Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  The day has finally come!  Mac and Leiden have a parade this morning at the elementary.  Mimi is getting taken to preschool with my mom.

Leiden is a mermaid this year, so I decided to make her have scaly iridescent skin...it worked out really well, actually...

Mac got a cute little black witch hat with black glitter. 

We parents went and hunkered down in the crisp morning air, waiting for the kids to come around.  Mac's class was very first, and she was pleased to wander the line and wave at the onlookers. 

Leiden was a little more reserved, although about a second after I shot this picture she came running at me for a hug. 

I poked my head into Mac's Kindergarten Halloween party.  I helped out with the other moms, and got a donut for my trouble.  :) 

Mimi's class made these darling little bags to hold their goodies from classmates in. 

And finally the night is upon us!  We went up to Grandmere's house for dinner.  We ate pizza before we headed out with the girls. 

My dad and I took them out...I haven't done Halloween in that neighborhood for probably more than 20 years.  It made me pretty nostalgic 

This neighborhood has some serious cash...the girls were getting full size candy bars--I got a full size candy bar.  Just for being the mom. 

By the end of a pretty good wind around the neighborhood, the girls were done.  Mimi literally made me promise we would only go to 'two more houses, mommy'.  Upon our return, the obligatory sort occurred.  They really got quite the haul. 

Check out all this stuff!! 

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Favors

I decided pretty much last minute to hand out Halloween favors at Mimi's preschool tomorrow.  A few glowsticks and a slightly modified printable, and voila!  Now if we can just get them to the kids without activating them!

Halloween Preschool Program

So, Mimi had her Halloween program today.  She decided to be a rainbow butterfly.  I got face paint literally yesterday, and it didn't occur to me to practice painting a butterfly on it ahead of time...luckily, it turned out pretty cute.  Or maybe it's the face behind the paint.

She was so cute parading around with her classmates...the girl in front of her with the red ribbon and blue dress was the closest to her in height, and Mimi still had a good 4-5 inches on her. 

So fun to watch her singing the songs with the actions and sitting in her seat like she was supposed to. 

She got snippy afterwards, not wanting to take pictures and when she was forced, she wouldn't smile.  Little bub. 

She finally complied and consented to a picture with Grandmere and Bapa.  What a sweet little girl. 

Finally!  We made it to the library!  Mac, Leiden, and I all got new library cards and a few books on each.  Machara was particularly excited about her new acquisition, and was proud to write her name on her card.

We have this bush in our front yard...very little color in our trees, but this bush just blew up red. 

Vampires!

My mom has been excited to whip these out for family dinner's dessert for some time.  They really are very funny.

So not only did we get a donut, but awesome fake vampire teeth.  Uncle Mike, who is less than impressed with the whole of Halloween, even got in the spirit!

As did Leiden... 

And Mac took it to a whole new level and went for Grandmere's jugular! 

The dinner was very nice, and my mom's house looked great with all the decorations she has been working on.  She gifted each of us with little treat boxes at the end of the evening.  The consummate hostess.   

Trunk or Treat

Tonight was the ward Trunk or Treat!  I took the opportunity to dress up in my traditional costume.

Leiden the mermaid had a spider on her head for part of dinner. 

The girls really enjoyed trunk or treating after dinner.  Mimi was into it this year, much more so than in years past.  Although she had to be reminded many times to say thank you! 

Always in motion, Mac was pretty excited about the whole thing, and is VERY polite when she wants to be! 

Afterwards we headed up to Grandmere and Bapa's house, where my mom was hosting her Halloween party.   The girls hid out in her room and sorted their loot.  They actually got quite a bit of stuff--filling their little buckets right up.

This was my mom's project this year.  Creepy ghostly heads made with styrofoam mannequin heads and cheesecloth.  Pretty darn cool.  And it took a lot of work to get them facing front and not spinning around!

What a fun night!

Halloween Art

Leiden loves art, as always.  She came up with this CUTE, very creative idea.  I LOVE it.

And then there are the more standard Halloween offerings.  The refrigerator front is always full of artwork!

Field Trip

Today I went with Mac's class on a field trip to the zoo!  She was excited to get on a bus, again.

I was assigned four little girls from her class, her included, and we wandered around the zoo for a couple hours, then ate lunch. 

She had fun, and I think she liked having me there.

 Tonight for dinner we had breakfast, in which I attempted little powdered sugar jack o lantern faces.  It only kind of worked.  A sifter would have been useful.

Unfortunately, we are at the time of year in which little girls get coughs.  The best remedy I have ever come across is putting Vick's rub on bottoms of feet and then socks.  I don't understand how it works, but it does!  All three sets of little feet are getting the treatment.  I HOPE I don't get it! 

Pumpkins

Here they are!  From left to right, Leiden, Mac, and Mimi.  All three were drawn with minimal to no help.  Hopefully the weather will not rot them too quickly.

Pumpkin Carving!

Took a quick trip to the store, today...we needed a couple other pumpkin carving scoops, and Leiden found a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mask.  It's actually pretty funny.

For a snack this afternoon, the girls had little spiders for Halloween time. 

Carving pumpkins is always more work than I think it's going to be...Everyone's excited until they remember how gooey and stringy the inside of a pumpkin is. 

Mimi was more excited about drawing her picture on the pumpkin than anything else.

Mac did a great job getting her pumpkin drawn. 

The next trouble is that Leiden is the only one who can use the little saws with any kind of accuracy and safety.  We made it through, only to find that I have NO IDEA where my box of votives and tea lights has been put in this house.  So we will grab some and showcase tomorrow.

Breakfast With the Witches

This morning was Breakfast With the Witches of Gardner Village!  The girls all got dressed up as little witches and we went and had breakfast.

They also did a show, which was surprisingly good.  The theme was a Wizard of Oz type deal.

After it was over, the girls pulled their now familiar stunt of frowning at the camera, and I just continued to stand there and play into it. 

This time they did not spontaneously smile at my own antics, so we had to...ahem...very politely ask them to smile. 

The witches there are GREAT.  They are ALL decked out, with crazy costumes and hats, and makeup and affected accents and mannerisms.  They were a riot. 

Thank you Grandmere and Bapa for a great morning out!

Mac is loving school, and especially her newfound writing and reading skills.  She did this paper, alternating between asking me how to spell things and just taking a stab at it.  She's a sweet little thing.