Halloween 2017

My niece Jaana, aka the beloved cousin of my children, came to visit us on Saturday. I'm so glad she came to carve pumpkins with us because she fully convinced Sarah that scooping out the guts was cool, not gross and partially convinced Henry.

After I carved the face Henry drew on his pumpkin, he decided it needed a few finishing touches (stabbings).

 This is the best I could do cutting out the scribble face Erica drew on hers.

 And then she followed Henry's lead of adding more detail.

 Sarah, ever the traditionalist.

 Jaana didn't intend to make a Mickey pumpkin but I love that it turned out that way.

Since I don't own many Halloween decorations, I print off several Halloween coloring pages during General Conference. These keep my kids more quiet than those conference quiet books anyway.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Henry: Mom, what's a pilgrim?
Me: The people that came on the Mayflower. Think of Thanksgiving.
Henry: Oh, well then what's a cauldron?
Me: The big pots witch's use for their spells.
Henry: Oh yeah. (funny kid got the 2 words confused)

 Not sure what Mickey Mouse Clubhouse has to do with Halloween but I think Henry did a great job.

Erica started out the morning by scaring me in James's costume.

I was a nice mom and made pumpkin pancakes. These are the pumpkins.

And these are the ghosts.

They turned out scary but maybe not in the way I intended.

They all loved them. Erica just dug the chocolate chips out of hers.

Here's my crew. Erica was planning on being Minnie all month but at 9 am that morning, she put on her Anna dress and would not be talked into wearing anything else.

Mary Poppins. She used her carpet bag to collect her candy in. I found the bag and her jacket at DI. I had to cut out the sleeves of the jacket, trim them and the jacket down then sew the sleeves back in so that it would fit her plus add a couple more buttons. Her skirt is from last year's Hermoine costume and her hat I bought online and added flowers and red pompoms. Oh, and made the bowtie. I've never made a bowtie before.

 "I'm going to wear my necklace I made so people will think I'm a necklace seller. But I'm not going to carry a balloon because I don't want people to think I'm a balloon seller."

 And Henry as Tom Brady.

 He was so excited to wear his costume to school that day. He's been telling his buddies about it for weeks.

 And my little lion cub. My girls also wore this when they were babies (Henry was too small his first year and then too big the next.)

Then we went to my sister's house to go trick or treating. James was a such a good sport wearing the hood. He didn't freak out at all.

Justin was a such a good sport pushing James around the neighborhood.

I noticed that this year was much easier than last year (aside from not being 9 months pregnant) because Erica was bigger and could manage the porch steps without adult help.

I love trick or treating. It's so cute.