All Hallow's Eve and Then Some!

Does anyone else feel like certain holidays get celebrated ad nauseam? We certainly celebrated and celebrated and CELEBRATED Halloween this year!

It all began with the boys' school parties. On Wednesday, all the kids from Aiden's school had a parade behind the school with all the parents capturing photo ops. They followed up in their classroom with games and a craft, and food of course! Aiden was dressed as Boba Fett - a bounty hunter from Clone Wars (a cartoon spin-off from Star Wars). You can see from the pic that it's all about Star Wars in his classroom!

A huge thanks to Gram who came and spent the day with Aiden while he was out of school on Thursday and Friday. She also got bonus party duty for Kieran's school Halloween party where it's all about the FOOD!! Even Aiden got to enjoy some of the treats, and Kieran enjoyed having his big brother to play with during school time!

Then on Saturday our neighborhood hosted it's annual Haunted Hayride. We got on the earliest shift (the event gets progressively scarier as the night goes on), and rode on hay-filled trailer throughout our neighborhood. We ended at one house where the kids cooked smores over the fire followed up by a "scary" tale told by JoHo, the professional storyteller, about the Runaway Pumpkin. It had the kids laughing and interacting - and was a great time as usual.


And, THEN, we finally got to Halloween. All day Aiden was anxiously awaiting getting into his costume - the wait was almost unbearable! Following the very exciting Chiefs game, Gram and Papa made their way to the Smith house with the tradition of pizza prior to trick-or-treating. As soon as it was barely dusk you could hear the bustle of kids anxiously outside ready to start the mass collection of candy! We got the boys dressed in their attire, which Kieran actually complied (for a short while) to wear his full monkey costume. He was quick to join in the fun once he got a look at all the kids outside in costumes running around. We still couldn't get him to say "trick-or-treat", but with his charming personality he still got the goods and filled his bag full of candy regardless. The boys made their way around the neighborhood, pulling Kieran in the wagon, and hitting as many houses as they could before AB finally decided it was TOO cold!

I think someone's either got a little too much candy or he's seen a ghost!...

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Last weekend was a first for our family - and a first for me, in particular. The Smith family carved pumpkins!

I quickly learned why my parents likely did not embark on this tradition during my childhood days. Simply put - carving pumpkins is gross! I required latex gloves to protect my hands to do the dirty work. But looking inside of a pumpkin - seriously, how is there ever anything worth making pumpkin pies out of...there is nothing inside of there except a ton of seeds and pumpkin mush - yuck! AND...Chris and I quickly learned that this "family activity" is really the parents carving the pumpkins while the kids run around outside and play to their hearts content!

I took the easy way out and used the drill to put different sized holes throughout my pumpkin (very Pottery-Barn"esque"). It was interesting once the candles were burning inside (and definitely less labor intensive!) Chris, however, got the super dad award as he agreed to carve Aiden's choice of Boba Fett (the Clone Wars character Aiden was dressing up for Halloween). I'm not sure he was still enjoying it two nights later while he was STILL putting the finishing touches on Aiden's pumpkin! However, all the pumpkins turned out great! Now we'll just see if this was a one-time occurrence or a tradition to be continued as the years go on...



We couldn't leave the littlest Smith out, so we decorated his pumpkin with Halloween stickers!


And, finally, the GREAT PUMPKIN...


On the night of Halloween we checked for toys left from the Great Pumpkin, but all we got was a bowl full of overflowing Halloween candy! Maybe next year...