while I still have control over what their costumes will be, we're gonna do it, baby. 

With our fall decor packed away in boxes, we didn't do anything by way of decorating for the season.  But we did pull a few things together to prepare for the big candy day tomorrow.

Prep Step 1: Pumpkin carving.

We went to Jeremy and Ashley's for a carving party... 

 

...and here are the kids carving their pumpkins!

Oh wait.  You don't see the kids?  

Oh that's right.  

That's cuz they

were here

 and here

and here.

It's just far too much fun to be with your cousins and have free reign of the garage, the backyard and all the toys while adults are distracted with pumpkin guts and sharp knives.  

 A quick break to pose with his pumpkin.

 When Drew saw that I had started on his McQueen pumpkin, he wanted to help.

 He did well, but those small cuts are pretty tricky, so his patience was tested as I widdled out the small pieces.

 Our end result.

 Cute, not creepy!

Prep Step 2: Craft Project.

A few days after carving pumpkins, we added to our Jack-O-Lantern collection with some Jar-O-Lanterns.  I found this idea in Family Fun magazine, and it turned out to be an absolutely perfect craft for the boys.  It was simple enough (glass jars + masking tape + orange paint), with a really fun result.

Prep Step 3: Baking.

We made the ghosts last year, and they were definitely delicious enough for a repeat this go around.  I had seen the witch hat cookies in a magazine and figured them to be a fun, and easy, alternative to anything else we might try.  And with *candy* being the end result of all of this Halloween mumbo-jumbo, I didn't figure we needed to go overboard in the sweets department.

Prep Step 4: Costumes.

This is definitely the icing on our Halloween cake!  I had an idea.  I wanted to make it happen.  The boys were in agreement, and very excited about it.

I went to the fabric store with my mom, and found the perfect pattern, to which I vaguely remember mumbling "I can do this" before promptly turning the pattern over to my mother.  My mom, my mom.  She made these costumes happen.  She put in I don't even know how many hours behind her sewing machine and at her ironing board mulling over the pattern, figuring it all out.  She used to sew clothes, but that was when I was 2.  So it has been a few years since she's attempted clothes-making.  And she had to make two!  TWO costumes, my mother made.  And let me tell ya - they.are.awesome.

The boys gave their costumes a trial run yesterday when we attended a community Halloween party as a fundraiser for the food shelf.  They played a few games to win some prizes and candy.  And again today, they got their candy on at MSU, where some of the Maverick athletes were hosting games with more candy prizes.

Step back, folks.  Sugar high to commence in 5...4...3...2...1...

Happy Halloween Eve!