Our Haunted Halloween

We had lots of pumpkins this year because of our Blue Bird CSA as well as a trip to Potters Way. Kippy was the most enthusiastic about carving them.  She carved one on Saturday night and then both Abby & Kippy carved additional pumpkins on Sunday night.

 While Kippy was carving her dragon pumpkin, Abby decided at the last minute that she wanted to dress up for Halloween after all and needed a Little Red Riding Hood cape.  I found a free pattern on-line for a cape made out of polar fleece.  It was a little tedious taping together the 30 pages necessary to make the pattern.  (Our friend, KZ, was a great helper with taping part.) So with $12.50 in supplies for the fleece & ribbon, a costume was born.

 For some reason, there were no salvageable pumpkin seeds from Kippy's first pumpkin.  They were all flatso & weird.  But we got lots of seeds from the Sunday night carving so I made Martha Stewart's sweet & spicy pumpkin seeds, which are officially the bestest ever!

Pumpkin carving is so much easier than I remember from when the girls were little.  Now they both can handle it from A to Z, so all I have to do is take pictures of their masterpieces.  From past Halloween carving experiences, I remember having sore wrists from the elaborate patterns that the girls would choose. Now they are 100% on their own and I like it that way much better.

Kippy's creepy kitten

Kippy's terrifying dragon

Abby's bewitching bat scene

Kippy created her own costume after doing internet browsing for some DIY ideas.  She is a hunchbacked witch with a baby on her back.  She was able to recycle and re-purpose everything she needed from home except for the witch mask.  She got a lot of great compliments on her illusion costume.

Steve took Kippy and her BFF, Madi out trick or treating.  They had a fabulous time running all over the neighborhood gathering sweets and treats.

Abby's cape turned out great and she put together a wonderful Little Red Riding Hood ensemble, which unfortunately doesn't show up well in the picture because it was black.  She is still all about being a fashionista.  I was happy to see that she was still willing to participate in the haunted Halloween festivities at some level. 

The spooky sisters.

On a side note:  I only handed out candy to 9 kids, even tho the weather was fabulous (around 45 degrees). The Veteran's home across the street from us was doing a booming business and the parking lot was crammed full.  Perhaps all the T-or-T'ers had too much loot after their visit to the Veteran's home and couldn't walk all the way to our house?  Luckily, I sent all the leftover EVIL candy to work with Steve.

Halloween both past & present

Our first Halloween with all 4 of us in 2000 when Kippy was 1 month old and Abby was 3 years old. We were dressed up for a family Halloween party at our neighbor's house {The Deboers} when we lived in Marshall, MN. Renae {cat}, Abby {Barbie Princess}, Angelique {clown}, Steve {army guy}.
Here we are in 2001 at another family Halloween party hosted by the Deboer's. This is the year that I remember several things going wrong. First, I ordered Abby a cute Snow White costume and it turned out she HATED it, but I made her wear it anyway because I got it through Ebay. Second, I used black hairspray on my hair and Abby's hair and it was an AWFUL mess to clean up... never again!
I just love this pic of 13 month Kippy as a puppy, crying her eyes out while sucking on her nukkie. We never could get her to keep the little puppy hat on with that custom, which was originally worn by Abby in 1998.
I have recycled my witch costume many times since 2001. I like to stay home and handout treats, while Steve chauffeurs the kids around. I made a slight upgrade by adding green & purple tights in 2010.
I am all about reusing costumes, although my daughters don't always agree with me. This year I challenged them to put together a costume using what we already have and if they did felt like they needed something additional to complete their look, their budget was $10 max.
Abby did really well with putting together her Miss Frankenstein look. She recycled a witch costume into a tunic, used a belt and shoes from her existing accessory stash, along with some make-up and an $8 wig from Wal-Mart to complete the ensemble.
Kippy went as a devil child and lived up to the title by going slightly over her budget. Together we picked out red & black make-up along with devil-horn headband, red tail and pitchfork all for $10. However, she Jedi-mind tricked her dad and talked him into getting her a BIGGER $4 pitchfork. Apparently, it is my fault because I failed to explain the budget constraints to Steve.
The girls and I had fun helping each other with our Halloween makeup and costumes. I only handed candy out to 15-20 kids, so had horrendous amounts of left-over candy, which was promptly sent to Steve to take to work the next day.
Although I am not a huge fan of pumpkin carving, we have traditionally helped the kids with a creation every year. I do love roasting the seeds, so I guess I get something valuable out of the experience as well. We made Abby carve her own pumpkin this year, which she wasn't too happy about since we ALWAYS have craved it for them both in the past.
Steve helped Angelique with her mini-monster pumpkin, although Kippy did trace the entire template and completed some of the easier carving.
After Abby got over her huffiness, she did a mummy version wrapped up with gauzy bandages, which looked cool, but doesn't show up in the candle-lit version. Kippy's version had a mini-monster.

And now a blast from Halloween past... 38 years ago to be exact....
Who are these fashionable Halloween treaters? Its my little brother, Russ {age 2} as a blue-masked-kid, I am a Raggedy Ann {age 4}, and older brother Randy {age 7} is a clown.And apparently, we were all pretty happy with ourselves! Happy Halloween!

Pumpkins past and present

Pumpkin carving has gotten more complicated over the past few years and a lot more time consuming. The easy part is getting the pumpkin gutted...
We have gotten some special carving tools and it is the third year we have used templates for our carving. It took us almost 2 hours last night to complete our creepy pumpkins with the kids.
The girls had to pick templates that Steve and I at least felt we could do. They also helped poke the holes to transfer the template to their pumpkins.

Look at the concentration on Steve's face!

Here are the finished pumpkins.

The results of Kippy's and my efforts.

Abby & Steve's final product.

Now on to some of the pumpkins from the past....

Nice and simple for Halloween 2004

We even made some non-carved pumpkins in 2005

2006 Pumpkins... obviously no templates and the kids did their own drawings.

Halloween pumpkins in 2007 using templates for the first time.

2008 carved creations....

Now I think I am going to go eat some more toasted pumpkin seeds and prepare to hand out treats to the spooky treaters who dare to stop by.

Halloween is all fun and games!

Charlene hosted a super fun Halloween party for the kids yesterday afternoon. Charlene must have cast a very good "spell" because the weather was gorgeous and the activities could be outside. The trauma of the early winter snowstorm on Sunday is thankfully a distant memory!

Abby went as a Rock Star and Kippy was a Witch. The kids really got into playing the games. Charlene, where did you come up with all the fun games?? They moved quickly from one activity to the next which kept them all engaged.

First, there was the donut eating contest. Have you even tried eating a donut dangling from a string without your hands? OMG, it was so funny!
My girls lacked the speed necessary to win, but had a great time trying to get the donut to cooperate!
Next, came the two teams competing in the Hula Hoop toss. They got points when their hoop completely circled the stuffed pumpkins. It was so close, there was a sudden-death-toss-off to determine the winning team! Look at the concentration on their faces!

Kippy threw a ringer!

The third game was Musical Brooms. The circle of kids had to keep two different brooms in rotation and whoever was holding the broom when the music stopped was out.

Abby was one of the last two kids, but ended up holding the broom in the end.

The fun and games were finished off with Bobbing for Apples - relay style and a round of Ghost Tag.

Say it don't spray it, Abby!

Success is so sweet!

Then it was Kippy's turn to dive...

Delicious!

Have a rockin' good Halloween, full of wonderful sweets and treats to eat!!