Halloween 2014

About a year ago, Abby and I decided that she would be a peacock for Halloween this year.  

It was fun looking for ways to be creative with the costume.

Matt first said he wanted to be a soccer player and I was just dandy with that but eventually he changed his mind to a vampire.

You really couldn't tell what Abby was until she turned around :)

Josh had decided he was too old to dress up so he hurried off to school without a picture.

Ben didn't get in his costume until late in the afternoon since he was having seizures that morning and didn't end up going to school.

I was really happy with how Thomas turned out.  Most of the DIY Thomas costumes I saw online were made with boxes but I wanted a flat costume that he could be comfortable in at school.

Felt is so awesome and easy to work with :)

When he put the costume on he needed to go get his little Thomas.  He carried it around with him the rest of the day.

We always go around to Grandparents and Great Grandparents and various other extended family late in the afternoon.  "Bapa" was mowing the lawn when we arrived...

(Grandma O. was not home when we went next door to her house)

 Josh ended up playing with the cats at my aunt and uncle's house even though the last time he made that choice he ended up miserable with horrible allergies for the rest of the night.  He seemed to fare just fine this time :)

I love these pictures.  He's so sweet with animals.

I took these pictures from the driver's seat in the van.  We were leaving and he just couldn't get the cats off his lap :)

Then it was on to Grandpa and Grandma Kidd's house.

Ben wouldn't cooperate and get in the picture with everyone else.

While we were there I had to get a picture of the rain lady.  I have such magical memories of this lamp hanging in Grandma's living room.

When you turn it on, the light shines and oil or some such liquid drips down the thin wires encircling the woman.  It looks as if she's standing in a pleasant drizzle.  It's broken now but it hangs in the back room and reminds me of days long ago.

That night, of course, was the usual gathering at our house.

Both of the brothers came...

...along with "Bapa"...

(yes, that is pizza he is eating...more on his diet in a separate post)

...and "O".

They had quite a giggle over something :)

I love this one with Dad's straight face in contrast to Mom and Ben.

This was Josh's perch for the night.  He sat by the door so he could hand out the treats.  He may or may not have added candy to his own bag as he handed out candy to our trick or treaters :)

Carving the pumpkins is always such a stress right at the last minute because I never take the time to do it well in advance.  So, this year I decided we would do glow in the dark paint.  Andy pointed out that you wouldn't be able to see the paint since our porch would be lit up.  Right...hadn't thought of that.  He suggested we put a black light on the steps with them.  That did the trick but the porch light still had to be off to get the effect.  So, we had a choice of either having the porch light on and not seeing the pumpkins or turning it off and being able to see our spooky gourds.  Josh liked having the light off but I thought it would turn away the kids from coming to the door because they would think that we weren't home.  So we switched back and forth during the evening.  Maybe Josh like the idea of having the light off and not getting many trick or treaters so there would be more candy for himself :)  This is not a great picture of them but you get the idea...

Sorry that was so long :(