Happy Halloween!

A cute pumpkin and a spooky, but friendly, ghost hope you had a "boo-"tiful time last night collecting candy.

 (Oh, Nate, do you recognize the mask?)

 Cole was DONE doing pictures after about 10 seconds.  Ha!

BOOOOOO!

Jackson enjoyed trick-or-treating with Daddy this year.  He wore the mask for about the length of time that I took pictures and then took it off after leaving the house (Matt says anyway).  He got a bucket full of candy.   Cole was just cute and admired when the trick-or-treaters came to our door. . . while he slept.

Pumpkin Carving: October 26, 2011

 Before:  Yes, of course, he's bored.  He's not doing anything yet. 

Oh, now he's doing something. . . he said I had to take a picture of him picking his nose.  Yup, he's seven!

Jackson wanted to help cut open the pumpkin, but his mean father wouldn't let him go near the large slicing knife.  A grateful mom and ten-still-attached fingers thank you, Daddy.

He was willing to try to scoop out the goop, but only with a spoon.  Since he was doing it three seeds at a time, Mommy took over.

 I love the picture below because you can see the face he originally drew and then crossed out because I told him that it was too small.  In the picture he's cutting out one of the eyes.

The finished Jack-O-Lanterns:  Daddy's on the left, Jackson's on the right. 

If you look carefully on Jackson's pumpkin on the left side of his face, you'll notice a strange small glowing spot.  That was from the other "smile" that Jackson drew and sliced.  He didn't cut out a "puzzle piece," but he cut the smile.  I love how it made it look like his pumpkin had a scar on its face.

Again, Jackson's favorite part of the carving was taking out the "puzzle pieces" and putting them back in again.  I had to remind him that he had to leave them out when we put the candle in, otherwise we wouldn't be able to see the face.

Oh, and Cole slept through the whole event this year.  

Danger Ahead!

It's Shark Week at our house this week.

Um, actually, Halloween is just around this corner.  This is not Jackson's costume for the year, but he sure loves this old one that his grandma made for Uncle Robert years ago.  Sorry, Buddy, I can't run from a shark this cute.

Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween from Jackson Buzz Lightyear!

What's that, Jack? Oh, Lantern!

Pumpkin Carving Time

Before even buying our pumpkins, Jackson spoke about how you open it, take out the seeds, and then put the light in the pumpkins, so I thought he was geared up for gutting the gourd. . .yeah. . .






Will he stick his hand in there?

Mommy offers another solution; at least he tried.

Finally, he asked for help scraping it out.  I didn't mind.  Over all, I would say this year's Carving was successful!

Matt only looked because I told him to look.

Look, Michelle, we got an albino pumpkin, just like you suggested; of course, Jackson had to have the white one.

Jackson stated he needed his glasses to protect his eyes while carving; thus, why he has glasses on in this picture but not in the previous ones.  (Safety first in our house.)

Drawn by Jackson himself and carved with Daddy's help.

I spent the day cleaning the house (didn't do my hair), and Jackson wanted to take a picture. . .yeah, not my most beautiful moment.

Jackson really enjoyed putting the cut pieces back in the pumpkin.

From left to right: Matt's, Jackson's, LeMira's

 You have to admit that the white one sure glows the best and the coolest!

The Cute Halloween Leprechaun

In the beginning, I was really missing our former neighborhood's trunk or treat. We, meaning Matt, really got into it all. The first year, we had a giant cardboard Spongebob. As the kids reached through his mouth to grab candy, Spongebob laughed. The second year, Matt went "radioactive." He was dressed in a "clean" suit and used tongs to get the candy (warheads) out of the bucket to give to the kids. Last year, Matt did a Price is Right theme with his Plinko board. The kids had to play Plinko to win their candy. (Every kid was a winner, don't worry.)

Our neighborhood does not do a trunk or treat or a Halloween party for our church ward. Sad. I was really lamenting it all, and we even considered driving back to our old neighborhood for their trunk or treat. However, I'm glad we stayed here in our neighborhood for a few reasons.

One: I had forgotten how exciting it is for kids to go door to door trick or treating until I watched Jackson.

Two: I think I'd really like to be creative again, next year, and do a themed "house" with candy that goes along with it. It could be really fun. Besides, we might end up being the "cool" house.

Three: I really got to meet some neighbors, and where we live IS really safe for trick or treaters. Growing up, we were able to just go out and not worry about all of the scary stuff. Where we live now, we can do the same thing. Don't worry, I wouldn't ever send my 5 year old off alone, but it really is safe to just go around town here. It's nice.

Anyway, enough of my chatter: here's what was the most exciting part of it all! Introducing . . .

Jackson the Leprechaun

For those of you who forgot, or don't know, the inspiration for Jackson's costume:


Attention to detail was necessary, except the beard -- although he was given the opportunity to wear one, which he turned down. (If you think I went to too much trouble, then you can ask Jackson about it .) Yes, if you pushed the button, Jackson would sing, or at least he'd hum, "C'mon Eileen" for you.

The full shot. Yes, Mommy made the costume, except for the cane. Matt whittled that from one of our lilac trees. The hat was originally black, but I covered it in the extra fabric.
One more picture for good measure.
At the beginning of the night, his pot of gold was empty, but by the end, it was overflowing with the "gold" only for which Halloween leprechauns are excited!

Some things will never die. . .

Being the on-top-of-things Mom that I am, (riiiight) or at least not wanting to procrastinate Halloween preparations to the last minute, I decided to ask Jackson what he wanted to be for Halloween this year while we were cruising the Wal-Mart aisles. He immediately associated Halloween with his costume from last year and announced: "I be Mickey Mouse!" The real on-top-of-it-all-Mom would have said, "Awesome! We still have all of the stuff from last year, and it still fits you. Done!" Not this mom, though. I'm all about creating new work for me.

As if he knew what would be a blow to my "He's finally getting over this toy phase," Jackson quickly announced when I told him that he needed to pick a different costume, "Leprechaun. I want to be leprechaun." Yep, you got that right. I have to take this guy, whose been living in a box in my basement for 4 months and deemed as "dead" by my five year old because the batteries died,


and bring him back to life through this guy:



For the rest of the Wal-Mart trip, Jackson insisted on singing Come on, Eileen, and telling me all about what he would need for his costume, "A button here" (pointing to his foot) "and a jroom, jroom, jroom" (while spinning his arm around and around as if to simulate the leprechaun's cane circling). When I asked him if he needs hair on his face, like a beard, he said, "Yes."

We will see if he can handle that sudden hair growth. We will see.

The Big Reveal

This is the moment you've all been waiting for. INTRODUCING. . .

Mickey Mouse

This "back" shot is so you can see his cute tail! (and yes, I made his costume)
And here we are as a family. I am dressed as a Mickey fan/tourist. My shirt, which I wish you could read, says in pictures "i love (heart) Mickey (Mickey head)." Yes, that is a REAL Polaroid camera, and I did take pictures with it. Matt's costume will make sense in a minute.
Every year our ward/neighborhood has a Trunk or Treat on Halloween. We can't help but go all out. Matt had the fabulous idea. He made the Plinko board, I made the banner, and behind the banner in the trunk, we had playing the game show theme music. He even won an award (tied) for best decorated trunk!


In the "shoots" were pieces of candy. Whichever shoot the puck fell in determined the candy you got. Needless to say, Matt's idea was a big hit with all of the kids and the adults. He was busy the entire time. Several kids came back 2-3 times.

And I couldn't resist taking this photo of a man in our ward who was dressed exactly like Jackson. His adorable daughter was Minnie Mouse. Too bad you can't see their matching shorts and gloves (it was too dark to really get a great picture).

The Suspense

It's HALLOWEEN!! Time to let the creative monster out! As many of you know, when it comes to Halloween, I love to get creative with costumes, and Matt loves going all out for our Trunk or Treat. Of course, I spend more time getting everyone else ready and helping them out than I do getting stuff for me. I did pull out our Halloween bin again this morning to look through some things, and Jackson discovered our past Halloween bits. I'm not telling you what he's going to be (many of you already know), but can you make a guess by the clues?


Not so sure about the hair on this one:

Um, Mom, I wear this everyday.
Remember this costume? He wishes he were big enough to fit into it.


Maybe. . . he's still got this one on while watching Super Why.

Probably not . . . but who doesn't love the Cat in the Hat?

WHAT'S HE GOING TO BE?!
I know, the suspense is killing you, right? To be continued. . .

Pumpkin Carving 2008

One of the fun traditions of Halloween is carving pumpkins. Jackson wasn't really into it, but we helped him help us get the guts out! I'm posting this first picture just so you can see the look in his eyes (although it's blurry). This kid needs to have messy experiences, and so we tortured him. He was pretty adamant that he needed to wash his hands, but we sure were proud of him for being brave and grabbing the gook!This year we invited my brother and his wife to carve along with us. Aimee is not faking that face, but Ken is faking his.

Matt and I shared most of the load on ours.
Jackson listened to his CD player most of the time. (Notice the track number "4". . .many of you will know what that means.)
Our finished Jack-O-Lanterns.