Happy Halloween

The kids have always had a theme for Halloween. This year, Jemma was Maid Marion, Carter was Robin Hood, and Gavin was King Richard. In hind sight, I'm glad I made their costumes this year, but it just might be the last time I make all of them. Carter's was the first one I made, and the pattern was so ridiculous that he is not wearing the original costume. This one was the 2nd try. Jemma's dress wouldn't have been too bad, but the material was a NIGHTMARE to work with...that costume satin is slippery stuff. Gavin is also wearing the 2nd try on his costume...he was originally going to be a lion wearing a crown (King Richard the "Lion Hearted") that way he'd be toasty warm, but I made a little mistake with the pattern I purchased...it said "size 1/2" on it...I was thinking "size 0.5/6 months"...pretty sure they meant size 1-2 years cuz it was GINORMOUS! Lesson learned, and now I have a lion costume half sewn up...maybe for next year.

This year, we spent like a week or more celebrating Halloween. On the 23rd of October, we attended a Halloween party held by the spouses/significant others of the optometry students. The kids were super excited and had a ball.

Here are a few pictures from that night.

Then on the 30th we took the kids to the annual church "Trunker-treat". With Halloween on a Sunday, this was the big night to collect all the goodies. It was RAINING of course, so I didn't take any pictures while we were there, but here are a few from before we headed over.

Then on Halloween, the kids had helped me plan out a festive dinner, so we stayed home, turned off most (Jem would have had them ALL off) of the lights, lit our lanterns and snacked on our Halloween goodies.

We had a pumpkin shaped cheese ball (stole Sharee's idea from last year!):
Bones & blood (bread sticks and marinara sauce); ours looked like doggy bones. :)
Cheese pizza...it was supposed to look like candy corn once it was cooked, but ours got a bit over cooked and so the mozzarella cheese in the middle looks just as dark as the cheddar around the outside. Dang it! Here's what it was supposed to look like.
Mud, dirt & worms (chocolate pudding, crushed oreos & gummy worms) for desert. :)
Jemma was probably the most excited for all the Halloween food. We all enjoyed eating it, but she was definitely the most enthusiastic over having a Halloween themed dinner. That makes all the work/prep/stress etc. worth it!