Happy Halloween 2012

I can't believe another Halloween has come and gone.  And what a Halloween!  Where to start, where to start...the costumes, of course! 

 

Arden had a really hard time figuring out what she wanted to dress up as this Halloween.  She came up with a new thing every day, until we went and saw the movie "Hotel Transylvania."  If you haven't seen it, it is a pretty cute film about Dracula and his daughter, Mavis, who is turning 118 (equivalent to a human turning 18).  Mavis wants to spread her batty wings and fly out into the big world, but of course Dracula wants to shelter her in his castle and keep her safe.  The Mavis character was really cute and Arden wanted to dress up like her.  We got her some vampire teeth, but Arden wasn't much of a fan of having them in her mouth for more than 5 seconds at a time, so we skipped them for the pictures.  Here is Mavis/Arden (she looks totally goth!)

Cora was a sweet little candy corn witch.  You may remember that Arden wore this costume a couple of years ago.  Preston (who got a few hand-me-downs as a kid) kept telling Cora she could be anything she wanted to be for Halloween, and that we would gladly get her a new costume.  Nope.  She wanted to be a candy corn witch.  Good choice, baby.  You are a beatiful little witchy woman:

We had a hard time talking Dax out of being a dinosaur again, but since he is only 4 and has been a dinosaur twice already, we encouraged him to branch out.  He chose another large, fierce, toothy creature.  He is a SHARK (I am not sure what he is doing in this picture but at least he is looking somewhat in the general direction of the camera and only his arms are blurry):

The first time the kids wore their costumes was for the Zaugg Halloween party.  We ate soup in bread bowls shaped like pumpkins, we decorated cookies, we did a treasure hunt, and we smacked around a mummy pinata:

Much fun was had by all.

Next, the little kids got to wear their costumes to preschool.  They had a costume parade and sang some Halloween songs to us parents.  I love the preschool Halloween parade!  And here is Dax with his awesome preschool teacher, who makes everything so fun! 

Arden's school doesn't allow costumes for Halloween (laaaaame!) but I went and helped out with her Halloween party at schoool, and it was fun to spend some time with her at school and get to know some kids in her class better.

Next up for costumes was trunk-or-treats at the church.  Cora wanted to wear Arden's old skunk costume this time (my favorite part of this costume is the little heart next to her tail that says "Lil Stinker."  Still so true).  I decided to play along this time too:

The kids scored A TON of candy. 

Even though they were already rolling in the candy, Preston (of course) took them out around the neighborhood for some old-school house to house trick or treats.  The weather was AWESOME.  75 degrees and sunny for Halloween?  Yes, please, and keep it coming!  Arden was the only one who had to wear a jacket over her costume.  I used to HATE that as a kid.  Who likes to get all dressed up in a supercool costume and then have to wear your parka over the top?  "But moooooom!  No one will know who I am supposed to beeeeeee!"

Finally, here are the Zaugg Family Jack O' Lanterns, 2012:

This one was mine and Preston's.  Preston wanted to try to do one of those pumpkins that he has seen at the pumpkin walk (where the battery of my camera died on the first picture, sorry) that have some of the holes go all the way through the pumpkin and others only part way through.  I drew the mummy from a picture I found on the internet and Preston carved meticulously for an hour or two.  Cool!

These are the kids' pumpkins.  Cora wanted a ghost, and Daxton wanted a shark, so I drew those up and Preston carved them.  Our pumpkin carving stuff came with a couple of stencils, and Arden HAD to have the stencil of the kitty inside a pumpkin on her pumpkin.  Turned out pretty cute!

We all had such a good time this Halloween, that today I am feeling a little sad that it is over (especially since I still have a ton of Halloween decorations to take down).  A few more candy bars will help to cheer me up!