Halloween 2011. I have mentioned that I hate Halloween. I don't want to seem like I'm a hater of holidays, but coming up with 4 costumes that the kids wear for one day of the year is well.... expensive. I'm cheap and poor. I'm not a sewer so I can't make the costumes myself. I'm not creative so I usually can't come up with a great costume on the fly, which means I end up at Walmart trying to get cheap costumes that the kids will like. And of course I'm doing this at the last minute because I tend to procrastinate things that I don't like to do. Lucky for me, this year wasn't too bad. Abby decided that being a ballerina was a great idea. I planted that little seed in her head because we already had the costume. I know she's been a ballerina before but I figure that she didn't remember and it was a awhile ago in a totally different state so nobody would even know right? Kaden was adamant about being a football player. It was almost comical about how bad he wanted to be a football player. I was all for it. True, Josh's uniform was huge on him, but it made it funnier. The pads that are supposed to go down to your knee were pants on Kaden, but he didn't care. He was in heaven. Loving every bit.

Josh was the grim reaper that Ethan was last year. I'm all for sharing. He didn't seem to get into Halloween this year. (as you can tell from his face in the picture.) I'm not sure why. When we went out trick or treating he only went to about 4 houses and decided that he would rather hand out the candy at our house instead. What child does that? I guess he wasn't in the mood for treats this year. Ethan loved being a jail bird. His was the only costume that we bought this year so I was feeling a bit better about Halloween and I even enjoyed Abby's candy with all the peanuts in them. So I guess Halloween isn't so bad...

This was part of our Halloween dinner. Moldy bones and worms. The kids got a kick out of that. Next year, I'll have to come up with something different. Any great ideas that you have done?

And I guess it can't be Halloween without the carving of the Halloween pumpkin. We had our Campbell cousins staying with us for a few days so they helped with the gutting. Although as I recall, most of the kids didn't like touching the slimy guts of the pumpkin so I did most of the dirty work. It sure was a challenge to figure out what kind of face/image we should put on the pumpkin. Some wanted a scary face. One wanted a cat. And so on. I think we sat at the computer for a half hour debating. Finally I picked. Not too scary, but easy. I haven't figured out how people get those elaborate faces/scenes on their pumpkins. It would be really cool, but I don't have the knowledge to do it.

So I hope you had a happy Halloween. We did (once the costumes selections were out of the way!)