Halloween

        We kicked off Halloween with our fourth annual "Spooky Dinner" the Sunday before.  This year was extra special because my sister, brother in law, and kids were town so they were able to join us for the festivities.  On the menu this year was witch's brew (soup), tombstone bread (bread to dip in the soup), fingers (string cheese with almond slivers as fingernails), jack o' lanterns (oranges with faces), monster brains (vanilla pudding dyed green), spider cookies, and bones and blood (chips and salsa....Mike and Little Man named this one and I found little too spooky for the younger members of the group.  I kept calling it some sort of super spooky red juice, but even the kids started calling it blood, so I was outnumbered).  

         The kids had a great time helping to make the treats and decorating for the dinner.  

All the kids (with about 2.5 of them looking at the camera) ready for the spooky meal.

 Little Man and Kiwi went a bit crazy with the tape (look closely at the sides of the caution strips) blocking off this entrance to our kitchen.

 Monster brains.  

Fingers. 

 Jack o' lanterns  

 Spider cookies. 

       On the actual day of Halloween, both Little Man and Kiwi were up at 6:30 in the morning (this is about an hour earlier than usual) ready to go for the day.  They were both unbelievably excited.  The only kids allowed to dress up in their costumes for school are the kindergartners.  The rest of the school had a "Wacky Day."  Little Man spiked his hair, wore shorts over his pants, two different pairs of socks and two different pairs of shoes.
       I have never seen Kiwi so anxious for school.  She told me she wished she was in the morning kindergarten class so that she could have her party right away.  After a morning of asking it was FINALLY time to put her Minnie Mouse costume on.  She kept speculating what the other kids were going to be and if people would recognize her dressed as Minnie.
      I lucked out and the two big kids class parties were at different times so I was able to help out in both of them.  Little Man's was a full out party combined with another class complete with a donut eating competition, pumpkin seed math (which I was in charge of and was amazed at how many kids refused to touch pumpkin guts), cookie decorating, candy counting and more.  It was loud, fun, and very party like.
       Kiwi's was very structured, sit down and color sort of Halloween station with hardly any noise (their teachers have very different teaching styles).  Both were organized and fun, however, and full of cute, very excited kids.
       At the end of the day, all the kindergarten classes combine and go on a parade throughout the whole school showing off their costumes.

 Little Man at the donut eating station.  He participated twice.  He was pumped up on sugar before we even started the night activities.

 Kiwi, Minnie Mouse, writing her name on her pumpkin threading project.

 The only picture in the parade I actually captured her face in (I kept getting the back or side of her head as they walked by).

By the time we got home from school, Little Man was bouncing off the walls and Kiwi was losing it.  She actually asked to take a nap.  She didn't fall asleep, but did lay in her bed for a while and seemed much more ready for the night when she came downstairs.

      My mom had watched Mason for me while I volunteered so she stayed at the house and then Mal, Brandon, and kids, and my dad joined us for dinner.  We ate at 5:00 and were planning to go out at 6:00.  The kids were literally falling out the door by 5:30, Little Man leading the way.  We stalled them a bit with pictures (I didn't want to interrupt people's dinners and I knew Mike was on his way shooting to be home at six).  Finally we couldn't hold them back any longer.  We started towards the first house right as Mike pulled in the driveway.  Hooray!  I was so glad he didn't have to miss out.  Baby Issac stayed at our house with my parents while the rest of the kids hit the neighborhood.
      Josh and Mason were particularly cute.  They kept saying "more houses, more houses" after every door we knocked on.  This was the first year Mason has really got the concept of trick or treating and he loved it.  He kept looking into his bucket and saying, "one, two, free candies!"  because that's as far as he can count.  We lasted about an hour (Little Man probably could have went all night) and then headed home to help hand out candy.

 A ninja, Mickey Mouse, a monkey, two Minnie Mouses, and a bumblebee.

 The two Minnies lovin' on Mickey.

 The two year olds (yes, they are in slightly different percentile ranges for their sizes :)

Please let us go get candy!

      It was a fun day.  Kiwi kept saying, "Halloween just went by so fast."  Being a mom of young children on holidays is the best.