Halloween

BOO! I love this jack-o-lantern. It was carved by my brother Jacob after a drawing Madie made for it. It's one of the best. I also love that Madie enjoys drawing and painting and all forms of art so much. I hope it turns into a life-long love!

Is it just me, or is there something about this jack-o-lantern that looks kind of like my brother Ezra when it's not lit?

And here we have Olaf, carved by Dad. Not drawn by Finn, but enjoyed immensely by him. I'm fairly certain he now believes that all jack-o-lanterns are called Olaf since he kept pointing to them respectively and saying, "Finn-Dada Olaf, Madie-Uncle Jake Olaf." He also thinks it's the universal word for snowman. Lot's of Olafs running around.

You know, I really enjoy Halloween. I'm not incredibly imaginative though. And, let's be honest, I'm a little lazy. So it was kind of nice to have my mum come and do all the fun things with my kids that she did with us as kids. It's funny, I like Halloween, but not all the work. Mum always says she hates Halloween, but she certainly seems to enjoy the work. Those owl cookies down there are a serious time commitment. Especially when you only end up with like 10, which is a problem when I make them. Mum, somehow, seems to get like 24 out of hers. Huh...

Finn scarfing down chocolate chip eyeballs.

Finn actually putting a chocolate chip in on an owl. Or maybe he's taking it off. I don't know, it went back and forth a lot.

You can find the recipe here.

In our little town here they block off one of the major residential streets to traffic and that is where the honey pot is. In fact, residents there can get candy donations to help off-set the cost of all the trick-or-treaters. There are other areas of town that you can go as well, of course, but this does make it nice when you have a brood of little ones. We hit up only half-the street, and our kids have been eating candy for 11 days straight (and no, not just one each) and we still have plenty left in the bowl.

Glinda, the Good Witch, per her request.

Her expression here is much more in-tune with the story than that of Glinda in the movie. The Good Witch in the book is kind of like Galadriel from Lord of the Rings. Righteous, but not to be messed with.

There was another Glinda from the Wizard of Oz roaming the street that evening. Her costume was amazing! I was so impressed I actually mentioned to her mother when we were stopped at the same house how great it was. She laughed and said, "Does it scream 'Mommy has too much time on her hands?'" No. It screamed, "Mommy's a rockstar at the sewing machine." At that point I kind of thought my measly effort needs to be kicked up a notch. But that was very quickly replaced with something more along the lines of, Am I kidding?! That would be torture! I'd much rather eat owl-cookie dough...

Wizard of Oz must have been the theme 'cause this wins for my favorite decoration. 

The day of Halloween was a real treat for Finn. Mum and I took him and Petya on a walk to the Y where she and I then went for an actual walk (you know, one where you're moving at anything above toddler speed) while Finn played in childcare. On our way there we passed some construction--he's big into trucks and tractors right now. Mum took him down a side street to watch an excavator and dump truck while Petya and I kept going. She said at the end when they waved goodbye to the workers, some of them honked their horns and everything. He loved it. Then, when we were leaving him with the babysitter, my friend (who is the preschool teacher at the Y) mentioned they were having some firemen come and they were going to show them some of their trucks, and would Finn like to join them? So after our walk, I nursed the baby while Mum took Finn out to see the trucks. They extended their ladder all the way up for the kids. 

They gave each of the kids a hat to take home. Finn loved it. All of it. 

That hat really rounded out Finn's costume. He was going to be a lumberjack, which is what he was for the church party, but this worked better since the jacket kept him warm. And smudging black eye shadow on his face in a few random spots was a lot easier than making him hold still long enough to draw a beard on him--though that was exceptionally adorable. 

At the first house, Mike took him up to the door and showed him how it worked. 

Mike: "Look Finn," holding out Finn's bag to the residents. "Trick or Treat!" Residents put candy in bag. "Happy Halloween!" "Thanks! Bye!"

Finn pretty much took it from there.

And here is our adorable fireman and his dalmatian.