Halloween Fun

Celebrating Halloween started for us on Saturday night at our church's "Trunk or Treat". This year the girls have chosen Disney princesses once again - Rachel is Ariel and Audrey is Belle. And Ian is Thomas the Train. He's not too keen on his costume in this picture, but he warmed up to it...

He was more tolerant once Daddy was holding him:

And then after walking around with his sisters to collect candy, he was one happy guy:

We had fun that evening. The girls make me laugh every year because they get so excited to pass candy out to others. They are pretty quick about going around and collecting their own candy, because they want to get back and pass out to others as soon as possible. One of these years they'll probably figure out how many go around several times in order to get as much candy as they can. For now though, I'm liking that they haven't caught on...

On Sunday night we carved pumpkins. This year the girls each designed their pumpkin face themselves. They drew them on paper and then Andy and I transferred that to the pumpkins. Andy did Ian's pumpkin, I did Audrey's, and Rachel did quite a bit of hers by herself. 

Audrey rolled up her sleeves and got serious about cleaning out:

Rachel was more than happy to let Dad take over:

Andy designing and carving Ian's pumpkin:

Ian being introduced to his pumpkin:

Daddy helping Rachel:

The finished products:

I love this picture!

On our porch:

On Tuesday I was able to catch the tail end of Audrey's Halloween party at Joy School. She was so excited to have her hands wrapped up like a mummy and try to pick up candy. It's so funny how simple you can make things for kids and they love it! 

 

On Halloween Rachel dressed up as dentist for school. They are only allowed to dress-up as what they would like to be when they grow up. Rachel seems to be holding steady to a dentist, so I should probably splurge and buy her an actual dentist costume. I think it's really lame that the schools do this down here, but I guess it's their way of keeping those happy who want to dress-up and those happy who do not celebrate Halloween. I don't know... But here's our cute dentist:

We then had a very rushed afternoon. Thank heavens for dinners that can be pulled out of the freezer! Rachel got home from school, we did the homework thing, Ian got a nap, we took Rachel to gymnastics, Andy picked her up, we ate dinner quickly, and then went out to trick-or-treat around 6:30 pm. We went with the Bills and the Mackays. I think everyone had a good time! And they got tons of candy. People must have been giving out handfuls, because they got way too much. Here's the group as we started out:

A picture of just the cousins together:

The day after Halloween I had the kids get dressed up one last time so I could get individual photos of them. Halloween was just too busy to do so!

Ariel:

Belle:

Silly faces:

Thomas the Train:

I got the hat off!!!!

My favorite three:

Halloween was definitely a hit! Everyone had fun and we are looking forward to the holidays that are coming up as well. This is a crazy, busy time of year and we love it!