Halloween 2008

I love Halloween and look forward to the 31st for so many reasons. Sure, I love dressing up and going Trick-or-Treating, but I love turning on the Today show and seeing what the gang dressed up like (Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes). Brynn loved the performance from the Broadway cast of A Little Mermaid. We watched it at least 5 times as I dressed the girls and did their hair.

I LOVE watching Regis and Kelly. They were over the top this year. I set the DVR, hopped on the bike and had a blast watching their 7 costume changes. I was nearly crying when Kelly was Paula Deen from the Food Network. The butter kabob, oil, steak and doughnut and butter doughnut sandwich made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt. And I am always amazed at the costumes people come up with for the costume contest (a $20,000 gift card might help inspire and awaken their creativity too.....). The 2008 winner was a roller coaster costume with two women. They played it up with facial expressions, wind swept hair, rocking it back and forth with arms outstretched. It was hilarious. A perfect Halloween morning in my book.

Of course no holiday would be complete without some serious picture taking. Too bad no one else had sitting still and smiling on their mind.
It started out like this. Then this.Then Brynn decided she had other plans.It ended like this.So I went with photos of just the boys and the girls separately. The boys' school does not have a class party, costume parade or celebrate Halloween at all. This meant I had to dress them up in their finest Halloween garb and call it good.Brynn and Kaitlyn with Frank. They love this guy and would plug him in when they woke up, and put him to bed when it got dark.Turns out Frank is a good dance partner!

BrynnKaitlynTRICK-OR-TREATHappy NinjaSkeleton PirateGrim ReaperTinkerbellSleeping Beauty Matt passed out candy while I dressed the girls and painted faces.He looked awesome!His good friend Kaylee from his school class came by for goodies. Brynn was so excited. She loves Ariel. After much complaining from the kids about my excessive photo taking, (my quote to my angry children, "We will only trick-or-treat for an hour, but photos last a lifetime!") it was finally our time to traipse through the neighborhood in search of sweets.

Lexington has a city ordinance that allows trick-or-treating from 6-8 PM. I think this is a brilliant idea. After 45 minutes of pounding the pavement, Josh and Kaitlyn were reading to head in, Matt and Trey were indifferent,which only left little Tink wanting to stay out for more. So we went home where the kids promptly dumped out their bags and began consuming candy at a record pace. Brynn tried out a few of the various Japaneses delicacies given to us by our many Asian neighbors. (They are executives at the Toyota plant in Georgetown.)I hadn't truly carved my own pumpkin this year, since I barely helped Josh with his, so I knew the perfect way to end this fantastic holiday would be to create my own pumpkin master piece. The girls decided to pitch in and help. I couldn't have asks for cuter assistants.

I selected a pirate ship. I bought the pattern book from eBay this year after I saw it on the back of another book and could not find it in the stores around here.I loved it.

A perfect Halloween.