Happy Halloween!

Here's our cute little Mario, Jessie, and Tigger getting ready to beg for sugar from the neighbors.

And this little guy was so excited, he couldn't even stand still for the picture.

But we got one more shot out of the oldest two.


After trick or treating, we came home to celebrate Grandma's birthday.

She had quite a bit of help blowing out the candles.

I apparently put a trick candle on the cake.... though I swear I didn't realize what it was!

Our Pre-Halloween Festivities

Last Monday we carved the pumpkins (ahead of Halloween night, this year... cause we are on top of things like that and all...)

Thomas (who had celebrated his birthday at school that day and wore his birthday crown for the rest of the evening) posing with the pumpkin creations.




Our spooky pumpkins by night.


I must say, kids sure make the holidays fun!

Halloween

For Halloween this year, we decided to use costumes from the previous years. Mostly by accident - but hey, it all worked out in the end. Thomas was originally going to be a police officer, but couldn't resist the lure of the dragon costume from last year which he found in the costume box when we pulled out Mary Alice's costume.


It turned out to be a good choice, though - because he stayed pretty toasty in all the fur, despite the downpour we ended up trick-or-treating through.

Now, Mary Alice was thrilled about getting to wear the surgeon costume that Tom loves to put on to play doctor (though it is a darn tight squeeze for him these days.) Funny part of it is that when Tom wore the costume on Halloween three years ago, he was immediately identified as a doctor, whereas Mary Alice was always referred to as a nurse. Interesting how our perceptions work.



After about 30 minutes walking in the rain, us old-fogey parents called it a night and bribed our children indoors and away from all the candy bonanzas taking place outside. Interestingly enough, we succeeded in this impossible endeavor by promising to do what we should have done weeks early - carving that darn pumpkin.

And we learned that our kids are pretty handy with a knife.

Butter knife, that is.

Happy Halloween!

Playing Catch-up - Fall 2008

Well, since I have a pile of pictures accumulated that I haven't posted (since October! crazy...) I thought I would put them up now. And since I work as a cataloger and therefor have super-anal tendencies, they will be in chronological order since last fall. So, please pardon the posting about Halloween three months later! Here are the highlights of Fall 2008.


Halloween 2008

So, here is our little pirate. Being really into swords and guns, and a huge fan of the movie "Princess Bride," Tom was a pirate for Halloween. This is one of the most adorable pictures of him - if I do say so myself.

Tom and his Aunt Lindsey dressed up for Halloween. He went over to Lindsey's house (one of his favorite places to go) to show off his costume before trick or treating - and Lindsey showed off her's as well. Aren't they cute? But you will have to ask Lindsey what it is that she dressed up as... I forget now.

Amy's Mission Call - Nov. 2008

We went to Suzanne and Teresa's house to watch Amy open her mission call. It was a rather exciting night - with our family and her roommates all coming to watch her open her letter. She was called to the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania mission and will be leaving Feb. 25.


Everyone looking to read Amy's call. Teresa (with the Pepsi can...), Amy, Becca (texting), Nichole, and Amy's roommate.

Suzanne and Becca on that fun-filled night.

Random Thomas shots - Fall 2008

Here is our imaginative Tom - prepping to perform surgery on his injured train. Note the attention to detail, with the blanket acting as a table cloth and his glove and hat on (we couldn't find his surgeon's Halloween outfit from last year and had to make due with what we could scrounge up.)

And the surgery begins...

John's goal was to build a tower using every single one of Tom's blocks. Tom was very excited about this and danced around John the entire time he was constructing his masterpiece. His excitement, however, was not at the construction but at the promise of demolition once his dad was finished... and here you can witness the joy!