Wednesday, March 05, 2014

Halloween!!! 2013. Because Halloween is always fun.

I feel like I write this every time: "I'm catching up!!!"  And that holds true here, again... We'll see, anyway! Lofty goals, Fiona... lofty goals...


Halloween 2013 was one for the books. Nothing extra-special, I guess, but I am keenly aware of the fact that our three rascals keep getting bigger!!! What's up with that?! As hair-rippingly aggravating as they can be, they are equally heart-flutteringly cute and sweet and fun and amazing and those moments are the ones that (luckily) stand out more... So each fun year that passes is one that makes me sad, because they will never be 6 and 3 again. Everything is more fun and amazing when you are 6 and 3.  And yes, now they are 7 and 4, but at Halloween... 6 and 3!  I just wish I could bottle up these little-kid years, or stretch them out, or something. Thankfully, it seems that they just get more wonderful with age, so I know there's lots of amazing stuff in our future... but the little-kid years! I will miss those.

Wow, that got sappy fast! Halloween.  We carved pumpkins at the BEGINNING of October with our friends, the Hendricks. Above you see Bran's, Maeve's, Nuala's, then the Hendrick creations. I can't remember whose is whose there... But they were pretty cool jack o'lanterns!


Bran's, Maeve's, Nuala's


Unfortunately, we all forgot to take into account WHERE we lived.  Nice and humid and moldy. We should have carved them one... maybe two... days before Halloween.  Ours didn't even last the first week.  Megan put theirs in their fridge, but we conducted an unofficial experiment.  First this...


Then this... and then... okay, I don't have another picture. I mean, I DO somewhere! But it's not easy to find right now. Just imagine those orange blobs getting grosser, and getting rained on, and finally oozing in the ground. NOW (it's March), we have a pumpkin plant! I don't have high hopes for it, but it's there!  Those fellas did look kinda Halloween-y... all zombie-ish and gross.


But, 2 days before Halloween, we carved another one. Kinda mixed Bran's pirate and Maeve's kitty and made a pirate kitty. 


On Halloween day, after Bran and Nuala got on the school bus, all the non-schoolers found this lovely, low-hanging spider! Perfect! Ya know... we refer to all big spiders here as Banana Spiders, but I'm pretty sure not all big ones are offical BANANA spiders.  Sometimes it's just a big spider. I guess I'm saying I don't know what kind of spider this is... Oh, man, now you'll be wondering about it all day! Riiiight... But no matter. A big spider!  No one will ever go put their face next to them for size comparison's sake. I don't get it. This was the closest M would get.  Which I should be grateful for. At least she's not trying to catch it! Oh, and she is wearing one of the cute barrettes Aunt Sari made! Sari makes adorable barrettes.


Very Halloween-y.


We had a ninja, and two little witches.  Most of Bran's costume, and all of Maeve's, I got at the thrift store. Score! Nuala wore the witch costume that she wore in 2010 -- THREE years ago! Click here for proof. Good thing we bought it a little big, I guess! Ha, looking back at that post, I see that Bran was a ninja that year, too... Oh! And he actually wore the same costume, as well! just with the added vest-thingy from the thrift store, etc... That took the focus off his shortened pant legs and sleeves... ;) We definitely bought those big, for big almost-4-year-olds, since they still fit off-the-charts-almost-7-year-olds! Maeve, on the other hand, did NOT wear anything from that year.  Too bad.  But really, good. That would be worrisome if she still fit in those clothes.


We did totally green faces for the Church Halloween party, and then wised up and just did a little bit of makeup for actual trick-or-treating.


I was a witch, too.  Z... what was he? I think he broke out his werewolf ears. I think... no photographic evidence, though. Hmmm...


And now! My favorite part of Halloween! The artwork! I love, love, love Halloween. Love it.  I love the stuff the kids make, and I love reading Halloween books, and watching Halloween shows. I think part of the reason isn't necessarily because of Halloween itself (though I DO love it! Did I already say that?), but because it's the beginning of end-of-the-year holiday season. But mostly because of itself.

Oh, Zachariah is a whiz at handy stuff. He's been cranking out some projects lately, which deserve a post of their own, but several months ago he built this cabinet that hangs on the wall and encloses our TV.  At first we were going to paint a scene, or designs, or something on it, but we couldn't decide on what exactly, etc., etc., so then we had the fabulous idea of painting it with magnetic paint and making it a place to display the rascals' artwork. I mean, we have stuff all over the place, taped in various locales, but I LOVE having it right there. And that our big, black, soul-sucking TV is hidden away. He did an amazing job, and it really makes our room cheery, I think.  


Spiders (and a kitty) made out of handprints... posterboard jack-o'lanterns...


My FAVORITE bat picture ever! I showed him how during school I used to draw little bats around the holes in our three-hole-punched paper... I'd draw their wings and legs and ears coming off the hole, then I'd draw a bunch of little tiny faces on another piece of paper, or on the desk (with a pencil, so I could erase them!), and then I could move the little bat body to different faces... ahhh, the memories... ;)  Anyway, he adopted that bat style, and voila! Totally adorable bats! I love bats. I know it sounds like I just love everything, but obviously this post is about things I love, so it's natural.


Nuala's pic of trick-or-treaters... also featuring cute bats...


Bran made a bunch of little ghosts and cut them out... cute, huh!?  And his spider picture. And a posterboard jack-o'lantern that he made a couple of years ago...


One of Maeve's contributions... :D  Nuala helped her by drawing the pumpkin shape, but I love M's spider!


Hehehee... Bran's vampire! Such a cute vampire! Beware... he'll use his innocent eyes to gain your trust, and then... sluuuuurrrrpppp!


Nuala's black cat...


Her witch...


Oh! This was a cool idea. Adopt it.  I just cut out Halloween-y shapes from black construction paper and taped them inside the lamp shade.  Awesome. Then we did it with snowflakes at Christmas time. Less awesome, but still neat-o.


Our basket of Halloween books. I LOVE Halloween books.  I try to buy a couple each year. We only bring them out in October, and enjoy them all month long.  


Just some more pics.


And their haunted houses. New ones, and the ones they made a few years ago.  Wow, those last two pictures were pretty anti-climatic.  Shoulda mixed those up better... Oh, well. There we have it. Halloweeeeen!! 

4 comments:

Carolyn said...

You guys rock. I love that you do such an amazing job of encouraging your kids artistic abilities and that you found a fantastic way to hide your soul sucker-such an appropriate name!!!

Jeffrey said...

Love your posts as usual (peepees and all). For some reason whenever i see pics of your place on Okinawa I always think of the show Lost. You guys got some Dharma goin on!
PS This isn't meant as a knock -We'll gladly trade you for our little condo in the desert! Ready the guesthouse...we be coming.
PPS I meant to comment on the prev post on how in the HECKFIRE you got him to jump in the air...and w a smile on his face. I thought he was too cool for school for that corny business?! Well, I'll be sure to razz him the next time I see him, don't you worry. :)

Tara said...

How did I miss this post?!? I love all the Halloween artwork! And such cute witches and ninja! Love it. I was laughing so much at your poor pumpkins. Our (uncarved) pumpkin has been sitting on our little front wall until just yesterday! Luckily our neighbors showed some solidarity with us and also left theirs up. It finally rotted enough to fall to the ground. How cool would it be if your pumpkin plant actually grew some pumpkins!

Grandma said...

Zombie pumpkins, witches and ninjas!!! Wow a wonderful Halloween.
Terrific pictures that the kids drew. Quite the artists! The spider was yucky. Spiders are just plain creepy.