My last HALLOWEEN post.  I promise.  It just wouldn't be right to not post the most important part of the season...the costumes!  This year we went with a family-super-hero theme.  I managed to buy or improvise with most parts of the costumes except for the capes.  So here we are:

The Super Joneses

And here are some close ups...since we all know you are dying to see more.

Captain America.  

This guy made his own shield.  I told him he had to make it out of cardboard, but he wasn't happy with it being flat.  So, instead, he layered the entire thing; each ring (or the star) being one level higher than the previous one.  This gave it a great curved look and Ethan was pretty proud of it.  (I thought it was such a smart way to make it!)

Storm

Alaina's cape was the hardest one I made.  She wanted it to attach to her arms and hands so that it moved when she did.  It took me a while to get it just perfect and we loved how it looked.  The next day I found it slashed up sitting on the floor.  It seems that our resident Batman found a pair of scissors and tried them out up and down the cape.  That wasn't cool, Batman.  However, after cutting off about 1/5th of it, I was able to salvage the basic look and make it work.  It wasn't quite as awesome as before, but it certainly did the job. 

The hair and make-up were another thing.  For one, I can never, ever, ever find a hair dye that turns Alaina's hair white.  This picture was taken after 4 complete bottles were used on her.  That hair wouldn't move if Alaina was in a typhoon.  

The make-up was fun to do, and since Alaina got dressed up 3 times, I got to try a bunch of stuff out.  Alaina really is a patient girl.  She doesn't even like to put make-up on but always humors her Mama.  I think it really makes the costume (humble opinion.)

Wolverine.

Austin has refused to let us cut his hair for months in anticipation of being Wolverine.  I do think the hair was working in his favor that night.  The finger knives were a lucky dollar-store grab and the army tag was a $2 purchase.  Including the belt-buckle, Austin's outfit was the cheapest and easiest of all of our costumes.

Spiderman.

Jason was Spiderman and since I got the little boy's capes done early this month, he has been Spiderman all the way through October.  Both of the little boys have been flying around the house like they own the place.  It is fun to see them get so excited about Halloween.  Any stranger that Jason met knew that he was Spiderman and his little brother was Batman.  (They also knew their ages, what they ate for breakfast and all about every single toy they own.)

I love me a little Spiderman.

Batman.

Then there is our little Batman.  He has also been more than excited to be Batman every day this month.  He'll fly up and down the stairs, through the kitchen and out the back door.  On Halloween night, he was so sleepy but he refused to be held.  Instead, he kept both hands out in front of him and 'flew' from house to house.  At least that is what he thought.  We saw a little two-year-old look convincingly like a drunk, flying in a wobbly, zig-zag, down the center of the road, all night long.  He was determined to do it right and always kept his little hands out in front of him, but we had to save him from collisions or falls.  Long after Jason collapsed on the sidewalk, too tired to move, Emmett could be seen weaving through the Halloween throng.

Our little boys.

Batman and his ever-faithful side-kick, Robin.

I dressed up too!  I almost didn't make it, though.  I had found some gold Washi tape and managed to bling out an old foam crown.  I also spent a good 5 minutes getting the 'W' on my shirt.  I didn't have time for the armband, and so Robert made them for me.  What a guy.

And there it is.  Our last Halloween post.  October truly is our busiest month of the year.  It is so much work, but so much fun.  Maybe next year we can all be ghosts and disappear off to Hawaii.  :)

Happy Halloween - 2016!!

We got a surprise visit from Mom and Dad Scribner just in time for Halloween!  When we found out that we were going to have company for our actual Halloween day, we decided to go all out with our Halloween meal.  I have to admit, it turned out pretty fun this year.  (Not as gross as last year's with our fingers-in-the-chili dinner.)  Here we are, all ready to chow down.

 Note to self:  Buy dry ice the day of the big party.  I had purchased the dry ice a few days before and when I pulled it out, 4/5th of it had evaporated.  So sad.  We had to do with what we had left.

The brain jello looked pretty awesome.

This year we went with chip and 7 layer dip being our main entree.  It's hard to see them in the back, but Alaina cut out tons of bat/ghost/pumpkin shapes out of tortillas and we baked them for our chips. 

Strawberry Jello is just too easy and tasty not to have a lot of.

The little boys are always happy we add the hot-dog mummies.

Overall, it turned out well.  I can say this because we hardly had any leftovers.  :)  It was spooktacular! 

Pumpkin Carving

Our newest pumpkin carver had a great time digging into the the pumpkin and hammering in colored pegs.

Now, this guy couldn't handle touching any of the pumpkin guts.  Even looking at the seeds seemed to make his tummy turn.  In the end he ended up being more an observer than participant in the carving activity.

These guys are old pros these days.

Here they are with their creations.

I especially loved these guys in the dark.  You can see that Jason had quite a bit of help from Daddy.   The process involved a drill or something crazy from the garage.

I thought that Ethan's pumpkin was pretty clever and spooky.

Alaina's mummy and and Austin's lone wolf were pretty awesome as well.

Boo!

I love the Fall.  Even if we only have a fake fall in Vegas, I still love it.  Fall here consists of warm days and green plants.  It looks suspiciously like summer, but we know that Thanksgiving is just around the corner and that most people are looking at the leaves changing colors and eating soup.  So, to show my solidarity with the rest of the world, I make my kids sweat it out while they eat hot soup at the end of hot days and I dress up little boys up in Fall weather clothes.  I can't help it.  I have a problem.

Still.  Aren't they cute?  Don't they look like they are enjoying fall weather (I think the temperature was only low 80's)  Before you get on my case for overheating my babes, remember, they always keep it cool at church.  So, my little loves let me take a few quick pics before we got back into our shorts and t-shirts.

Emmett was my winner with the smiles.

Jason wasn't feeling it.  I'm not gong to say that we told him he could only go inside after he smiled once...because that wouldn't be nice at all.  And we all know that I'm only ever nice to my kids. 

But for some strange reason, he tried really hard to get a smile out.  (it helped when I took the sweater off...so weird)

And we did get a brotherly hug.  (Also not forced.  This was just a completely organic moment between two loving brother.  Naturally.) 

Ah.  Don't cha just love the Fall?

Ethan is 13 1/2.  Don't forget that 1/2!  He knows everything right now.  I know, you might think that isn't anything new for our sweet boy, and I guess he has always known everything.  The only real difference is that now he treats whatever we say with the self-assured smugness that only a teenager can express.  It is pretty infuriating.

He is also on the cusp of not caring what we say and needing to know what we think.  It's a funny place for my boy to be in.  All week he will tell us he doesn't need us and that he doesn't care what we want to say but then on Sunday, when he sits next to me at church, I find him putting my hand on his back and his head so that I can rub his back and scratch his hair.  He'll lean on my shoulder so I can rub his face.  I find myself squished between by big teenager and my small two year old, both wanting the same attention.  I don't mind being a part of that sandwich, but it makes me smile at the irony of it.

Last Saturday Ethan went to his first, real, teenager party.  We allowed him to stay out until 11:30...a first.  We haven't even let the kids do sleepovers, so this was a real big deal.  We knew the kids were watching 'the watcher in the woods.' and playing games, which sounded pretty harmless.  So off he went.  When he came home, he burst through the door and the first thing he said, in a very excited voice was, "Mom!  I kissed a girl!"  He was practically skipping around the house.  Having a child with low impulse control is hard in many ways.  One way it isn't so bad is that when Ethan had something inside of him that he can't contain, you get all the details...immediately.

So, it appears that the ol' game, spin the bottle has been upgraded.  Yeah, there's an app for that.  All you got to do now is press a button and you get to kiss the girl sitting across from you.  It really is a time-saver.  :)  Well, we got all the dirt.  The girl's name.  Just how long of a kiss it was.  Before the party, Ethan had a major crush on a girl in his class.  "We are together." he had told me before.  "Together?  What does that mean?"  I had asked.  All I got was a "huh.  Together...it means we are together!  She's my girlfriend."  I hadn't pushed it.  It's not like Ethan has a phone or email nor is he allowed to go on dates, so this girlfriend seemed pretty harmless.   And short-lived, it seemed.  Because once Ethan kissed a different girl, his previous girlfriend informed him that they were not, in fact, together anymore.  Ahh.  The complexities of young love.

When the boys left for California for their 50 mile bike ride, I took Alaina and the little boys to the Halloween train.  We don't have any cool pumpkin farm or corn mazes here in Nevada.  There aren't any hay rides or pressed cider while listening to a bluegrass band.  But they do have a cute Halloween Train.  So we went without those big boys, (Robert included) and we still managed to have a pretty great time.

My little cowgirl and cowboy.

I was a pirate and Jason was Peter Pan.  If you dress up, kids get on the train for free.  I wasn't going to be the only one not to dress us, so there you go.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...Alaina was born to be a cowgirl.  She just looks the part so naturally.  

Here's a little throw-back pic from the first moment I knew Alaina was destined to be a cowgirl.  (These days, that hat looks like it has lived through a few hard years...)

Back to our train ride...

The soulful traveler.

The spooky car of the train always looks like someone gave up halfway through decorating it.  That doesn't stop us from hanging out there.

They did have a rocky, flat piece of dirt next to the train.  Somehow they got away with buying a bunch of pumpkins and put them around the dirt and some cactus and called it a pumpkin patch.  Still, it's loads better than the money-trap of dirt out by the free way that they do the exact some thing, but they manage to charge triple the price for each pumpkin.  We picked up our pumpkins there.

Jason with his pumpkin.

Alaina with hers.

This guy was done the second we got to the car.