Hallo-Weeeeee!!!

This year's Halloween festivities turned out so much better than last year's for the Nat Pack.  Well, maybe it was the same for the kids, but it was definitely better for me.

It started out with going to the pumpkin patch with Troy and Ivy for Troy's preschool class.  It was so nice that day!  Hence the sunglasses on Troy.

Troy's teacher, Miss Karla, had the kids try to find the biggest pumpkin they could, then the smallest.

Ivy found this little round thing.  I think it's a watermelon instead of a pumpkin, but whatever.  She's all about "baby" things.

Later on, Ivy and I went back and got pumpkins for everyone else.  I hate carving pumpkins, because it's super messy, and I've never liked roasting the seeds or whatever it is that you're supposed to do with them.  So we decided to do fingerpaints instead.

I think Brock's turned out the best.  He's so very artsy.  I should have taken a picture of the completed pumpkins, but...I was ashamed of my own pumpkin.  I'm NOT crafty.  At ALL.  All my kids' pumpkins turned out way better than mine did.  I didn't want to document mine.  Though, retrospectively, I should have just omitted my pumpkin and taken the picture.  Oh well.

Even though I'm not crafty, I can sew a little bit.  So this year, I convinced the kids to have costumes that all fit together, and I made their costumes.  So they were characters from Peter Pan.  Jake was Captain Hook, Brock was the Crocodile, Troy was Peter Pan, Ivy was Tinkerbell, and I was Smee.  I was going to have Pete be Smee and I was going to be the Second Star to the Right, but Pete pooped out.

The kids all got to dress up for their class parties.  We went to a trunk-or-treat for Pete's work on Friday, then a trunk-or-treat at the elementary school on Saturday.  Which, trunk-or-treats are so much better than the old school house-to-house: you get to see everyone, it takes way less time, and you get more candy.  Wins all around.

My kids are already talking about what they want to be for next Halloween.  This is definitely one of our favorite holidays.