Halloween 2014

Halloween this year was much like every other year. But this year, Gillian asked me "Can you come to my parade?" I said "I'm not sure." She said "Last year all my friends' parents came but you wasn't there." Wow, way to lay on the guilt trip Gillian. It worked. I made sure I was there. Gillian and her class proudly marched around the parking lot. 

And they all gathered together and sang us a little song. 

 

Plus I even got a picture of Gillian and the Elsas. 

After school, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house. It is our Halloween tradition to go trick or treating with Justin. Grandma makes a few pots of soup for dinner too. 

The kids were awesome this year. They said thank you at every house. Justin was an excellent big cousin. He warched out for John and Gillian and always made sure they were at the front and didn't miss out on any good candy. 

We went back to Grandma's and ate our soup. John asked if he could have some candy for dessert. I said yes. Of course his picked out a full size Hershey bar. I told him "Only half." He ate half of it and came back over to me and said "But it's melting." I laughed at him and ate a piece. He then reached in and grabbed the last piece of the chocolate bar. I said "John!" He laughed and said "What? It's going to melt!" This kid. 

After Grandma's house, we headed over to Mimi and Poppy's house. The kids rang the bell and said "Trick or Treat!" Poppy was surprised to see them. The kids were excited to see everyone especially their baby cousin, Mackenzie. 

The kids had a great Halloween!

Zarina

This year in anticipation that Gillian would want to be Elsa or Anna from Frozen for Halloween, I encouraged her to be Zarina the Pirate Fairy from Tinkerbell. She loved that idea and desperately wanted to be Zarina. Well I hesitated and didn't buy the costume right away. Big mistake. I went to my local Disney store. They didn't have it, but they kindly told me when shipments came in. And I called them religiously (well all the stores in the state). I ended up finding the costume on eBay and paying more than I like to admit. Once I made the purchase I regretted it. Maybe I should have just let her be Esla. All my doubts went away when the costume arrived. She loved it and it looked awesome on her. 

I went to Gillian's parade at school yesterday and one of her teachers said "Her costume is perfect for her." And she was right. Gillian is pretty, sparkly and a little fiesty. The perfect pirate fairy. 

 

Trunk or Treat

Tonight we took the kids to St. Denis for their Trunk or Treat. If you are not familiar, a Trunk or Treat is when a school or an organization has people park their cars and they give out candy from their trunks. It's a safe alternative to kids going door to door. We have never taken the kids to a Trunk or Treat, but they loved it. 

We picked up Justin (Uncle Bob followed in his truck) and headed over to St. Denis. The kids were very excited. Gillian chatted to Justin about her costume and her sword. When we arrived we put the final touches on their costumes and headed out to Trunk or Treat. The first couple of trunks we harmless and the kids started to get into the swing of things. 

But then we got to a trunk that had a fake spider in it. John refused to get close. Even when we told him it was fake. He said "You know, I don't like spiders." Then Gillian saw a skeleton and refused to go to the car. We kept telling them that it wasn't real and that it wouldn't hurt them. But it didn't matter. 

We took a break to get something to eat. While I fed Gillian some mac & cheese (it was less messy to help her), she danced. She showed Uncle Bob some of her moves. I think he was impressed.

We walked around one more time to look at all the trunks. Gillian's favorite was a Frozen inspired trunk (no surprise there). John's favorite was a truck that was made to look like a pirate ship! I liked the one that looked like a big mouth. 

The kids had an awesome time with their cousin. And Daddy and I also had a good time. I'm really looking forward to trick or treating next Friday!

Candy

We have quite a bit of candy in our house from Halloween.  Every night after dinner, the kids raid the candy bucket.  They are each allowed one big candy bar or two small pieces of candy.  Tonight, the kids each picked two small bags of plain M&Ms.  John ate all of his M&Ms but Gillian took her time.  We were still waiting for her to finish when it was time for the kids to take a bath.  John said "Gill hurry up and eat your L-a-Lems!"  Like usual, I made him say it like ten more times.  He doesn't have much patience for me anymore.  And he asked "Well, what are they call?"  Before I could answer, Gillian said "Nem-Nems!"  I taught him how to properly pronounce M&Ms, after I got a video of them saying it incorrectly.

Halloween 2013

Halloween was a little different for the kids this year. 

Gillian was able to wear her Minnie Mouse costume to school on Halloween.  TLC normally has a parade in the morning and then Gillian's class had a party in the afternoon.  She had a huge bag of treats when I picked her up from school.

John, on the other hand, wasn't allowed to wear his Ninja costume to school.  He had to bring it to school and then the kids all got dressed in their costumes before they had an indoor parade.  Luckily, John's costume wasn't hard to put on and he really didn't need a lot of assistance.  He told me that they also had a party with snacks and each of the kids in his class got to decorate a little pumpkin. 

We picked up the kids from school and headed to my mom's house for trick-or-treating.  We stopped for a quick picture in front of Grandma's house and then we were on our way.  Gillian stayed behind the boys at the first house.  Since Sandy ruined Halloween last year and the year before that she was too small to really understand anything, it was Gillian's first real year for trick-or-treating.  It didn't take her long before she was running ahead of the boys to get to the next house.  She was polite and always said "Thank you!"  We were about five houses from Grandma's when I realized that we should change her shoes.  She was wearing her little Minnie Mouse pumps and they were really slowing her down.  I finally got her to change into her sneakers, about two blocks later.  She is a very determined little lady. 

We got to one house and lady that answered the door offered candy to the adults.  We all politely said "No thank you."  John said "It's okay, they just take it from us when we get home."  Wow, thanks for giving away our secret!

At another house, Gillian met another Minnie Mouse.  I'm not sure which one was more excited, Gillian or the little girl.

At yet another house, John went to the door, rang the bell and said "Trick or Treat."  He was able to pick his candy and came running back to us.  Before that lady closed the door, John shouted to me "Mom!  I got the orange kind.  The ones you like!"   

We stopped at Olga's house (a long-time neighbor of my Mom & Dad).  She let us come inside and she had a big tray of candy.  We told the kids, "Just one piece."  Olga said "No, it's okay they can have a few because I think I am done for the night."  John probably took three or four pieces of candy.  Gillian, on the other hand, kept taking pieces of candy and putting them in her bag.  I was busy talking to Olga, when I looked back at the kids there was a big empty spot on the tray by Gillian.  She probably snagged ten pieces.  Sneaky little girl.

We got back to Grandma's house and had some yummy soup and brownies for dessert.  Overall a pretty awesome Halloween!

   

pumpkin carving

before carving

Tonight after dinner we decided to carve our pumpkins.  Before we even started, John said "Can I get some gloves?  Because I'm not getting my hands dirty."  We found some gloves for him to wear.  And we started with Gillian's little pumpkin.  I helped her with the big parts.  I thought she would be like John and not want to get her hands dirty.  I was wrong.  She wasn't afraid to stick her hands into the pumpkins. 

While Daddy was preparing the big pumpkins, we asked John what kind of face he wanted carved into his pumpkin.  He said "I want him to have three eyes and two noses.  And big shark teeth.  I want him to be really scary!"  We also asked Gillian what kind of face she wanted for her pumpkin.  She said "I want him to have two eyes.  And not pointy teeth.  I don't want the childrens to be scared!" 

By this point Daddy finished prepping John's big pumpkin and it was time for John to start pulling out the pumpkin guts.  He was hilarious.  He said "The insides of pumpkins are disgusting!  I'm glad I'm wearing gloves.  Cause I'm not touching that stuff."  Gillian mocked him and said "I touch it!" 

After awhile John got more comfortable and took off the gloves and helped to clean out his pumpkin.  Gillian and John both told Daddy exactly what they wanted their jack-o-lantern to look like and Daddy carved away.  I think they all came out really good.

a big pumpkin

Today we met Mimi, Poppy, Uncle T and Aunt Missy for breakfast and then went pumpkin picking.  If you remember, last year (check out last year's post: pumpkin picking) John had very specific criteria for the perfect pumpkin.  The pumpkin had to be round, not too dirty and a stem.  This year, he wasn't that specific.  He was just looking for a pumpkin. 

However, Gillian wanted a BIG pumpkin.  She looked at every pumpkin and she kept pointing out the biggest pumpkins.  She found one when she was searching with Aunt Miss and she tried to move it herself.

We found two pumpkins.  One nice round one and one that is lumpy.  I think the lumpy one will look really cool when Daddy carves it.  After we found our perfect pumpkins, we got a bag of carrots and we walked around to feed the animals.  Gillian was a little afraid to let the animals take the carrot out of her hand.  She would drop it as soon as they attempted to grab it.  After awhile, they both got more comfortable with the animals and Gillian would talk to them.  "Him's a baby and that's the mommy!"  "Them's like the carrots." 

 
After Daddy, Aunt Missy and the kids fed all the animals, I tried to get a quick picture of the kids in front of an inflatable pumpkin with a cat on it.  Gillian liked the cat from far away, but once we suggested that she stand in front of it, she said no.  But I got a really cute picture of John with the pumpkin.