Nothing like homemade pumpkin cookies . . .
Ok, I lied, they're not homemade. But they did have to be baked in the oven, so that should count for something.
We attended a toddler Monster Mash costume party at the library. Henry & Owen had fun dancing with friends, checking out all the other costumes and of course trying out a few treats.
Dragon Henry & Pirate Marlo
Elmo (aka Eleanor) dancing with my little dragon - the hokey pokey, I believe
And of course my little Owen monster. Still not a fan of wearing the headpiece, and ready for a nap.
And in anticipation of our annual Halloween costume party, we had lots of prepping to do. We made all the families pumpkin & leaf crayons by melting all of our old crayons. I didn't realize how much work it would be cutting up all the crayons, but it was definitely worth it. Both Owen & Henry (and Nate and me too, if we're being honest) loved sorting out the different colored crayon bits into the molds. And it was super fun to see how all the colors blended together once they baked. . .
Also needed for our Halloween party was decorations for a photoshoot area. So, we headed to a local farm and loaded up the car. For the record, 2 bales of hay and 3 bunches of cornstalks can fit in an Explorer, although it's a tight fit. But Henry and Owen didn't seem to mind cornstalks above their heads (though Owen seemed a bit confused).
Sorry, combining these 2 pictures looks a bit confusing - one is taken from Henry's side of the car and 1 from Owen's side of the car. We do not in fact have 4 children in a ginormous SUV. But you probably figured that out.
And then it was party time! We had so many great friends join us for crafts, treats and of course some attempts at a group photo. The kids were all thrilled and couldn't wait to sit quietly and smile for the camera. OK, I lied again. Apparently late night blogging makes me a bit punchy. I wasn't about to let a little rain ruin my planned photoshoot, so we set up a canopy to keep everybody dry. Of course with this many kiddos, it's impossible to get everybody in 1 picture (as someone is always running away), but we made our best effort to wrangle them all.
Henry was hilarious (in my opinion) as guests were arriving. He walked around with his microphone making announcements (most of which I couldn't understand) and eventually ended up just laying down singing into his microphone. Silly boy!
Ella & Gabrielle working on various pumpkin crafts
In comparison, the group shot looked pretty much like the last 3 years of photoshoots (although with new friends added every year):
2009 - Henry the puppy
2010 - Henry the green dragon/monster (hmm . . . pretty close to this year's costume!)
2011 - Henry the monkey & Owen the banana
2012 - Henry the dragon & Owen the monster
We were able to get yet another use out of the costumes at John's 1st birthday party. I think we got our money's worth out of this year's costumes! The boys had a great time at the fall festival party playing with friends, fishing for prizes (Henry), stealing presents (Owen) and of course tasting the cupcakes.
The birthday boy and his pumpkin smash cake!
On Halloween, Grandma came over and the boys helped her make a special lunch. They cut pumpkins out of crescent roll dough and topped them with cheese, ham & olives. The boys loved making them and made sure to test out all the toppings as they went. And they were pretty yummy, if I do say so myself. . .
And once it was dark, we did some trick or treating around the neighborhood. We tried our best to avoid the scary houses, but I should have known better when we rung the doorbell at a house with all the lights on outside, but no lights on inside. A man answered the door wearing a dark hooded cape and a Scream mask. Henry backed up a few steps and Owen burst into tears (and proceeded to do that at the next few houses as we approached the door until he realized no more scary people were jumping out). But they both seem to have survived the scary house and were happy with all the loot they managed to bring home.
Owen not wanting to stop for pictures - he just wanted to take off through the neighborhood.
Owen didn't really understand what the candy was, but loved sorting it in and out of his pumpkin bucket. I caught him stealing candy from our bowl (to hand out to trick or treaters) a few times. But I also caught him stealing candy from his own pumpkin and putting it in the bowl. About a week later we found Owen climbing up Henry's step stool in the kitchen, grabbing candy out of his pumpkin on the counter and chewing the end of the wrapper until he bit into chocolate. I guess he figured out what was in there! (And the candy was moved out of his reach).
Owen was much happier with his Monster head being worn by Daddy or Henry.
Henry helped me take this picture of Daddy.
