Happy Halloween-a-licous Eve!

We had an awesome Halloween night to trick-or-treat in. It started out pretty miserable with a sudden cloud burst of rain. After about 1/2 hour of rain we decided to brave the weather. (Silly rob brought out our beach umbrella while I stuck with the normal kind. Strange thing is that all the kids like Rob's better. Weird.) After about 20 minutes of running around in the down pour, the rain suddenly stopped and this balmy misty-fog took over. It was warm and ideal spooky weather for the night.

The kids were perfectly matched with their personalities by their costumes. Ethan, my wild child, made a perfect Peter Pan. Every time I looked at him I though he'd found his calling in life.

Austin was the tin-man from Wizard of Oz. My tenderhearted child. With his dark skin, the light silver make-up came out super dark. Other than that, his outfit was perfection. (What you couldn't see was the silver sparkles in his hair. It looked great. Ethan had gold pixie-dust in his hair too!)

And my sassy diva...well you can just imagine what that little minx insisted on wearing. What a little princess!

And here they all are.

Peter-Pan


Tin Man


Princess?!
That's right. Although I had a super cute pink Japanese Princess kimono for my little angel. THIS is what she insisted on being. SPOOKY! She was the most scary little bag of bones I've ever seen. Getting her ready was pretty fun.

But the best part was after I got her finished and she first looked at herself in the mirror. She scared herself! Look at this face.

And here she is with her final look all put together.


Here is Robert with his crazy umbrella.

And the kids braving the rain for candy.

A VERY excited Ethan thinking, C-A-N-D-Y!!!!!!!

The boys with their favorite girl, Amisha.

And here are two more pumpkins that Rob carved. I think the word is 'intense' when it comes to Robert and Halloween.

'Twas the night before Halloween...


Our family may have crossed the line into the realm of completely nuts tonight. At least, that is what Robert believes the neighbors must think, if they happened to be looking through our kitchen window at dinnertime. After most of us had finished dinner we found ourselves all staring at Laina and watching her take each painstakingly slow bite of her meal. This is a nightly ritual although Ethan was especially agitated because he knew as soon as she finished we could start carving our pumpkins. To keep him busy we all kept giving him our plates to put in the sink. By the time he got the last one in we started clapping and cheering for him. "Ethan's the best big brother, ever!" "Ethan is super!" He lifted his arms into the air and started doing a victory lap around the table. We all got into the cheering and before we knew it we were whistling and cheering and doing high-fives as he went by. By his 4th lap he was taking dramatic bows and shouting 'Encore! Encore!' about himself. His enthusiasm just fueled our fun. When he sat down, Austin shot up and cheers for "The best little brother ever!" ensued. More high fives, more whistling, more bowing. And when Austin had exhausted the track around the table, Alaina got up and "the best sister, ever!" showed us what she had to offer. We were unstoppable. After her 5 times around the table and she sat down, the kids looked at me and started, "the best Mama, ever!" "You rock, Mom!" It doesn't take much encouragement for me to join in. So I jumped up and started my own victory laps taking in the high fives and cheers. After I sat down, Robert got up for his exuberant turn. And just when you thought it would be over and Robert had sat down, the kids looked at each other and shouted out, "We're the best family, EVER!" "Whahoo!" "Oh, Snap! We Rock!" (direct quote from Ethan - don't ask.) And up we all got, cheering, clapping and skipping, for our family victory run around the now well-worn track around the table.

We are the best family, ever. Just ask any of us. :)

After that we got right down to pumpkin carving business. The kids loved getting their hands dirty. They drew out their patterns and Rob and I carved them out for them. Little cuties.

Pumpkin time at Riverbend Farm. We love this place and since last Wed. was a gorgeous warm break from all of our cold rainy days, we decided to take the kids out of school early to enjoy the farm. Ya baby...living on the edge. Instead of blathering on about it, I'll just let you see how much fun we had with a truck load of pictures. Enjoy.