Happy Haunting

'Twas the night before Halloween - and the Party prepared by carving pumpkins (thankfully outside this year - no messy strings of pumpkin and seeds around the house...)

And per tradition, we carved the pumpkins exactly like the kids drew them (with one exception - Deonne took a little artistic liberty in Jack's pumpkin.)

I love James' silly pumpkin as pictured on the right side of this first storyboard - it's just so "James" with its silly and goofy smile...

 And of course Anna's pumpkin is the one with the pretty eye-lashes - that did take a bit of figuring out - as the original lashes she drew were thin pen lines... but we worked together to come up with a design, and she was thrilled at the outcome.

Overall, we had a lovely Halloween weekend with the Party Kids.  It started out kind of rough - with Jack having a horrible cough and Anna having a less-than-good day at school, prompting us to miss out on a Halloween party we were all looking forward to attending.  Thankfully, Jack's health improved, as did Anna's temperament, so we were able to partake of the super fun annual Comer Halloween Fest.

It's such a fun evening, yummy spooky treats (including my Spooky Witches Fingers - almond shortbread cookies shaped like fingers, complete with almond 'fingernails', Mummy Dogs - mini sausages wrapped in puff pastry to look like mummies, and Creamed Bat Brains with Dried Eye of Newt - orange/pecan cream cheese dip with orange zest and dried cranberries.)  Halloween is so much fun - I love having the chance to be creative and silly.

This year the Party went as the cast of the Wizard of Oz.  Complete with Dorothy, the Lion, the Scarecrow, and two Munchkins.  It was a hoot.

Beautiful Dorothy

Sweet Lion Jack

My Silly Scarecrow

I must say, it takes a confident man to wear a munchkin boy outfit, especially while kicking back and enjoying some libations...

Here we are - the Party of Five meets Wizard of Oz!

"Most" of the kiddies from the Comer party - I'm confident there were more who wouldn't stand and pose for the picture.

The kids had a ball running and playing with their friends, gobbling up the spooky treats, and the best part - trick-or-treating!  Every year we go as a large group, I'm not sure how many families, mommies and daddies, kiddies in wagons, and babes in strollers. 

This was Jack's first year to really participate - last year we dressed him up as a fish and took him around with us - but he was only 9 months old and I'm sure thought we were completely insane.

This year he sat in the wagon with his big brother, clutched his bag, and couldn't wait to go to each and every house.  He even said 'trick-or-treat' (or some version of it.)  Ha!

James, well he was so excited he didn't know quite what to do with himself.  He RAN to each house we stopped at - sometimes barely letting the wagon stop before he jumped out to RUN to the next door. 

Anna was full of herself as well, giggling and laughing and squealing with her little friends.  I realized mid-neighborhood jaunt that this is the stuff memories are made of - this is what she'll remember as the Halloweens of her childhood.

And I'm so blessed to have such wonderful friends to share this with.