Halloween Happenings

Holy Moly! It has been a crazy busy week! I guess it wouldn't really be Halloween if I weren't running around like a mad woman, making treats, sewing costumes (only 1 this year, thankfully), and carting children to and fro. Here are the highlights:

20 dozen apples, 25 lbs of brown sugar, and a gallon of karo syrup = 210 caramel apples. My mom, sister and I spent the entire day (literally, 9 am to 9 pm) making these beauties. Note to self, don't do that again!

As a principal of an Elementary School, Ben had to dress up this year, much to his dismay. We came up with a superman incognito costume, thanks to a friend's suggestion. He wore this shirt under his white dress shirt and then we wired a tie like it was blowing in the wind, and he donned Eli's cape. Although I was awake (very rare!) when Ben left for work, I was in the middle of making a strawberry headband and didn't get a picture of the full ensemble. Eli, and Liam (Seth by default), wanted to be twiners with dad, so we got them Superman costumes as well. Sariah didn't want to be left out and insisted on sticking with the theme (After all she did have a superhero birthday party last year). No frufru fairy princess stuff for her! Alas, I ended up with a bunch of Supers . . .

. . . and a rouge cupcake. Meilani was not too keen on sticking with the family costume theme. She saw a cupcake costume in the Pottery Barn catalog for sixty bucks. I wasn't about to spend that, so here's our knock off. It made my day that Meilani was so proud of her costume and bragged to all her friends that "My mom made my costume!" I'm glad she appreciates me. I was worried she'd hate it when I was all done.

We had a trunk-or-treat party with a bunch of friends from church on Saturday. Super Seth flew in for the occasion!

Liam and his Joy School class at their Halloween party.

Seth watching all the kids at the school Halloween parade. "Now what exactly are we doing here so early in the morning?!"

Liam and Ammon watching the parade.

Super Sariah marching with her class.

Super Eli with his.

Meilani and her teacher. Meilani won a "Character Counts" award for the pillar of respect.

Since Halloween fell on Sunday we skipped trick-or-treating in favor of a quiet evening at home as a family. We enjoyed carving pumpkins together and watched "Where the Red Fern Grows." Nights like this are so fun. Ben and I both agreed that we need to stay home more. Being together was enjoyable and relaxing, especially after such a hectic week.

We occupied Seth with some M&Ms while we carved pumpkins.

The master carver.

The finished product.

The designers with their finished works.

Happy Halloween!