Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween!

Today is officially Halloween, but our celebration started days ago. It's been both fun and exhausting and this was really the first year that Shyla understood Halloween; I also think it is the last year that she will let me choose her costume, and I took full advantage of that.

The festivities began last Thursday night with the Fall Festival/Literacy Night at Shyla's school! There was trick-or-treating, story-time and free books(!), and of course a jumping castle! Kids could go in either their jammies or their costumes. Shyla attended in her jammies! Zac attended in his costume: Zackary Yager.

However, for actual dress-up I dressed both my girls up as a Care Bear this year. And I made their costumes. For under $20 I made a Love-A-Lot Bear for Shyla and a Cheer-Bear for Harper and a new candy bag for Shyla (sorry, Harpey, no candy bag for you!)

On Saturday night we went trick-or-treating at La Encantada Mall with some of our really good friends. Here is Shyla's costume:

And the view from the back:
And her new candy bag:
And a close-up of her cute little face:
And my peaceful Harper:
Have you ever tried to take a picture of 5 kids in the middle of a really busy mall? It's fun! But every now a then you might get a winner! (I'm defining "winner" here as a picture in which all kids' faces can be seen and are looking nearly in the right direction.)

Of course there is the quest for the decent family picture. This one is not too bad:
Most of our family pictures look more like this one:
The whole experience was a lot of fun and we had such great company! Shyla liked the idea of trick-or-treating but did not understand the concept of putting the candy in her bag and saving it for later. So every time she got a piece of candy she'd hold it up and yell, "I want it. Open. Open. Open. Please." She probably ate more candy that night than she's had in her whole life.

Flash forward to today, Halloween day. Monday is a school day for Shyla and the kids could dress-up but I thought her Care Bear costume would be too warm for our 90 degree temperatures (apologies to anyone on the east coast, although I don't think I have any readers from there). So, she wore Lilly's old UA Cheer Outfit (see below).

I spent a lot of time preparing food today. I made cake-pops that look like eyeballs, spider crackers, jack-o-lantern crackers (for Shy's school party), and cake-pops with black and orange sprinkles.

Then tonight we did our annual "block party" at my parents cul-de-sac. It seems as if it's growing every year and it's a lot of fun. They don't get many trick-or-treaters but they do have some "regulars." Aunt Holly, Michelle, and Isla joined us this year and Isla wore a giraffe costume that Shyla wore for her 1st Halloween:
There was lots of candy, but no actual trick-or-treating.
And Harper, excuse me, Cheer Bear had a good time too!
Shyla tried to convince us to allow her to bring her candy bucket to bed with her. I think she would have fought it more if she wasn't so tired. It's been a busy couple of sugar-filled days.