Halloween 2014

I love Halloween.  Last year I was busy lying around cuddling a newborn, so this year we tried to do more Halloween stuff with the big kids to make up for it, all month long.  Lots of Halloween movie nights with Halloween cookies, decorating, reading(cute kid's books, but also I'd never read Frankenstein I realized, so I read that over a few days this last week leading up to Halloween) and crafts.  Still didn't get to do nearly as much as I wanted to, but we had fun.

Neely made this paper plate version of her stuffed kitty that she named "Black Cat Green"

She's becoming quite the artist lately.  She did this drawing of Sparky from Frankenweenie all on her own.  

I've had big plans for Bentos this school year, but it turns out I'm not very good at them.  Ha!  So they'll just be happening for special occasions I guess.  I did do one for every day this last week(except Tuesday when they get Redneck's for lunch at school).  I looked online for some ideas, and just modified them to things I thought our kids would like better.  I still had the cape from when I made Paige a banana vampire her Kindergarten year.   Cason got him this time, and Paige had a pumpkin muffin vampire that day.  :)  I found, like decorating desserts, that this is not my "thing", but they turned out decent enough to make the kids happy I guess, because they came home and immediately told me they loved their lunches each day. 

 

 

Halloween was great this year.  I actually finished the costumes I was making BEFORE the party started this time, so I wasn't as stressed.  Ha.  Actually, the day before, I realized that the hooded footie pajamas I'd bought for Reed, and planned to sew the tail and wings to, were too small for him.  I ended up having to just add elastic to the wings and tail. Then I just cut the hood off of the too small pajamas, and added the horns/ears(whatever they are) and a tie for under his chin..  That way he could just wear another pair of black pajamas he (thankfully) has.  He looked pretty dang cute.  

So many people helped with food, I ended up only having to think about drinks and dessert.  So I made some spider-infested chocolate chip cookies, and ghost truffles.  Those ghost truffles would be perfect for one of those "Pinterest Fails" sites.  Haha!  Oh well, the cookies turned out okay.

Anyway, back to the kid's costumes...

Neely has a favorite Halloween book, called "5 Black Cats", though she thinks it's called "5 Black Cats on a Dark, Misty Night" and makes me say the whole thing whenever I mention it.  She wanted to be the cat that has a crescent moon charm hanging from it's collar.  It turned out Aivree wanted to be a black cat too, so since they're best buddies they wanted to match.  So we split up the work-I handled the tails, paws, and two moon charms.  Veronica took care of the ears and collars.  They looked adorable.  

 

Tyra was a black cat too, so we got a picture of the three of them.

While being pulled in the wagon, Neely declared she was the "queen of all cats".

 Paige and Cason wanted to be Aurora and Hiccup, and we bought their costumes. 

Faith was a ballerina..

Alex was a hippie.

Lily was the Queen of Hearts.  She was always on the move, so this is about the only one I got of her, and she didn't have her crown on anymore.

They all looked so cute.  Liam(Ironman), Colin(Thor), and Amelia(cute newborn in Halloween pajamas) joined us halfway through Trick or Treating, but my phone had died by then and I got no pictures with them.  :(  

I was a witch, so I had to get a picture with my black cat.

We all ate, and visited for a while, and waited for Trick or Treaters, but there weren't too many this year.  :(

 Grammy and Reed gave wagon rides to the kitties.

Reed didn't do any real Trick or Treating, but he had a nice little nap in the stroller while the other kids did.  It was a really fun night.  I even fell asleep listening to the wind blowing in a spooky way.  :)

Family Pictures, Finally

We haven't had family pictures done since Neely was Reed's age.  So it was time.  I'd been hoping to have Heidi do them, and knew she'd fill up fast in the fall, so I caught her early and reserved a day in mid-October.  We ended up getting really lucky and picked the perfect weekend.  She said she did someone's pictures in the same place the weekend before and the leaves hadn't changed color yet. 

The kids did really well, considering how awkward we all are in front of the camera.  Lots of stiff poses from Paige, embarrassed faces from Cason, and cheesy fake smiles from Neely.  Then there's me, just plain old awkward.  Haha.  Heidi still got some great pictures.

 The kids all wanted to be the one to hold Reed in the pictures of all four of them.  She ended up letting them each pose for one alone with Reed.  These ended up being my favorites, because they all smiled the most naturally in these, since they were so happy and proud of their baby.  The one of Neely especially makes me happy.  I don't have many pictures of her like this.  She is either totally candid in pictures I take, of her drawing or playing or whatever, or is giving me super fake smiles. 

 Since Cason and Reed together doubled as a boys shot, she got this of the girls.

 We got some of each of them alone too.

 

Frankenweenie, Pumpkins, and Polymer

We've all had a bit of a cold, so we've been mostly staying at home for the last week or so.  We had a nice weekend though.  We were supposed to get our family pictures done Saturday, but we had a couple kids with runny noses, so I talked to Heidi(who was taking our pictures) and we moved it up to Friday, just in case anybody got worse over the weekend.  She was awesome, and we had fun and it didn't take long at all.  

Saturday we watched Cason play soccer in the morning, and after that spent a nice day at home.  

We haven't done too many Halloween crafts or anything so far this month, so we planned a Halloween movie night.  We ended up choosing Frankenweenie.  I had high hopes for that movie, but I ended up just liking, not loving it in the movies.  It grew on me this time, but I still feel like it could've been better.  I LOVE Sparky (the main character), and the idea behind the movie, just think it could've been better.  Anyway, I'm glad we watched it again, because I like it more than before.  The kids couldn't agree on whether to watch the old short version from the 80s, or the stop motion one from a couple of years ago.  So we watched both.  Paige read Neely a Halloween story while we waited to get the movie going.

We got the mattresses out and got cozy in the living room.  

Jess made some ghostie cookies.

It was fun.

The next day we had a nice, slow morning, and the kids and I got out the polymer clay and made some little things.  I was of course on a Halloween kick, so I went with a Sparky, a black cat, and a ghost.  Paige made a dementor from Harry Potter.  

Since you can only see the top of her Dementor's cloak, here's another angle:

 Cason made Toothless.  He even sat and drew nostrils and scales with a toothpick. 

 

Neely made a "pumpkin polar bear penguin".  :)

 

Then we went to the church to pick our pumpkins.

 

 So hard to get a picture of all four of them.  Cason's eyes instantly start burning when he knows he's having his picture taken and he can't even hold them open.  Ha!

 The kids wanted a cute little one for Reed, and I liked this one with its little curly vines still attached to the stem.  He seemed happy with it.

 Neely said she found the right pumpkin for her.  :)

 Cason was pretty careful about his choice, but it didn't take him too long.

 Paige preferred ones with a yellowy shade of orange.

I tried for a picture of Jess and me.  It was pretty bright out there, apparently.

 

 It's not exactly a huge pumpkin patch, but Neely and Reed were both OUT by the time we got home.

Once they woke up we got to carving.

 

 Then I made everyone pose awkwardly with their pumpkin.

 

 

 It was a pretty great weekend.

Husband Dungeon

Neely has hit a funny phase lately.  She's VERY emotional, and little things will set her off big time.  She's also pretty feisty, and some talking back has been happening too.  BUUUUUT...she's also very sweet the rest of the time, and hilarious.  She got a mask so she could be Cat Woman for a birthday party last weekend, and she has worn it almost all day every day since, along with her black leotard and leggings. 

She's also been talking about being married to Batman.  Cassie was over one day and got video of her being pretty imaginative.  She was asking us who we were going to marry.  I told her Wolverine first, (because I'm trying to convince Jess to be Wolverine for Halloween because I think he resembles Hugh Jackman and a certain Chipotle employee apparently agrees with me), but Neely didn't want me marrying Wolverine.  

Still in character as Cat Woman(but a good version, NOT the villain), she explained why I shouldn't marry him.  At least she has her priorities in order. 

It got pretty hilarious, as Neely talked about how she had Batman trapped in the playroom so that he couldn't escape before the wedding.  Haha!  Husband Dungeon. 

My favorite part though was when she asked me about MY wedding.  I was telling her I would have mine on a different day, to keep from stealing attention from HER wedding day.  She said "You WON'T(steal attention)!  Will you?" I told her I wouldn't want to and her face got kind of sad and she goes "But you would?"  Haha!  So cute and funny.  We were lucky and Cassie caught it on video.  So I guess there was no reason for me to type it all out, but I'll leave it in case it's hard to hear or understand.  Enjoy: