An old man, a cowgirl, and a witch.

At our friends after stew and bubbling, smokey homemade witches brew (root beer with dry ice).

Jake can be such a character:

This was my grandfather's hat.

Getting the first of their loot:

The weekend before we had our friends over to carve our pumpkins. We've been carving pumpkins every Halloween with the McIntyres for TEN years..... pre-children....hard to believe.

Me and Les with the final product.

Don't mind the short bangs.....had just had them cut and it takes a few days for them to look normal again. This is my "peace - out" symbol, given to Grace with the camera.

Halloween on KCD

Halloween 2009.

The kids both had games this morning. 8:30 am!!! yeah! John and Patsy came over afterward and got a snapshot of the whole fam....this is rare. So I thought I would add to the post. Grace has assumed her normal pose. :) Hat's courtesy of Grandma for Halloween!

Pumpkin carving the night before Halloween. Grace was very serious about carrying her own pumpkin.



The carving. It is always cute to see their first expression after they pull the top of the pumpkin off and see all the seeds and goo....


Jake's pumpkin.

All lit up on the porch.

Halloween Day. Grace is standing off to the left refusing to get in the picture, because she wants to ride her trike.

Action shot of the witch and the storm trooper:

Our friend Natalia has her Birthday close to Halloween. So it has kind of been a tradition to celebrate her birthday with all the kids dressed up, and then all go trick or treating in the neighborhood. 13 kids in total.

Our little grumpy lady bug, yes this is the second year she has worn the costume....but that is what she wanted to be.

Pictures of the loot:

Note Grace already has three lollipops opened. I kind of let them eat as much candy as they want on the night of Halloween. I just can't police it that night...... the restrictions begin the next morning.

Jake sorting.

It's funny, I think this year was one of my least exciting years with Halloween. Who knows maybe I used all my steam decorating so soon in the month. I just didn't have too much gumption for it. I remember years where I had Halloween parties, made special cupcakes and did caramel apples. This year, I literally sent Brian to the store an hour before Trick or Treaters came to get the candy. I even would have been fine not to carve the pumpkins.... good thing Brian thought otherwise. At least the kids seemed to have a blast. I think Jake ran for a full two hours from house to house. I guess I will hold onto their cute smiles at the end of the night....that and my sore feet (who goes for a 6 mile run, before having to walk the neighborhood for 2 1/2 hours)? Not well thought out..... I guess the same goes for the whole holiday :)