Halloween kids

a bunch of kids, ready for trick-or-treating:

Halloween Costumes

Another fun Halloween - as usual, we projected cartoons on our neighbor's garage for everyone to enjoy. Clara and Daisy (another kid from the neighborhood) went off on their own, Molly and I did a short round of trick or treating together, then settled in to watch the cartoons, give out candy, and chat with neighbors. 

The kids were unusually decisive in their Halloween costumes this year. Well, Molly is sometimes pretty decisive, and Clara much less so. But Molly decided in September that she would dress as Rosie the Riveter, and by October 1st she had gathered her materials. The last piece was figuring out how to do her hair. After watching a Youtube video, we practiced once, then did it three times: once for the Saturday night party, once for Halloween day at school, and a third time for the evening. I did a pretty durn good job with her hair, if I do say so myself! Just a lot of product, the use of Nona's hair dryer, and elbow grease. 

Clara's hair was also complicated, although it's hard to see in this picture. She went as Clara Barton, and wanted to get as close to authentic Clara Barton hair as possible. Again, the internet came to our rescue - we found a blog from a family that does historical reenactments and had pretty good instructions on doing Clara Barton hair. The rest of her costume she pulled together herself - including the first aid kit/candy bag, which she put together just an hour before going out trick or treating!

Trick Or Treating

This is (part of) the group that ended up tromping around the neighborhood collecting candy - I mean, Trick-or-Treating.

And that is Molly, bringing all the drama of Joan of Arc to life!

Pumkins

Costumes

We got a chance to try out the halloween costumes a bit early for a friend's costume party this weekend. Any guesses as to what they are? (answers below)

Pat yourself on the back if you guessed Molly is dressed as Joan of Arc, posing in her ready-for-battle pose, and ready to face her tragic end pose. 

Don't feel bad if you didn't guess Clara, though. She's a: cat-vampire-ghost-dog. Okay, well maybe that was obvious. 

And, I have to proudly note that Clara did all her makeup on her own. And whatever parts of Molly's costume that she didn't make on her own, she gave very detailed direction on and closely oversaw the construction. 

Halloween

Another fantastically fun (although a little wet) Halloween is behind us. Molly dressed up as a devil (or a Sewer Devil, to be exact) using the amazing sequined costume Nona found in August in a Burning Man costume bin. Clara dressed up as a Kitty-Ghost-Bat. Yes, all three at once. Kitty mask + tail, bat wings, and the ghost part was painting the bottom half of her face white. Amazingly, once she settled on this idea about a week before Halloween, she stuck with it, right through the end of the day.

Here are pictures of the kids at the school celebrations, the kids at home, with their pumpkins, and with some neighbors.

Molly the Witch

Molly the Witch does homework under the giant spider, before turning into a scary witch that night.

Pumpkin Carving

We had a great time this year carving pumpkins with our new friends and neighbors on Julia: Francesca, Olive, and Mable (aka "Maple"). Of course, the fun wore off quickly for the kids and the grownups were left finishing up the carving while the kids partied hard in Olive & "Maple's" room.

Halloween

We've just wrapped up another wonderful halloween with the neighbors. We enjoyed dinner together, then Zach and Sean set up the projector to watch game 4 of the world series on the neighbor's garage. Molly decided to ditch the fire truck and go as a Fire Fighter (or Chief?), which seemed to work well. Clara went as a cow (mistaken for Molly's dalmation by some). After the third house, when I said "let's run and catch up with Nate", she replied: "I just want to sit and eat the candy." So I took her back to the baseball game and she did just that. Nona and Paula continued on with the big kids.

Here they are:
Cleaning out the pumpkins; Molly showing off her pumkin guts; eighbor's halloween dinner; Clara's pumpkin (carved with a lot of verbal direction, ie. "put a nose here, and eye's here"); Molly's pumpkin (carved with almost no verbal direction, following her drawings almost exactly); Nate the vampire, Sofi the witch, Zach the mechanic, Molly the Fire Chief; Clara the pumpkin-headed cow; watching the game; Clara headed back to just eat candy; the cow and her candy; sister pumpkins; big kids trick or treating; big kids visiting with a very nice dog.