Halloween 2010

Halloween kicked my butt this year! We survived though - costumes were finished, pumpkins were carved, and Matt got the yard display up and running - if not to his satisfaction, I don't think anyone else noticed anything lacking. Nevertheless, he's already looking towards next year & what additions he wants to make -well in advance of October, I hope. Anyway! Here's how our Halloween went - hope yours was a good one too!

We went with an Alice In Wonderland theme for four of us. I saw the movie with William back in June and all I could think was, what fabulous costumes! Evie jumped on the chance to be the White Rabbit, and I could be nothing other than the Red Queen. After some discussion, Sarah agreed to be our Alice, and at the 11th hour I had Matt on board to be our Mad Hatter. Because really - we needed a Hatter, and he was planning on recycling his Braveheart costume from years ago. Given the fact that Mel Gibson is now Cuckoo for Coco Puffs, I thought maybe this would be a better choice. William had his heart set on being Indiana Jones, and Jason was going to fight us on whatever we chose for him, so he got a Captain America costume. For some reason he really likes Captain America, and I thought I had a decent shot at getting him dressed without a fight. HA! Anyway- Evie needed a waist coat and pocket watch, and Matt needed a vest, coat and BIG BIG BIG bow tie. We were going for the 'battle' look, kilt and all - this was our inspiration:
Before our cruise I tracked down patterns and fabric, and had things maybe 2/3 finished before we left. Of course nothing happens without a hitch here - I sat down to start sewing after Sarah's birthday & discovered my machine dead. The computer in it had decided this was a good time to crap out, so I borrowed my neighbor's daughter's machine (thanks Katie!) & got started while I tried to figure out what to get as a replacement. My new one arrived Thursday so I could do all the button holes, and I whipped up Matt's bow Saturday afternoon - just in time for Trick or Treating at 6pm that night.

Matt's Mad Hatter Costume

Evie's White Rabbit Costume

In the meantime, we carved pumpkins! Evie and William are thankfully big enough now to do their own carving, once we get them scooped out for them. Everyone gets a pumpkin, picks a pattern, and gets to work. William had also brought home this little green pumpkin from school & he wanted to make a traditional Jack O'Lantern out of it - I think he did a great job, and this is probably my favorite pumpkin this year :)

William's Jack O'Lantern with his enormous bat pumpkin in the background. He picked the biggest one he could lift at the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago.

William's pumpkins along with Sarah's HallowKitten

Jason picked 'Bats in the Belfry' and Evie carved the wolf by herself

Guess who's pumpkin? :)

After running around like chickens without heads, we're all dressed and ready to go! Many thanks to my friend Kim for helping me stuff Jason into his costume and shoes, I don't think I could have done it without you :)

The kids with friends Hannah and ShawnJason laid in the yard for a good 15 minutes until I picked him up and we got started collecting candy. It wasn't long before he got into the swing of things :)

Nothing says Halloween fun like a PB&J at 10:30pm!

Surprisingly, the kids were all done by 7:30 - I was shocked to have everybody back at the house so early, but really, they came home with more than enough candy as it was so that's not a bad thing. We had some friends over for drinks and dessert afterwords, and finally had a chance to relax! Phew. I can't say I'm sad that it's November. Next year we need to start planning earlier, and not schedule a trip in the middle of the month :)