Halloween 2009

We had such a fun time getting ready for Halloween this year--I think it works out much better to be on a Saturday--more time to enjoy it. Our town has trick-or-treating on Main Street downtown every year and most of the stores/businesses participate and pass out candy to the kids. Since we live so close to "downtown" (did I mention that I love living in a small town??), we can just walk to all sorts of parades and festivities throughout the year and not have to worry about parking, etc. The downtown fun was on Friday night and then we had a party to go to right afterwards. We also had another party to go to Saturday during the day, and then more fun with trick-or-treaters Saturday night. We got to wear our costumes several times, but at first Kylie wasn't so sure about it all!

Our costumes weren't anything fancy. Ben knew he wanted to be a vampire and so there was talk a few weeks ago about possible face-painting and "blood" around his mouth. Well, I wasn't necessarily enthused about that topic, so I was quite happy to find the perfect vampire/dracula mask at the dollar store instead. Kylie's costume also came partly from the dollar store (wings), and turned out to be the perfect accessories to some things we already had in her wardrobe for a cute little butterfly. At first when I put the wings on her she started to cry and took off down the hall, but when it was actually time to go trick-or-treating she seemed to be okay with it and played along. By this point she was already wondering what was going on anyway since her brother had on a cape and some weird-looking mask, and her mom had a strange pointy-hat with orange hair...

The night only got stranger as we headed downtown and saw more and more people dressed oddly. It really was fun to watch Kylie's face as she took it all in! Who knows what she was thinking as perfect strangers put candy into her pumpkin bag and told her happy halloween! It definitely had her attention!

We decorated the front porch a few weeks before Halloween. Well, when I say decorated I may be stretching it just a bit. We set out a pumpkin and put up a spider-web made out of cotton (complete with a few plastic spiders!). I wonder what the real spiders that live on our front porch thought about our creation?

If you look closely you can see Kylie through the door inside the house. I put her inside so she wouldn't fall down the steps while I was taking pictures and she was pressed up against the glass saying hi to us through the door--so cute!

Here's a "before" shot of the pumpkin. Ben actually carved it by himself, but not until Halloween day. He drew out a plan on paper first (typical Ben!) and then got to work on carving it with only a few deviations from the original plan!

Here's a picture of Ben and Kylie as we went out to trick-or-treat at our neighbors' homes. By now Kylie has accepted that its just going to be a different couple of days so just put on the wings and roll with it!

Some pics with friends as we trick-or-treated to our neighbors' homes. We only went to about 5 houses because we (Ben) were (was) anxious to get back to pass out candy to the people who came to trick-or-treat at our house. We always get a TON of people. I think most of the people in our county bring their kids to our neighborhood--which is nice that we live in a safe one, but it gets pretty busy!Here's a shot of Ben sitting on the porch taking care of his passing out candy to the trick-or-treaters responsibilities (all serious/no-nonsense of course!). He had a "system" and was all set up with the talking pumpkin to say "Happy Halloween!" at just the right moment when the kids would walk up (so he didn't have to say it) and then give them the candy. Kylie was more interested in her pumpkin treat bag than she was in the candy; probably because it said "happy halloween" and then laughed a spooky sounding "he-he-he-he-he" when you pressed a button on it. What a crazy weekend!

Goodbye Halloween--see you next year!