Halloween '09

Halloween was a very busy, very fun day for us.  We hosted a party for all the neighborhood kids and some family at 10 a.m. Halloween morning.  We started off by playing musical chairs.

We then had a costume parade.  We held the party at the church so we could move around a little easier than if it was at our house.

We then played games like ghostbuster bowling, a bean bag toss, a bug drop, and a coffin catch (goodie bags).  The kids seemed to have a good time.  We were a little worried when we started and only four other kids had shown up, but by the time the games started we had a total of 15 kids.  It was a lot of fun.

I thought the food was a lot of fun.  we had a mummy cheese ball with crackers, apples with caramel dip, cookies that looked like witch's fingers, candy corn, and a punch bowl with floating green hands for ice cubes.  I wish I had gotten a picture of all the food, but this is the only one we got a picture of. 

I dressed like a scary witch.  I even painted my face which reminded me of how I disliked face paint when I was little.  Nick dressed up like a devil, but by the end, all the adults looked about the same.

This is my niece (aka Super girl), Brooke (my sister), and Mabel enjoying a few snacks.

After our halloween party, my family gathered together at the Olive Garden to celebrate my birthday.  We then came back to our house for presents and cake.  They made strawberry shortcake (my favorite).  It was the most beautiful, sloppy cake I had ever seen by the time we were done with it.  And boy, does my family know how to sing "Happy Birthday"! 

We attempted to get the kids to nap before trick-or-treating, but failed miserably.  We dressed up and headed out around 6:00 p.m. to go trick-or-treating

Sam is a bumble bee, Max is Bob the Builder, and Mabel is Cinderella.

Trick or treating with the kids.

After about 3 blocks, we turned around and came back home with three very tired trick-or-treaters.  Here they are with their stash!

Max is enjoying his twinkie while Mabel is putting her dollar in her pig.

The kids are still on a sugar high.

Here's what the house looked like.  Nick set up a table to display our jack-o-lanterns.  We made the pumpkin stumps ourselves this year from some of the stumps for the plum tree we removed.  Overall this halloween was a lot of fun with all the parties and hoop-lah, but very exhausting as well.