Halloween

Here's the merry band before the mass candy grab began. Olivia is dressed as Ariel (with Ariel necklace in case anyone asks for a trick, ahh-ahh-ahh ahh-ahh-ahh-a-ahh), Stella is the Jaguar, Kieran is Wolverine (an X-man, not a member of the Fantastic Four!), and Aiden is the Ninja Turtle.

A big part of the fun for the adult escorts was watching Olivia sprint from house to house in heels while holding her just-slightly-too-long skirt with one hand and candy bucket with the other.  She never missed a beat while running across lawns, through flower beds, and mostly on the pavement from house to house. 

We had an amazing night for running around outside.  We sprinted the block at Kieran and Aiden's and headed to Kim and Matt's house before all of the good Alameda Ridge candy was gone.

Poor Violet really looked like a fish out water.  I've got a short video of the poor thing enjoying every moment in this costume.  She was a trooper and didn't try to pull this off too many times.  The stroller ride kept them pretty mellow trying to figure out exactly what was going on with the yelling and the running from the bigger kids.

Luke was dressed like his parents were loyal members of the GOP (that's an elephant costume), which we really didn't see coming until the last minute.  This was coupled with the fact that Jen had a McCain/Palin t-shirt on for the her costume (Ashley Todd).  We really didn't imagine that the B on her cheek could be so easily be missed.  In dim light, she wound up with a costume that just looked like a McCain/Palin supporter in the wrong neighborhood. The t-shirt was a custom job done with fabric paint, so no money was donated to the McCain/Palin ticket.

Michael and Jen both avoided their own camera in their costumes.  Jen's absence is perhaps understandable, you don't want to have to explain a McCain/Palin photo taken out of context years from now.  Michael went as Carbon Footprints which he picked up at the last minute from the guy at the emissions testing center (thank you, DEQ guy).  A quick trip to the Art store for fabric paint and stencils and poof, instant costumes.  The costumes took about an hour to prepare, thanks to some great October weather.

There's definitely some sort of perspective thing happening in this next photo.  Kieran is not quite that much larger than Livvie.  Their costumes kept them warm. The temperature dipped a bit, but that just made it perfect for running around in polyester outfits.

Livvie had a great time at Matt and Kim's.  They ventured out to a couple of houses on the ridge, the one on the left is a gigantic gothic mansion that was super spooky.  Liv couldn't really handle the severed arm on the ground.  She wanted to touch it, but just couldn't bring herself to do it.  It was a little over-the-top, so one can hardly blame the poor princess.

Jacks-O-Lantern

We carved our pumpkins tonight.  Liv drew 3 practice designs and settled on this smiling, toothy version with ears. 

These are actually new pumpkins.  You may remember our trip to the Pumpkin Patch.  Yeah, those pumpkins are now rotten.  So much for going early. 

The twins did not participate.  They had a busy day and didn't nap well, so early to bed.

Livvie let me etch one of the pumpkins.  The etching was done with a church key, which is not as hard as it might sound.  As fun as the church key was, I'd probably buy a couple of wood carving tools before attempting this again.  There's also a ghost on the side that's a little tough to see in these photos. Liv did a little etching, but it was hard and she lost interest quickly.

This is an slightly underexposed shot, but I think it looks a little spookier with a green glow.

The carved pumpkin has a little trouble with airflow and getting enough air to keep the votives at full strength.  An important lesson learned.