Halloween Hullabaloo!

So, Halloween turned out to be its normal 2 week extravaganza.  It was hilarious because for about a week Kate's prayers went something like, "and thank you that I get to have 5 or 6 Halloweens."

It all started with a witches tea put on for the girls (and their mom's!) by some friends in the ward.  Super cute and super fun!  (We didn't have any black for Kylie, so she went as Glenda, the Good With of the North)

There was an art project . . . 

a scavenger hunt . . .

and the making of a "witches brew" (aka Kool-Aide), served up with Frozen Mummy Drool (aka icecream).  The girls had a blast!

They also told a scary story about finding a dead body and passing around the body parts (avocado pits for eyes, avocado peel for skin, spaghetti for intestines, etc.)  Kate, my ever-lovin' literal/technical child, of course had to figure out what everything was and tell everybody else.  After it was all over she was like, "Hey, they said they found a body.  Where's the stomach?!?"  Gotta love Kater.

Next, there was the trunk or treat.  We had a gypsy, Morgana (King Arthur's arch enemy), a pirate and an Indian Princess.

Of course Aly couldn't miss a selfie op with her friends.  Not sure what is up with the angle though, as it conveniently cut out most of her friends . . .

Ooh, and don't forget our awesome Jack-o'-Lanterns to decorate our trunk for the year.  We carved them for Family Home Evening and they turned out great.  We've got Harry, of course, staring up at his awesome hairdo, and B.O.B, the Big Orange Ball.  (His eyes and nose spell out his name - kinda hard to tell in this picture, but it looked awesome!)  The girls came home with plenty o' loot.

 Next it was on to the class parties.  Kate's class pretty much had an all day party.  They painted pumpkins (Kate's was a vampire with a bloody head in the back - where does she get all these gory ideas?), watched a movie, read Halloween stories, and went trick-or-treating to the cauldron.

 Analise's class also had some Halloween fun.  Besides yummy food, they played Halloween Bingo, witch hat ring toss, and traced each other on butcher paper to created scary monsters.

 We finally reached Halloween night and capped it all off with trick or treating.  (Do you notice how I now have a cowgirl and a butterfly fairy instead of a pirate and an Indian princess?  My girls like to wear multiple costumes for Halloween).  It was FREEZING!  It was hailing a 1/2 hour before the girls went trick-or-treating, it was like 40 degrees outside, and with the wind chill I'm not even sure how cold it felt.  But - do you see my kids?  Notice that Kylie is outside without shoes.  I was fighting them tooth and nail and listening to a lot of whining just to get them to put on a sweatshirt and bring a pair of gloves.  This was our big "We're not in Kansas [Florida] anymore, Toto" moment.  They only made it 1/2 way around the loop on our street before they were so cold they just wanted to come home.  I was kind of glad to let them learn from this experience, because I know we've got a long winter ahead of us. So hopefully they'll listen next time I tell them it's going to be cold and to put on a coat. . . hopefully.

At any rate, we had a great Halloween month - tons of parties, games, and candy.  What could be better?