It's pronounced "steer": Halloween

This year's Halloween was a little different.....and I can't seem to NOT write a novel. Brevity is not in my character.

I try to have a theme for Halloween costumes and that didn't work out. We usually hit up a pumpkin patch but we didn't. And Samuel chose not to dress up for school now that he's in middle school. And they don't have a fun parade like elementary school kids do. Decorations were brought up from storage but took weeks for me to put up.

But we still had a lot of fun. Tyler proclaimed that Halloween is one of his least favorite holidays and pointless. Seems like he feels like that more and more with many holidays. Grinch.

The biggest reason we didn't go to a pumpkin patch is because we had our very own. We grew all of these pumpkins in our backyard. It was my goal to have a variety of pumpkins. Mainly to decorate with. Hopefully, I'll cook some of them too. I had fun decorating the porch with them all. I did not anticipate the green, warty ones would get to be so huge! I though they were going to be gourd size. Not so much. But since our actual jack-o-lantern pumpkins didn't pollinate until too late in the season, we only ended up with one large and two small orange ones. So Jocelyn chose a larger green one to carve.

Samuel has been begging for roasted pumpkin seeds since September but I loathe making them because they're so time consuming. It's exactly like making chex mix except you have to get your hands dirty and scrape out a pumpkin first. So, I avoid it. I told him he had to wait until after we carved our pumpkins before I'd make them. Sorry dude. Maybe next year it'll motivate him to do it himself.

We did go to the Rec Center for free ice skating, games and candy. Here is Colin triumphantly playing ladder ball.

We had the Stoehr's over Sunday night for pumpkin carving, chili dinner and donuts.

We did continue our tradition of making donuts. I made spudnuts again this year. They were a great texture and the kids were appalled that I put potatoes in them. I also attempted another cake donut recipe but I was distracted and didn't measure the correct amount of sugar. So....that batch went in the trash. Then Tyler announced that he told his home teaching families he'd bring them some donuts so I needed more than the spudnut batch. So I quickly made another batch of cake since they don't need to rise. And they turned out pretty good!

We attempted homemade root beer but I didn't buy enough dry ice the day before (that stuff is expensive). And I had to buy it Saturday for our Sunday party so it nearly all evaporated. Oh well, it still tasted okay. To save money, I opted to make the bread bowls for our chili instead of buying them. Jocelyn had been begging to eat one since September (oh, the things we do for our kids stomachs). They turned out pretty well! I would make them again.

Mid-week before Halloween Culver's had a deal to buy $1.99 kids meals with kids in costumes. It motivated me to finish up their costumes. It was a dress rehearsal.

The girls school parties and parade was the Friday before Halloween. As a room parent, I was able to help out in Jocelyn's grade. I will take a mental note not to have kids decorate sugar cookies at the Valentine's party that I am in charge of because that poor teachers classroom was a mess afterwards with frosting and sprinkles smashed into the carpet.

Jocelyn saw a photo of me when I dressed up as Cleopatra and I think that's what gave her the idea to do the same. So we were going to go with a "white" costume theme. So Cecily chose to be an angel (one of the few times I didn't handmake or repurpose a costume....it was $8 practically new, can't beat that). Colin was going to be the white bear from a TV show called "The Octonauts". Then he was going to be a lion. Then he became a knight. When we borrowed a knight costume from our neighbors he became enamored. So we found some costumes pieces at the thrift store. He wouldn't stop wearing them. But I bought them to be in the dress up box. Well, on our dress rehearsal, mentioned earlier, he refused to wear the traditional lion costume (every other kid wore at this age) and wanted to wear the "dragon" (took me about 10 minutes to realize he was referring to the dragon on the breastplate, not an actual dragon). Then on Halloween night he refused to wear his black pants. He wanted blue pants (jeans). So, after a 10 minute tantrum I conceded and let him wear the jeans. Oh well, his costume cost $5 plus the white one he never wore ($5). Still a good deal. Samuel wanted to be a clown (due to the news hype about it...he does not have any fondness toward the creepy creatures). Then Jason, the chainsaw murderer or whatever he's called (with the white mask). I told him that was too scary and creepy. So, since the white them had gone away with Colin's costume, he chose to be a zombie. Easy peasy.

We do have a tradition of selling Halloween candy to a dentist. One, to help soldiers and other children out. And two, to get rid of candy fast. I found one last year that buys it for $2/pound. They then donate it to Primary Children's Hospital. (other dentists donate it to military overseas). Jocelyn was set on buying a beanie boo and donated 4 pounds, giving her $8 to spend! She was able to buy 2 with her own money. And....most of her candy is gone! Wahoo. She was determined this year to get a lot. Samuel too. They did not slow down. We trick-or-treated from about 6:45 until 9! Cecily and Colin didn't stay out that long. Samuel and Joc got about half a pillow case full. Samuel decided to keep most of his this year. He's old enough and has enough self control that I think he'll have it for several months. Unlike Cecily and Colin whom I have to limit their daily allotment.