Trick-or-Treating

Fall is Greg's favorite season by far, and one of the main reasons is because he gets to carve a pumpkin!! Look at his past creations; he is amazing!

 

In 2010, Nate started having an opinion and asked Greg to carve Woody (from "Toy Story.") In 2011, we asked Abby but she wasn't "into" anything, so Nate picked again....SpongeBob. Then 2012 was Minnie Mouse obviously, and Ninja Turtles was 2013.

 

This year was Abby's turn and she picked Princess Celestia, her favorite My Little Pony. Greg thought that was too hard though so he went with Elsa. (Which I think looks WAY more complicated anyways!!) Greg always carves the night before Halloween, so Abby was thrilled to see this when she woke up Halloween morning!!!

Greg's best pumpkin yet!!!

 It's a tradition to have chili & cornbread for dinner on Halloween, so after that, we rushed outside to join some neighbors for trick-or-treating.

The cutest neighbors ever, the Reeves!

Ninja (Nate) & Donatello (Jack)

My fave costume: the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man!! (Evers)

 As a kid, I remember loving Halloween b/c it meant I got to "sort" my candy at the end of the night, and make trades with my sisters. Looks like the tradition will continue with my kids! :)

 Abby LOVED handing out candy to trick-or-treaters! (Side note- I have no idea why she's wearing a nightgown with tights....)

 Even though it was cold and suuuuuuper windy, we headed next door to the Reeves' to hand out our remaining candy and goof off :)

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!!

Class Parties

Abby's Halloween Party

Abby's class had a full morning on Halloween! First up, a costume parade over to the Elementary & High School. Clearly, she was not excited about this at all :)

We spotted Nate! And it was so cute b/c all of his friends kept saying "Hi Nate's little sister! Hi Nate's mom!" :)

Class picture. Louie (aka Robot Man) had my fave costume

The Queen & Elsa

Abby had to borrow my shades while we waited for the hayride. And hug her bestie Mia.

The "pumpkin patch" :)

 We helped all the kids change out of their costumes, and then it was time for the Carnival! This was something new this year, and they combined all 3 pre-school classes (55 kids) for one large carnival in the Parish Hall. I was expecting a disaster (!) but it actually went pretty well. I was in charge of Abby's group (which consisted of 5 other kids plus her). There were 9 stations that we rotated through....

Outside games

Halloween Bingo

Sticky Spider Toss

Cookie Walk

 (Not pictured: Witch Ring Toss, Pumpkin Bean Bag Throw, Bucket Toss, Bouncy House, and the Fishing Game.)

 

Then it was finally time to have a pizza party! Again, we got to do this with the two other classes, which was a rare treat. Click here to watch a video of Abby's class doing a Monster Mash freeze dance after lunch.

Cake-pops for everyone!

Her buddy, Tucker

Nate's Halloween Party

 I had and hour & a half break, and then headed to Nate's class party. My bud Katie takes her role as Room Mom very serious and dressed up as a witch!!!!! I had no idea she was doing this, so all I wore a light-up necklace, ha! :)

Stirring her "witch's brew"

The kids were mesmerized!!!

There were 7 "mystery buckets" thateach kid had to feel/guess. Their faces were hilarious!

He took the game VERY seriously. Shocker!

Asked me 1,345 questions about dry ice. I knew the answer to about 2 of them.

Nate was the only one to get ALL 7 right!

My favorite toothless wonder :)

Two great parties, two great kids! :)

Pre-Halloween Activites

Painting Pumpkins

Every year, the kids paint pumpkins instead of carving them. Reason one: I hate to carve and I suck at it. Reason two: they love the creative freedom! And last year I found these cute little (re-usable) stencils that they use to create their pumpkin's face. It was a beautiful day last weekend, so we painted outside! (Neighbor Caroline joined us for a bit too, and painted our extra pumpkin.)

Proud of their finished products!

 Halloween in Oz

This is the UA Music Department's annual fundraiser, which resembles a fall festival. The theme is always "Halloween in Oz" because they dress up like the characters from "Wizard of Oz." We had never been but decided to try it out with one of Nate's friends this year.

Chandler the Wolverine & Nate the Ninja

Abby with Glenda the Good Witch

 There were lots of little games & prizes, and we even got to meet the Wizard! (Abby was not a fan... his voice was too scary!)

Prize from the "cookie walk"

Nate asked the face-painter for a bat. Um, not the greatest artist, sorry!

Abby - after getting her face painted like a kitty! - won 1st prize in the Costume Parade!!! There were a LOT of princesses (read: Elsas & Annas) but she was the one & only queen :)

Halloween at Gymnastics

At Abby's gymnastics class on Monday, they were allowed to wear their costumes at the beginning of class for a parade & costume.

Adorable Indya ("Elsa") won the costume contest!

And my cutie pie won the coloring contest :)