Halloween part 1

Let the Halloween Festivities BEGIN!!!

We took the easy route this year... no carving pumpkins. The set of Potato Head faces from Walmart was much more fun and WAY less messy! The kids had a great time creating silly faces

on their pumpkins and Jared and I had a great time NOT cleaning up the huge mess!

One of our neighbors had "Boo-ed" us so we made some sugar cookies and loaded them with Halloween sprinkles before delivery. We then "Boo-ed" two of our other neighbors to spread the Halloween cheer. The kids LOVED ding-dong-ditching (ring and run, or whatever you call it) their friends' houses. I don't think we were very stealth, but it was fun anyway.

Ashley got to dress up for preschool on Wednesday. She was so excited. Here she is pondering all that sugary candy and chocolate to come. She won "Most Rockin'-est" costume at her school party. Her adorable teachers were dressed like a cowgirl and Dorothy from Wizard of Oz. I wish I had taken a picture. They were so cute!

Thursday night was our ward Trunk or Treat at church. Austin shocked me by agreeing to dress up like Danny's rival in Grease (what was his name?) and slicked back his hair. His costume wasn't difficult, obviously, I just figured it wouldn't be cool enough for Austin. I wanted him to dress like this because for the first time ever, our whole family dressed with a theme- Grease.

It was freezing outside, so I stayed in the car passing out candy to other kids. The girls joined me after getting some candy since they were cold too. Here we are in our poodle skirts. Do we look like Pink Ladies?

After about 20-25 minutes, we happily went inside for donuts and hot cocoa.

Thankfully, we remembered to have someone take our photo all together.

Here's the kids with some of their church friends- Back row: Grace, Olivia, Anna, Front row: Ashley, London, and Bennett

Very, very early on Friday morning, Austin woke me up to say, "Mom, I've got my costume on. I'm all ready." I looked at the clock, which said something like 3 am, and promptly told him to get back in bed!!! He was so excited to wear his costume to school - poor guy. I guess he went back to bed, and as he later told me, he tried to sleep upside down like a bat!

Compared to Austin's costume, Olivia's is all sweet and sassy. She looked really cute in her 50's poodle skirt and saddle shoes. She was over the moon that I was willing to put makeup on her (she gets one day a year, why not?) So we did some mascara, blush, and lip gloss. When I saw her teacher later, at the school parade, she told me that Olivia was proudly showing everyone her REAL saddle shoes. Thank you so much Heidi, for sharing them. They totally made her outfit! We were so lucky that they were the exact right size!

Austin's Dracula costume was awesome too. Thanks to Britney! (Don't I have great friends who let me raid their Halloween wardrobe for my kids?!) Unfortunately he wouldn't wear the cravat b/c it bugged him around the neck. But I think the costume turned out great anyway. He loved the black spray in his hair and the makeup. Whoa, was he big on the makeup this year! It almost looked too freaky for me, but I guess that's Halloween!