trick-or-treating

We had perfect trick-or-treating weather on Halloween this year, which we really appreciated after last year's cold, rainy, windy night. Jamie had an awesome time and loved everything about it. Jacob on the other hand hated everything about trick-or-treating except the candy. He spent most of the time crying and refusing to walk to the next house. Eventually we just put him in the stroller and left him there. Hopefully next year he'll understand what's going on a little better. We didn't even take Jamie trick-or-treating when he was one.

Getting a good picture of them together was very difficult because Jacob was crying and/or running away the whole time. Still cute, though. :)

 

 

perfect picture of our night!

 Candy time!

no more tears when you have a mouth full of chocolate!

 

 

pumpkin carving

Carving jack-o-lanterns was a lot of fun this year. It was Jacob's first experience, and his reactions kept us laughing. Initially he wanted nothing to do with the pumpkin guts and refused to touch them. After a while, when there more guts in the bowl than in the pumpkins, he changed his mind and started grabbing handfuls, trying to put them back in the pumpkins! He also decided he needed to taste them, and though his initial response indicated that they were unappetizing, he went back for more several times. Silly boy. :) Jamie had a ball scooping out his pumpkin guts (though he needed help getting it thoroughly cleaned out) and decided he "didn't want a traditional face" on his jack-o-lantern. I carved exactly what he drew, so you'll see he was successful in that goal. 

 

 

 

 
 
 

Ha ha, those faces!

 

 

 

We carved these in the afternoon after our Halloween party, and that night after Jacob was in bed, Thomas, Jamie, and I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas. Such a fun day!

Halloween party 2015

We had so much fun throwing a Halloween party last year that we decided to do it again. It was another great party!

Thomas & I decorated a bit the night before, with streamers, bats, and bunting.

Our guests included Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, & Yoda, Ladybug Girl & Bumblebee Boy, Iron Man, a butterfly, a snowman, the emotions from Inside Out, and of course the hosts: a witch, a pirate, and Mario & Luigi. I love seeing everyone's costumes each year.

While guests were arriving, we had a craft table set up with lots of construction paper, crayons, markers, scissors, glue, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and popsicle sticks. The kids were very creative, making all sorts of Halloween creations. Just like last year, the googly eyes proved to be very popular! Once everyone had arrived and had some time to create something, Thomas read a Halloween story and then we moved onto the games.

(a couple of these are out of order. People kept coming back to their crafts when they were finished with their turns during the games.)

I recycled some food and game ideas from last year and incorporated some new ones as well. Our games this year were pin-the-nose-on-the-jack-o-lantern, a witch hat ring toss, and an unwrap-the-mummy game where the mummy was filled with treasures and curses (candy and prizes, including some creepy rubber bugs). We also had a guessing game with a few different kinds of candy in jars.

Our treats included sand-"witches," zombie eyes (grapes) and pumpkins (clementines), mummy juice (juice boxes with gauze), witches' broomsticks (pretzels and string cheese), eyeball cookies (made from Oreos and M&Ms), and graveyard cups (chocolate pudding, crushed Oreos, Peep ghosts, and candy corn pumpkins).

Finally, I made spider party favors from tootsie pops and pipe cleaners. I didn't get a very good picture of them, but they were pretty creepy. Thomas was not a fan, ha ha.

and we can't forget everyone's favorite game: attack Thomas

We had such a fun time! This may become a permanent tradition.