Halloween 2012

This is the last of my Halloween posts.  At least I'm getting it in before Thanksgiving!  We enjoyed our ward's trunk-or-treat and chili dinner a few nights before Halloween.  It was really cold that night so the kids hurried through trunk-or-treating.  We got a lot of compliments/comments on our costumes.  I was asked by almost everyone who saw me what the bristles on my toothbrush were made of.  I used white straws and hot glued them on to the cardboard.  (By the way, white straws are hard to find when you don't have time to order them online!  Finally found some at Party City.) 

Halloween  night we took Katie to do a little trick-or-treating and then came home to pass out candy.  Jacob had also brought home some toothbrushes to give away.  I just thought it was fun to get a picture of me as a toothbrush handing out toothbrushes. :)

I'm frustrated that these next few pictures turned out blurry, but they are still cute.

Katie couldn't say "trick-or-treat" yet, but she did say thank you to a few people.  At one house, a lady gave her two pieces of candy.  Katie put one in her own bucket and put one back in the woman's bowl.  I'm glad she wanted to share. :)

Most people here in Texas sit out on their driveways to hand out candy, so we did the same.  It was fun to see all the kids in their costumes.  Everyone loved Katie's costume.  She had fun holding the bowl of candy for the kids.

Katie's cousins stopped by on their way through the neighborhood.

Kaden, Katie and Teagan

It was such a fun Halloween this year with Katie being old enough to trick-or-treat.  I think she only ate one piece of candy and then we gave the rest away.  (After Jacob and I snitched a few pieces.)  The worst part of any holiday is putting everything away!  I had to buy a new bin to hold our costumes, and I finally got everything put away in the attic last week.  Next Halloween should be even better when Katie can understand a little more of what's going on.  Now to start our sugar detox...

My not-so-haunted house

I started decorating for Halloween in early October.  Some of this was mostly for our party, but it was fun to have the house decorated for the entire month.  I found several ideas I liked on various blogs and kept it simple.  This torn garbage bag for the entry looked different in my imagination, but it turned out ok.

The Halloween wreath was very easy to make: spray paint a craft wreath black, hot glue spiders and banner (it says EEK), and you're finished!  I like simple craft projects like this. :)

Entryway with the BOO frames I made a couple of years ago.

fun subway art from last year on the blog eighteen25

The bat wall was my favorite decoration.  I thought of the idea and then looked online and found lots of other people had thought of it too.  :)  Here's a link to a template and some directions.  It was super easy and everyone loved it, kids and adults.  Anytime someone came over to the house they commented on how cool it looked.

mantel

 

It's not Halloween without candy, right?!

The day after our party I was tempted to take everything down since it felt like Halloween was already over.  But I managed to leave most of it up until November 1st.  :)

 

Halloween Party

We held our 2nd Halloween party a couple Saturdays before Halloween.  I started getting ready for it sooner than last year since I remembered how much work it was!  We had so much fun and I hope our guests did too.  We decided to make our costumes this year.  (Mine says Oral-B.)  Jacob drew the tooth and I cut it out and sewed it from a bedsheet.  They were fun, but my toothbrush "hat" was pretty awkward to wear so it came off after everyone arrived.

our little sweet tooth

Cheneys (won best group costumes)

Noordas

Kosters (won scariest, what else?)

 

Paternos

Haynies (bowling pin and ball - won funniest)

Woods (won most beautiful)

Falconers (won best overall family)

Argyles (won most creative)

Everyone brought Halloween-themed finger foods to share.

tooth and tooth fairy

After we ate, the kids played carnival games.

pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern

ring toss

bobbing for apples

donut on a string

The cute Falconer girls, Susie and Tess, ran the fishing booth.

Kaden fishing

The adults played a game called Candy Corn Toss.  We divided into two teams and had to scoop candy corns up on a spoon held between our teeth and run to the other side to dump the candy in a bucket.  If you dropped a candy corn you had to go back and start over.  Whoever had the most candy corns at the end won (the guys did, although the girls finished first).

Later we went inside and had everyone vote on costumes and guess how many candies were in a jar.  (With the exception of Noordas and Paternos who left early.)  While Jacob and I tallied the votes, everyone else played Halloween charades.  Logan won the jar of M&M's; there were 487 and his guess was only off by 3.  Here's Sydney accepting her family's award for Most Beautiful Costumes.

We also gave favors of white chocolate popcorn with candy corn m&m's.

We loved having everyone here and missed those who couldn't come.  It really put me in a Halloween mood.  But the next day I felt like Halloween should be over and we still had a week and a half to go!  I'll do a separate post with pictures of decorations.

Old MacDonald's Farm

We went out to Old MacDonald's Farm again this year for a birthday party.  Katie was more aware of what was going on this time so it was a lot more fun!  She loved seeing all the animals and getting to touch some of them.  We weren't able to stay very long this year, so we didn't get to ride the train or play at the playground, but we still enjoyed our time there.  You can compare our pics to last year, if you want, and see how much Katie has changed.