I did the pumpkin carving with the boys, and all three took me up on my offer of $1 to eat the "goop." You can tell it's all my carving since they're basic jack-o-lanterns.
We baked and ate the seeds, as usual.
On the actual day, we had the Schaefers and Kudlas over for trick or treating in the neighborhood. As for our costumes, the boys are fairly obvious. Owen looked pretty good as a ninja and TF was true to form, which Bobbins was proud of. Edward is always in his own land. JoJo's was the best costume, of her favorite character. Margaret looked sharp as a ____.
Not sure what happened to the photos. We had our usual Halloween. Just have to make due with this one of Owen. Pretty easy to tell which pumpkin I carved.
Again, I was out of town for work, so had to miss our family Alice in Wonderland costumes which Bobbins worked very hard on. MM was the cupcake, which Bobbins brilliantly made from bedding and an upside down lamp shade. Fisher loved to pose in his costume. The kids looked great. The Schaefers came over as usual for pizza and trick-or-treating.
Mostly just Booch and I this year.
The Schaefers came over again this year for pizza and candy in our driveway. It was tougher this year because it was a weeknight. Bobbins didn't have the time or energy to family costumes this year, so it was a hodge-podge. The girls were ballerinas, Booch a cowboy, Moose a construction worker, and Baby Jack a packet of ketchup (resurrected from 2009, MM's first Halloween) to go with The Dog as The Hot Dog.
There seemed to be some uncertainty, so for clarification, our family costume this year was Peter Pan, with Bobbins in the starring role, myself as Capt. Hook, JoJo as Tinker Bell, and the rest as the kids -- MM as Wendy, Owen as Michael, and T Fish as John. The Schaefers came over. We ate Costco pizza in the garage, then hit a couple streets, then came back to our house for a fire in the driveway. With a few drinks, it was a lot of fun, and our new neighborhood was good, although not great like the old one.
Did three this year, and both girls took me up on my challenge to eat some of the 'goop' for a dollar. Karin seemed to enjoy carving her pumpkin, another American first for her.
Had our usual two events this year for Halloween - the neighborhood safety festival and trick or treating in the Country Club behind us. Bobbins was a little behind this year, so just the girls got costumes (with Owen's tacked on for good measure). The neighborhood shindig was a ton of people again, as was trick or treating. This time we just hopped the fence to our neighbors and did the circle. JoJo was too tired to hit our own neighborhood walking The Dog, but MM was up for it.
Two pic's from Country Clubbin'
I told MM I'd give her a dollar if she ate some of the pumpkin innards, and she almost did. Better than last year, when neither JoJo nor her would even touch it. Maybe next year.
We missed Gooolia. She was fun doing it last year. And creative. Bobbins wasn't into an intricate design this year. [I always like the standard jack-o-lantern.]
We enjoyed the seeds as always.
This year, instead of the usual party in north Phoenix, we stayed in our own neighborhood. Well, close. We ventured over to the Phx Country Club with some friends from our marriage group. They gave us the gate code, which allowed us to enter the complex before the hoard. We walked the whole loop and the kids made out pretty good. One house had a whole Despicable Me set-up in the driveway and graciously took photos and posted them on a website later on. There were too many people for our taste, but it was fun and nice out. After we got home, I took The Dog for his nightly walk and had the girls accompany me to collect more treats. MM was very good about going up to each house and was not afraid at all, unlike JoJo. That was probably the best part, just us three out and about (preggo Bobbins had bowed out after the Country Club).
The next day Bobbins and the girls took all the extra (and there was a ton) to share with kids at Phx Childrens Hospital.
That's each of us in front of our pumpkins. Julia went with a harder but neater design, Bobbins with the emoticon (very clever), and me an old school jack-o-lantern.
Our neighborhood held its annual safety festival which doubles as a Halloween party. The LDS meeting house graciously hosts the event in the parking lot. There's trunk or treating, a tractor ride, a cupcake walk, and food. Everyone's in their costumes. The five of us walked up and had a fun time. It was Julia's first experience with Halloween and she seemed to enjoy it.
Julia talked to the female police officer, toured her SUV cruiser (in background), and got a photo with her. They don't have Halloween like we do in Brazil, so it was an experience.
