Halloween 2013

 

Whoo made the coolest pumpkin???

I am rather proud of this creation - loving how I embraced the negative image...

 

This year, as I carved away at Audrey's pumpkin, I started to have some weird revelations.

 

 

My first thought was that we take our eager children to wonderful pumpkin patches and urge them to pick there best EVER pumpkin.  Encouraging them to search for good carving sides and great stems. 

Then...

 

We pull out the KNIVES and tell them to back the heck away.  It's for adults only.

 

Oh sure.  We try to make it look like fun by forcing them to stick their little hands in the pumpkin guts.  (But really that is so we don't get all sticky and they do the dirty work.)

 

 

Then we (the parents) carve our little hearts out and gloat about how amazing OUR pumpkins turned out. 

 

The Parents then turn the lights out and practically light the pumpkins on fire - screaming at our kids to stay far away. This is all perfectly normal.  In fact, millions of people do it every year! 

 

 

 

Then to continue the Halloween insanity we urge the children to dress up.  Pick anything you like we tell them.  This is your chance to be whoever you want to be.  Until, that is, we get to the costume store.  Then the story changes to: this is your chance to be anything you want to be under $19.99. 

 

Audrey is already on to this.  This year she just used an old skirt from her last dance performance.  We were feeling bad so we grabbed a $4.99 scarf from the Party Story.

 

It was the least we could do.

 

Carissa is 7.  She wanted to be a zombie cheerleader and just look dead.

I am not sure how to translate that but we just went with it.  Because, well, as I am starting to realize, Halloween is kind of weird.

 

 

Ok, next revelation.  Now that the pumpkins are lit, the costumes on, we begin to walk.  The parents start to explain that the more we walk, the more candy we will receive.  The kids quickly catch on.  The enjoy walking, knocking, running, walking, knocking, running. Until they realize they have to walk HOME.  That is the painful part. 

 

 

 

So we tell them that when you get home you can look at your candy!

 

Oh the candy!  Which leads me to my last revelation. 

We count the candy...

We sort the candy...

We inspect the candy...

We throw out the mints...

We trade the candy...

 

Can we eat the candy?

 

 NO!

 

Just one and it's time for bed.

 

Not really sure when the kids will get that Halloween is crazy, weird, and kind of not that fair but for now I guess I will embrace it.  More Twizzlers for me!

Swinging Spooky

Meet Lucy.  She is our family skeleton. 

 

She hangs outside my office window and keeps bad spirits away. 

Carissa picked out her necklaces and even taught her a dance.

 

We are excited to have Lucy visit us and think she makes a great addition to our home.

Fall is Forced!

Around here it is still mighty HOT outside.  Unless you are one of those crazy Arizonans who love it when the temp is 102 degrees.  The girls rushed in Friday and begged Justin to get the Halloween Box down.  (I might have begged a little too...)  We are forcing Fall around here! I would give anything to be able to throw all the windows open and put on a pot of chili - SOON...soon!

 

My favorite part of our decorating so far is the top of my black hutch.  Here is what I did:

•  Embellished my burlap wreath with a little pendant -  perfect touch. 
• Wrapped some scrapbook paper around my candle - (taped on the back!)
• Printed the word Boo on Orange Card stock and put in black frame.
• Dollar store pumpkin was a hideous orange so I painted over it with glitter and made the stem black. 
• The owls were a special find this year in Heber, AZ at an antique store.

 It makes me happy!

 

It wouldn't be Fall without Soccer!!  Audrey had her first game (they won 2-1!!)  Here face was red for about 3 hours after. Thank you to the lifesaver who brought the E-Z UP. 

 

Although it is not summer, and Lemonade Stands scream Summer, I let the girls have a stand on Sunday.  Pink Lemonade and Snickerdoodles were on the menu.  ( I was dying to make this recipe from Junk in the Trunk anyways - so YUMMY!)

 

The girls had to make a list of all the ingredients and we went shopping.  Supplies were fronted from Mom who had to be reimbursed. I was so impressed by my little entreprenurs. They managed to keep the stand open for 3 hours and they made $27 (after paying me back, of course!)

 

 

Confession:  It took all I had not to take over!!  At one point they even had to say to me "we got this Mom!".  Guess they did - so humbled!

 

On the Menu this week: Chicken Noodle Soup

Fall People - we are Forcing Fall!!