Halloween: The Lost Holiday

Apparently whenever we try to catch-up, we always seem to leave something out...this time it was one of Jennifer's favorite holidays...Halloween! Unfortunately, Jennifer was out of town this year so she was unable to actively participate however this did not stop the girls from involving her through the magic of technology. 

Milan and Jenny stopped over to continue the annual pumpkin carving tradition. While year 6 was a little crazier than year 1, it is always a fun time. 

  

Given their initial hesitancy to try new things, I was pleasantly surprised to see Emily and Lucy dive right into pulling out all of the pumpkin seeds. While I had to drive around to a number of places to find more pumpkins, squirrels ate the initial batch, it was more than worth it given how much fun they had.  

This design was a combination of toddler direction and artist liberties. The original request was to have sharp teeth, however I was quickly informed that this was too scary. Sometimes you can't win. :)

Jenny is expressing the classic "DAN I am done carving, you need to take over" gesture. Unfortunately, I was also the only person that could do bedtime which meant Jenny completed her first full pumpkin carving (the skull) in at least 3 years! I think she would like to go back to completing 60% of the carving next year. Ha! MIlan's raccoon out of the top of a pumpkin turned about pretty good, once you know what you are looking at. My IU turned into more of a cactus after I rushed cutting it out. There is always next year. 

Aunt Elizabeth even made a special trip up to see the girls over Halloween! It was great to have an extra set of hands when trying to put on 3 costumes and make-up on two of them. The girls also enjoyed the solo time they got to spend Liz, not to mention the presents! 

Lucy did her best to make sure Jennifer was part of the picture. She was very concerned that Mom wouldn't see what they were wearing or wouldn't be in the pictures. 

Emily is doing her best to scope out the candy that we are planning to handout to the neighborhood kids. 

We experienced an unexpectedly cold Halloween this year. The previous week was in the 60s, however in true MN fashion, the temperature dropped into the 30s by the time we went trick-or-treating after dinner. Due to this, we ended up doubling / tripling up the layers to avoid wearing coats over the top of their costumes...which would have been lame. 

We went a little further than last year, however remained within a block of our house the entire time. Emily was the most excited to go up to everyone's house...however Lucy eventually warmed to the idea after she realized all the candy she was getting. The most exciting time for Lucy was playing the "What's this?" game with Liz once we got home. To give Liz full credit, she did continue to play this game until bed time. 

No trip would be complete without presents! Well, at least in the girl's mind. Christmas will be an adventure in paper destruction based on this recently sample. 

Aunt Peggy mailed a few sticker sets that were big hits for Halloween. A dog in a tree, how can that be? 

Once Jennifer returned from Indiana, I thought it would be a fun idea to recreate a little Halloween for her. Since the girls still fit into the ones from last year and Mackenzie could use one from 2 years ago, it was a perfect match. 

NOW I think we are caught up, maybe.