302: Halloween

My boxer, fire fighter, Sasquatch and Little Red Riding Hood.

Gone are the days of my cool coordinated family costume plans– the downfall of having bigger children with minds of their own. Now they all just inform me of what they will be so I can make it happen.

300: Pumpkin Carvers

We finally got around to carving pumpkins. Mostly my kids were just excited to make and eat the pumpkin seeds.  Unfortunately I burned them later in the evening. I was trying to be nice and cook them for them after they went to bed. Then an hour or so later, while I was working upstairs,  I spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out why I was imagining the smell of fried chicken at like 1:00 am.

Apparently seasoned (and burned) pumpkin seeds smell like fried chicken to me.
 

I tried to convince Lex to put his pants back on so we wasn't in his underwear in our carving pictures. He just told me he doesn't care if he is in his underwear because he likes his underwear. I'd like to think these sorts of pictures will embarrass him 10 years from now, but at this point that doesn't seem likely.

Halloween must be coming soon

These people I live with really like Halloween.

We finally got decorations out last night.

Really festive, but I'd sort of like to build a fire. It's getting frosty at night these days.

Halloween 2010

Azia-Rain aka Wonderwoman

Lex the Firefighter. (At least that's what he was this time around when it was time to put on costumes.)

Zoran the werewolf.

  I didn't ever get a photo of all the kids together. I didn't even get any of Israel in costume really. But he hardly ever wore a costume and each time we went somewhere he put on something different. Lex did too actually. For the second year in a row he just refused to wear a costume when it was time to go somewhere that would normally involve costumes. He was no problems with them any other time of year.

I did get this photo of all my kids together. Kind of. But this is exactly what happens whenever I try to take a photo. They just run away. I do think the jail outfits are kind of fitting.

And sticking with the Lex as stubborn and annoying child theme. This is what he has done to nearly every pumpkin anywhere near our house. He smashes them: throws them off the deck, kicks them down the hill, hits them with a hammer...really whatever works to destroy them. 

After we had all the kids in the matching inmate outfits Saturday evening,  they went to a party up at the church.

Lex liked the bobbing for apples

Zoran like the intense game of musical chairs.

Azia liked the face painting

All the kids liked the trunk or treat afterwards.

After the kids were done Saturday night, Dev and I went to an adult party. There were all sorts of fancy wines for the wine tasting. I don't drink wine, but it seems like I should at least know something about them when I go out with groups of English teachers. It seems like they all really like their wine.

And of course there was trick or treating...at least to a handful of houses.

Day 22: And even more Halloween

Well my borrowed camera had a dead battery after one blurry photo of the kids heading up to a house for trick or treating so I didn't even get a photo of them all in their costumes this year. Of course Lex refuses to wear costumes during the Halloween season anyway, so he's usually naked shortly after I force him into one. And Azia lost the bottom half of hers somewhere between wearing it at her school party Friday afternoon and me asking her where it was Friday night. She says it doesn't matter because people usually only look at the "top half" anyway and if she just makes sure Lex is in front of her in all the photos that's all that will show anyway.  I'm slightly annoyed at her losing all her fancy Wonder Woman boot covers after having them for about an hour, but I'll be even more annoyed if her red Danskos don't show up since there her favorite pair of shoes & I'm not interested in buying another pair before she grows out of them. I noticed she was wearing the exact same pair (except the size she already grew out of) later in the evening. Maybe she thinks I won't notice she's lost yet another article of clothing.

At least her top half looked good. 

Day 21: Halloween Runaways

Whenever I try to take a photo of all my kids together this is what happens: they all run away. And Lex screams and cries (and also runs away). Sort of works for this photo though. I wanted to get a big chain to hook them all together, but we didn't get that organized. So once again, they've all escaped from me.

Day 20: Halloween Eve, Eve

Zoran's costume is all laid out and ready to head to school in a few hours. Wonder Woman's accessories area all stuffed in the plastic bag ready for her quick after-lunch change.  There are wormy-dirt cupcakes ready to go to kindergarten and orange and black peanut butter rice crispie treats to go to third grade. And it's still 3 days till Halloween.

Pumpkin Carving

Lex was pretty excited about the pumpkin carving. But Lex is pretty excited about most things that involve tools.

 We finally carved pumpkins a few days ago. Well, the kids carved pumpkins. I sort of watched and tried to prevent any major knife injuries. I only carve a pumpkin about every three years it seems. Probably because it usually doesn't seem that fun. I don't even help my kids do theirs. I like them to have ownership over their projects. And again, just not really that fun. The process must have been more interesting than the final product because as I was downloading the photos I realized I don't even have the necessary shot of all the finished pumpkins all lined up with candles in them. Guess I'll have to take that tomorrow.

Lex spent the first part of the time just trying to smuggle all the pumpkins away so he could more easily throw them to the ground and smash them. He was really annoyed I wouldn't just let him smash all the pumpkins. Although now that I think about it smashing them doesn't seem any more crazy than chopping them up with knives. 

He was annoyed about the no-smashing-all-the-pumpkins rule until he realized everyone had knives. Then he spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get himself some knives. He got really mad when I'd take them away. When he showed up with the pizza cutter I finally just let him go at it. It's probably terribly unsafe, too, but he did not end up bloody. (This evening at least.)

He was quite proud of the work he was doing on the pumpkin.  And I have no idea why it didn't occur to me to give him one of the tiny little pumpkin carving tools we have in the kitchen drawer.

Luckily Lex has a big sister who looks out for him since his mom is a slacker. Azia was disturbed Lex's carving wasn't quite up to her standards so she did a little artist conference and he showed her where to put some eyes and she helped him out.

This is really Azia's type of thing. I can imagine in a few years she might come up with some pretty cool pumpkins.

Israel is a bit obsessed with the Dukes of Hazard this week. So...his pumpkin had a theme.

And no, I didn't do a great job of keeping all the sharp knives away from him. Every time on of the bigger kids would put one down he's grab it. Fooling him like we did the last few years with the butter knife didn't really work. He knows how much better the sharp ones work.

Poor Zoran got a bit of a late start because he had a break down when he realized Azia had the best pumpkin and the one he wanted and no other one would do. (Even though he hadn't said anything to anyone about this earlier and Azia was already carving the pumpkin.) He did eventually get over it and choose another.

This is Azia's pumpkin. She said it's a football player. He's crying (blood) because he doesn't get to play very often. Israel told her if that was some kind of rude joke about him he was going to get her back. She said it wasn't. She might have been lying. Good thing they both have short memories.

They carved so long apparently it became night before they finished.

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