Halloween '08

Carving Pumpkins

We always buy our pumpkins and our Christmas trees from Mast-Roth Farms in Gilbert. This year we didn't even buy the pumpkins until 5 days before Halloween...and even worse, we only carved them the day before Halloween:( Unfortunately for those of us in Arizona, the pumpkins rot if we do it much earlier:( Everyone got to pick out there favorite pumpkins...I especially loved Hunter's choice (it was by far the cheapest!!!). At school this day, Ashley's class had read a sad little story about the littlest pumpkin that was never chosen by any little kids one year. Ash had every intention of finding the smallest pumpkin in this patch to take home, but she didn't last too long once she saw all of the big, fat nicely shaped pumpkins.:)

The lot attendant was nice enough to take a family picture for us...we don't have very many of all of us:(
On the night before Halloween, the kids and Rob all carved the pumpkins. Sadly I had a meeting for the activities committee in my ward:( At least I was lucky enough to come home and Rob had cleaned up all of the mess and the kids were all nicely tucked into bed...Thanks Rob!
Rob loves to decorate for holidays! Halloween is no exception. Unfortunately you can't hear the thunder that he has going, nor can you see the fog that fogs up my front patio. Last year there were many little kids that would not walk up to my front door to ask for candy:(

Halloween Night

Rob's dad drove these blow-ups all the way from Las Vegas to help with decorations in my front yard. The kids loved them and they helped many families have a nice photo op while trick-or-treating.

This year I decided to do a Halloween party since Rob's parents were in town. I did Halloween themed food. This year I was obsessed with buying cookbooks at the checkout stands in grocery stores. I picked the easiest looking recipes to make. The "witches brew" is always a favorite! Too bad I bought way too much dry ice and it totally disintegrated in my freezer.

These are the mini-mummy dogs. They look simple...but they are very tedious and time consuming!!! Luckily it was worth it...next time I need to make a hundred more! They went the fastest!

These eyeball deviled eggs look cute, but who in their right mind likes green olives?!!! These were the least favorite of all the food!

Rob and I dressed up as vampires again. This year Rob invested in a wig and fangs because last year someone at our ward's trunk-or-treat thought he was dressed up as Joseph Smith...uh, not quite!

All of you that live in states with seasons may have beautiful colored leaves and crisp fresh air for Halloween...we are lucky enough to have 80 degree weather so we actually spend the night sitting outside. Our neighborhood usually sets up camp on their driveway (although a lot of people weren't home this year:(
This is Hunter and I sitting with "Reno 911". I have no idea who that actually is on tv, but this is my crazy brother-in-law who really thought he was "Reno 911". He never went out of character the whole night. You should have seen him directing traffic out in front of my house. The best part was a lady in my neighborhood came up to me and said, "I heard that your husband is dressed in a cop uniform walking around the neighborhood." I quickly corrected her and pointed to my sister-in-law and said, "no, it is HER husband that is wearing that costume!!!" Sorry Ryan, I won't be claiming you any time soon!

Since the Great Pumpkin visits my house on Halloween, my girls actually have more fun handing out the candy that they do collecting it. For those of you who are not aware of the Great Pumpkin, I will clarify...On Halloween my kids are allowed to pick their favorite 10 pieces of candy out of their buckets. The rest they leave by the door step and that night the Great Pumpkin visits our house to take their candy and leaves a little present in return. It is nothing big, but my girls absolutely love it. And, we don't have candy and wrappers lying around the house for the next month.

If you ever want to see an Alexander transform into a crazy person, dress them up in a costume. My mother-in-law was a hit in the neighborhood and kept us all entertained the entire night. You should have seen her laugh and talk like a witch to all of the trick-or-treaters. I was a little nervous when I got back from trick-or-treating with my kids and she informed me that someone in my neighborhood said, "Amy, you are a great witch." What???...and Jeanne didn't even tell them it wasn't me. We've got people in our neighborhood thinking Rob is some perverted policeman, and others thinking I am a crazy witch...I may have to put a FOR SALE sign out in front of my house!!!

Our favorite part about trick-or-treating is our neighbor that makes cotton candy for everyone that trick-or-treats at their house. We get crazy amounts of kids in our neighborhood and I think this is one of the reasons:)

This is the whole family dressed in their costumes. We had such a great time!!!