Hallowen 2009

This year was a little bit of a different Halloween for us. For the first time in a long time we had 2 trick-or-treaters instead of 3. Fuller opted to have a couple of friends over to eat pizza, pass out candy and watch the Duck game. Just another sign that he's growing up I guess. He seemed to have a great time and not really miss dressing up.

Rowan was undecided about what to be for Halloween until just a few days before, when he spotted this GI JOE costume at the store. I think the thing he liked most about it was that he got to carry a weapon.

Grayson was determined to be a "run over man". He had wanted to be this last year, but we were able to talk him out of it then. This year he was determined. He and I had a great time painting the van tire and driving over his shirt.

When they got back from trick or treating he rang our doorbell and then laid down on the front porch like he was dead. That kid's got a flair for the dramatic!

They dragged Paul around for about an hour and a half and got way too much candy, but were very generous in sharing it with Fuller.

Halloween Town

Back in the late 1990's the cheesy Disney channel movie "Halloweentown" was filmed in our little town. I didn't live here then, but I enjoy watching that movie and recognizing the landmarks. There must be "something" about our town, since years later the "Twilight" movie was filmed here as well.

In the weeks leading up to Halloween our little old town got all decked out for the holiday.

The town square in front of the courthouse was made to look somewhat like it does in "Halloweentown", and local businesses put creepy figures out. It was all for a good cause too. You could vote for your favorite with a canned food donation.

One day after school I took Grayson and Rowan down to check them out. They thought it was great fun to run around old town and "meet" all the creepy new residents.

Rowan kept saying that "this would be too scary for a little kid!" I wonder who he was thinking of?

In the end they both decided that this super tall pirate was their favorite. He was mine too.

This little walk was the perfect way to get us all in the mood for Halloween!

Pumpkins

I don't know exactly what happened to us this year. Maybe we had too much soccer and bad weather. Whatever the cause, the reality is that we broke our more than a decade long streak of going to the pumpkin patch every year.

In fact we almost didn't do anything involving pumpkins this year. But Rowan's pleading face convinced me that we had to do something.

A few days before Halloween we went to the store and bought pumpkins. The selection wasn't great, and we had to pick through the pile to find ones that weren't turning mushy, but were able to find three that would work.

The boys like looking online to find designs that they can make, and I like that the little saws make it easy for them to do all their own carving.

They were pleased with their results, and didn't seem to have missed going out to the pumpkin field much at all.