Halloween Extravaganza

We celebrated Halloween good and strong this year. To start off the festivities Maya had a preschool Halloween program. These little programs crack me up. I think they had to do just about every song twice because they weren't loud enough the first time.

Next, Matt and I went to our annual friend Halloween party. This party seems to get bigger and bigger every year as more and more people move into our neighborhood. In the picture below Matt and I is the big group picture. Believe it or not, that picture was taken at the end of the night when half the people had already gone home. The party was huge! So Matt and I dressed as the classic Devil and Angel. Matt was very adamant on wearing a unitard this year, so this was our compromise. You can thank me later for cropping the picture.

Next up, we had Maya's second Halloween Soiree. Her dance class learned a dance to the song on Nightmare Before Christmas. Once again this was very comical because none of the girls had the slightest clue what was going on. How do 3 year old teachers do it and still live a sane life? It's cute when Maya is oblivious to what's going on, but not when other little kids are.

And now here I am at my Book Club Halloween Party. We each dressed up as a character from one of the books that we've read. From left to right we have Novalee Nation from Where the Heart Is, The Nurse from Memory Keeper's Daughter, Elvis from Odd Thomas, Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games, Aron Ralston from Between A Rock and A Hard Place, Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games, (bottom row) A Bodach from Odd Thomas, Dr. H. H. Holmes from Devil in the White City, and Screwtape from The Screwtape Letters.

Next on the agenda the kids went trick or treating to Matt's work like they do every year. I carried the camera in my hand the whole time and didn't take a single picture.

That night we had my family's annual Halloween Costume Party. We ate soup, played Big Buddah & Monster Makers, then Steven told scary stories to each age group one at a time. I think they all came out screaming after their own scary story. Maya said her scary story was about a guy that drank milk and tried to tickle little girls. Isaac got told the classic The Babysitter and Luke of course can't remember a thing about his scary story.

Finally, Halloween night came. We started off with a little Trunk or Treating, then went to Grandma and Grandpa Merrill's, then the boys ended the night Trick or Treating with cousins while me and the babies came home and watched Halloween cartoons.

Zombie Jazz Players

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake and Clown?

Party Pooper
(He wouldn't put his Thomas the Tank Engine costume on for the life of him! Maybe it had to do with the fact that he was a little under the weather. He did however give ya a good "Raaauurrr" when you asked him what he was for Halloween.... if ya didn't notice he has dino pjs on)