Halloween!

This year we had an awesome Halloween!  Halloween fell on a Saturday and there was no school on Friday (due to end of term) so James and I were able to spend Halloween Eve at my parent's house carving pumpkins and prepping my dad's graveyard with my little sister Laura and my two cousins Alexis and Samuel (who live in the top half of the house I'm currently living in).  Although pumpkin carving is a standard tradition for many families during the Halloween season my family takes it to a whole new level.  We carved over 25 pumpkins this year!  My mom keeps a folder full of cutout patterns of the best pumpkins from past years.  My dad takes halloween very seriously so the pumpkins have to be carved at a higher level of quality than many carved pumpkins.  We were carving from about 11 am until 8 pm!  (We didn't carve straight through the entire time but when all was said and done there was pumpkin goo all over my moms kitchen for most of the day).  James insisted on carving his own pumpkin (since everyone was carving their own).  My family uses official pumpkin carvers rather than knives so there was no threat of him damaging himself with a knife.  As you can see from the pictures he took it very seriously and tried his hardest to do it unaided.

When James and I had finished with our part of the pumpkin carving we went outside to take some daytime pictures of my dad's graveyard.  He has been doing his graveyard since I was tiny and every year he works to make it better than the past year.  He spends hundreds on new dead dummies, candles, fog machines, glow sticks, scarecrows, and about any other thing he can find that works in an outdoor graveyard.  For what it's worth his house is the busiest on the street and we often get people who drive to our house specifically.  James loved taking pictures in the graveyard.  All month he's been seeing the graveyard slowly be put up and come to be and he is obsessed with "wow-ween" as he calls it.

On Halloween Andrew worked at the Rio Tinto stadium from 12pm until 4pm so and I spent the day (again) at my parents.  We were actually able to finish the Sleepy Hollow scarecrow (from Tim Burton's movie) that my dad has been wanting since he first saw the movie.  It was quite a pain and we came pretty close to zero hour but I think it turned out great.  At the very least my dad was happy with it.  At about 5pm we took pictures with our trick-or-treating group (consisting of a few of my cousins, some neighbors, and the "help" for around my dad's graveyard).  James was Batman this year (I figured he would love having a cape... which he did... and does...)  I sewed the costume myself but I think it turned out pretty good.  The fact that he is an adorable 2 year old helped. 

James really got into this trick-or-treating ritual.  He refused to let me push him in the stroller for the first couple hours and insisted on running from doorstep to doorstep.  He'd run up totally excited and yell "treat-treat" and knock on the door.  He also very faithfully said "Dank-do" after each candy "gift".  He got twice as much as everyone else more than once since he was so stinking cute!  Eventually he wore out enough he'd allow me to push him but it took awhile for the energetic, over-excited 2 year old to get tired enough to need a ride.

All said and done he got over two and a half pounds of candy.  Mom was happy! (as was daddy).  More candy for us!  I also stole candy for the prize calendar countdown to Christmas my family does (once the house is cleaned you get to open a small present that hangs on a countdown calendar).   He still has a bunch to eat now though.  We went home late and James went to bed.  Andrew and I were able to unwind to the thrilling Halloween classic "Ghostbusters".  All and all a good night.

Hope you enjoy the pics!

Halloween!

My dad makes a big fuss over Halloween every year. We're talking hundreds and hundreds of dollars have been put into transforming the entire yard into a cemetery (not to mention all the hundreds of hours setting everything up.) Since his yard is such an ordeal and a tradition that's where we were headed first thing this year. We helped carve and place 36 pumpkins around the yard, spread cobwebs, prep candles, and about a zillion other small but time extensive tasks to prepare for the big night. Poor Andrew (who had an ankle reconstruction surgery on the 22nd and couldn't do much) was stuck on my parent's sofa for most of the day playing my brother's Wii and watching TV.



James (who would live outside if I let him) went and played in the leaves with my sister and cousins. He quickly decided he did not like the feel of the leaves on his hands. Every time he put a hand down to crawl he'd instantly pick it back up again and shake it to get the leaves sticking to him off. He did, however, like to "help" with raking the leaves. I think he might've been able to help if the rake hadn't been 6 times as long as he was!



He also decided to push his stroller around the driveway by holding onto the basket in the back. He tripped over a crack in the cement and took quite a stumble (as you can see by the big bump on his forehead). His cousin (who was helping him in his endeavors) felt SO bad about it. Equally bad bruises have been attained while I have been watching him so I told her not to worry. He cried for quite awhile and when it was time to get in costumes looked like he should've been a zombie rather than a bat but I think he was still cute.



We took pictures with all costumed kids, teens, and, of course, my dad, then started trick-or-treating. My family congregates at my parent's house and we all trick-or-treat together so the kids can travel in a large pack and the parents can converse so I had the pleasure of being able to laugh with 2 of my aunts, 2 of my uncles, my mom, and about 7 kids. It was a riot! James was a little overstimulated and wiggly until he got his first sucker and started eating it. It was love at first taste and he was sticky but happy the rest of the night.



We finished the night by visiting Andrew's family at his parent's house where they have a party every year. James was able to exhaust the rest of his sugar-hyped energy by playing with his cousins and after a long day we went to bed. Only 364 days until next Halloween!!!