Halloween Wrap Up

Have I mentioned that I LOVE Halloween? I think I have been posting Halloween stuff since early September. Here are a few final Halloween images that got lost in the shuffle.

I took Lydia to "Boo at the Zoo" for the first time this year. We had a great time wandering around with friends, seeing the animals at night, and of course getting candy! My favorite part was riding the carousel....BACKWARDS! Lydia seems to be enjoying it too.

Somehow I misplaced the pics of Lydia carving pumpkins.

Well, not actually carving, but sticking her hand in, getting grossed out and then letting mommy and daddy take over.

Here are the finished pumpkins.

Halloween, the sequal!

So apparently I am worthless for about a week after Halloween! Especially if my party is at the end of the week, and then the following week at school includes both an art conference and a time change! Whew! I have been meaning to finish up with Halloween pictures that were actually taken on October 31st. Daddy was still a monkey, but with much improved makeup.

Lydia was big enough to reach the doorbell and began to understand that saying "trick or treat" would lead to candy! I think she liked the idea!

And finally, here is our little family enjoying Halloween together.

Daddy is a Monkey!

I finished PJ's Flying Monkey costume just in time for Trunk-or Treat at Church. Lydia has never seen The Wizard of Oz, so she doesn't really get the costumes, but she LOVES that everyone is getting dressed up. She says things like "Aunti is a princess (Glinda), mommy is Halloween, Liddy is Halloween, Daddy is a monkey!"

PJ seemed to have fun with his outfit. I made it out of 2 sweaters from Goodwill. The 4 sleeves became hand and foot coverings. The hood from one sweater became the headpiece, mostly to cover his human ears. One sweater was worn on his chest and the rest was cut up to become ears, a tail, and extra furry bits. I was able to reuse the circus jacket from several years ago. I am reasonably happy with the costume, but the makeup and pillbox hat may get some tweeking before we go out tonight. I tried to make our car look like the yellow brick road with the emerald city in the distance and Dorthy's house landing on a witch in the foreground. It looked good, but by the time the festivities began it was too dark to see what it was. Next year, lights will have to be involved!

So here we are. Mommy is Halloween, and Daddy is a monkey! Happy Halloween!

Witches Brew 2

This year's Witches Brew (Witches Brew 2), our annual ladies only witch themed Halloween party happened last night.

It is my only excuse to decorate for Halloween, seeing as we will never have any trick-or-treaters at our house in the woods.

This year I realized I have more Halloween decorations than Christmas decorations and that doesn't really bother me.

There were several ideas that we recycled from last year, like the witch name/human name tags.

I also had plenty of new fun things to share, like the thrift store paper mache cat or the scary wood mask brought back from my sister's recent travels.

As always, I had a lot of fun with the food. I wanted to do some things different from last year, but brought back some old favorites, like the melon brain.I made a 7 layer taco dip and dressed it up to look like a graveyard. I decided to make it vegetarian, so that I could form the taco meat into a disgusting, burned looking face. I used onions for the teeth and hard boiled eggs for the eyes. After an hour in the oven, he looked good and gross.

The rat infested cheese tray returned again this year.

These eyeball concoctions made from cream cheese and jello were new.

Is it wrong how much I love this?

Last year we had old (clean) prescription bottles holding candy. This year I wanted more of a specimen jar feeling.

I didn't have my camera out to get pictures of all the witches, but Sara arrived first and had on such a great outfit, I couldn't resist snapping a pic. Thanks Sara and all my witchy friends for sharing my favorite holiday with me!

Pumpkin Patch

We took Lydia to the Pumpkin Patch a few weeks ago. This was our third trip with Miss Nancy's daycare group.

Lydia seemed so big this year. She was into chasing all of the other kids around, so it was hard to get her to pose for many pictures.

This was the first year that PJ was able to join us.

Lydia also spent a lot of time running around with her friend Sophie.

We picked out 3 good pumpkins. They were all a little small this year so it took a while to find biggish ones..........

Or, maybe it was just that the pumpkins looked small this year because Lydia looks SO big!

Fall Leaves

When you have a lot of land, you also get a lot of leaves to pile up. At our house, those piles end up at the bottom of the slide.

Lydia spent most of the weekend enjoying the good weather and the leaves.

Ready, set, GO!

Big fun for a big girl!

Happy Weekend!

So, these pictures aren't from THIS weekend, but seeing as we spent most of today outside weeding and playing and raking I thought I would post them.

I think PJ and I will both be sore tomorrow, but our property is getting spruced up and Lydia is loving all the fresh air. Wishing you a weekend that is worthy of a rain boots and sundresses kind of happy!