Halloween 2013

Y'know, one of the many fun things about large families is themed Halloween costumes.  It was hard picking something that worked for all 7 of us again.  We were pretty proud of our success last year, and wanted to do something as fun.  I can't remember which one of us came up with this year's idea -- probably Katie. She is hands-down the most creative among us.

Halloween didn't exactly sneak up on me this year, but for some reason I found myself shopping for pumpkins and assembling costumes that afternoon.  (Boy, I'm never doing that again.) (...Famous last words.)

When we came home I had to make dinner, so the kids were pretty much on their own with carving.

I came in occasionally to help scoop out the last bits of pumpkin guts.

The compost pile got a healthy helping of squash innards!

They actually did really well.  Miriam says she's never getting a large pumpkin again, though.

For dinner I made Grandma Kathy's Beef-in-a-Pumpkin recipe (sans olives) which was delish!  I had actually over-parboiled the pumpkin, so by the time it had all finished baking, the pumpkin was super-soft and sooooo good.  Definitely going to be a traditional Halloween dinner around these parts.  It's not that complicated or long to make, either.

Okay, so on to costumes already!  This year we tried something new: spray-on hair color!

And the results:

Hey, Ferb, I know what we're going to do today!

ummm, eat lollipops?

Hi, Jeremy!  heeheeheeheehee

Whatcha doin'?

doobeedoobee doo-bah...

It's my Trick-or-Treatinatorrrrr!

a shot of Agent P's tail

I went as -- what else? -- the Tri-State Area.

I was so grateful for the weather -- it was unseasonably warm, making costumes much simpler!  Some friends joined us for trick-or-treating and we all had a great time.  We got to meet some more of our new neighbors, all of whom were so friendly and welcoming.  We love our neighborhood!

The next day our homeschool group had its All Saints Party, complete with hilarious Catholic party games.  We've been having trouble with the camera, which is a pity because I would love to show you all a shot of Mr. P as St. Martin, sweeping the mice out of the monastery (broom racing with ping pong balls), or Joseph helping St. Patrick cast the snakes out of Ireland (tossing rubber snakes through a hole in a posterboard), or Daniel playing Pearls Before Swine (eating powdered donuts strung from the ceiling without using his hands -- now that was hilarious). 

Oh, and of course the kids had to dress up in costumes for THAT.  By that time I was all costumed out, so we just raided the dress-up box and Made Do.  Katie went as St. Lydia of Purple, again, and the boys both went as their namesakes (tunics are delightfully generic! Jojo carried a hammer to identify his saint, and Daniel was accompanied by Andrew dressed as a lion).  Miriam was actually original and chose a Canadian saint we had just learned about in geography -- St. Marguerite Bourgeoys.  Her costume was awesome -- we managed to scrounge one up that looked just like her!

And now, back to flossing obsessively...