Halloween 2009

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FRIENDS AND FAMILY!

We had a great Halloween this year. Lots of Halloween activities squeezed in. We did our usual trip to Apple Hill where we took pictures of the kids in their costumes. There's a separate blog about this. About two weeks before Halloween, we took the kids to a "pumpkin patch" - not one where the pumpkins are still on their vines but a gimiky one. It was a cloudy day and so very in keeping with the mood for the holiday (see cool pic Robbie took above). Owen ran through a maze. They had several old cars to look at (one that looks like Sherrif in the movie Cars). Owen picked several pumpkins to take home and carve. Lots of fun!

The weekend before Halloween, Owen helped Robbie carve a pumpkin. This is our first pumpkin not only as a family - but since Robbie and I have been married. This is the first year that we figured Owen would be interested - and he was for about 30 minutes. He helped carve out the top and scoop out the seeds. When he saw inside the pumpkin his first reaction was, "Candy!"

That same weekend we got together with our friends the Gulbrandsens and the Geroys. Miki and April were on maternity leave with me and we've been taking pictures of our three girls together at different stages. So we wanted pictures of the three of them in the Halloween costumes (in the first pic below, Addison is a monkey, Abigail is a ladybug, and Kate is a kitty cat). Too cute. We also got pictures with the older kids (Owen is Elvis, Grace is Cinderella, and Sam is a 50's girl) and even some with the parents (no costumes for us)!

And then there's Halloween night...

We had dinner with our friends Ariel and Damon and their daughter Alex. And then we went trick-or-treating. Alex was dressed up as a lamb (so cute). And Owen went as Elvis. We moused his hair and drew on side-burns for the actual trick-or-treating. We had gone last year, but the kids were a little too young to get into it. This year was the first year they kind of understood. We had talked it up to Owen, but the actual event was a revalation to him.

After every house he'd say, "ANOTHER house?!?!" Like he couldn't believe that we could go to another house and they'd give us candy. After a particularly scary house he wanted to be held and not go up to the door any more. But once he saw that candy was still on offer, he was back up to that door on his own in a flash. We kept it pretty short - just going the length of the Tribble's street (which is a longish street). We popped over to some of our neighbors' houses after we got home to show them the kids in their costumes.

All in all, an awesome Halloween! I can't wait for next year already!