Halloween Festivities

Halloween seems to be spreading throughout the month of October and so trick or treating began as early as two weeks before Halloween when we went to the "Spooktacular" at the square downtown.  We also went to the library right before that and got to see some creepy crawly animals which was probably the best part of the day.  Then we walked up and got some candy and took pictures in cardboard cutouts and threw some beanbags at things. 

As we were leaving Griz was begging me to let him get his face painted.  The line was super long for that and I told him I'd paint his face at home way cooler than they could.  He finally consented.  The time it took to paint their faces was WAY longer than the line would have but they got a full face paint job instead of just the cheek and it actually turned out really cool! Check it out...

Next Chico wanted a cheetah... He was one wiggly 8 year old but it still turned out cool!

This girl and her faces...

 I didn't think she'd have the patience for a full face job and she seemed fine with this simple job...

Talk about exhausting day, I consented to let the kids carve pumpkins that day.  Luckily Brent was able to help a bit. It helped me keep my cool.

We got candles  a few days later (before they rotted) and it looked pretty sweet!

For the big Branch Trunk or Treat party the kids wanted to be cheetahs.  But I couldn't do a full cheetah costume so we though of them being the Wild Kratts with a cheetah face.  My friend Sandra made these awesome creature power vests for us the day of.  She is awesome!!!

 When it came down to it, Chico didn't actually want to get his face painted. He just wanted to be Martin.

Griz was way excited for his chance to have a cheetah face and to be Chris.

 Sanna was Aveeva and we decided to have her transforming into a butterfly.

I went in to make the creature power discs to velcro on there and Brent came out and took these fun ones up in the tree...

 Considering how wiggly this cute 3 year old is I think the butterfly turned out all right! Such a pretty girl.

The trunk or treat was a lot of fun and they got a ton of candy. People liked my vegetarian chili too, ha ha.  I brought a healthy chili because I'm doing a diet bet this month which has been good so I don't binge on candy.  I'm also exercising a bit more which is good.

We went to a couple trunk or treats on Halloween day itself and they got more candy and even got to sit and eat  hotdogs.  On Halloween day itself Griz decided to be a ninja, Sanna was Aveeva again, and Chico was "a reader" (as in he went as himself with his "Rhea Readers" shirt and brought his book along). Funny kids.

Fall in Tennessee has been quite beautiful and nice temperatures and we've been enjoying it.  It almost makes it hard to leave here (we just have to remind ourselves how awful the summer is and how lame and cold the winter is).  Knowing we're saying good bye to the friends we've made out here is the real hard part though.  They've been there for us for the most difficult two years of our lives and have become like family.

Super Heroes

This year for Halloween our boys were Spider Man and Captain America.  Thanks to the whole world talking about Halloween as early as September my Chico started pestering me (in September) to buy him a Spiderman Costume. We caved and did it. As often as his suit wasn't hidden he wanted to wear it.  I was doing a photo shoot of the cousins and he came upstairs with his suit on so I had to grab a few pictures of him performing his web (posing) action.

After getting the suit for Chico, Griz needed to be a super hero as well. Captain America is a favorite super hero in our household and I saw one for sale at Kohls and next thing you know we have two super heroes running around the house.  There was some sibling rivalry over the suit for a few days and we were worried Spiderman had lost it's appeal. Thankfully the interest returned and all was right in the world.
As a side note as of today (Nov. 28th) Griz continues to wear his costume as often as we let him. Sometimes he pretends to shoot webs, guess he doesn't realize the different heroes have different powers. :)  They often hum the Avenger's theme music as they play in their costumes, then just today Griz told me "Ah nee mah hm-hm" (I need my hm-hm). I started laughing at him because it sounded so funny. I had no idea what he was talking about until he finally found the suit and brought it to me and said it again "Ah nee mah hm-hm". I started putting it on him and he started humming the Avengers theme music, "hmm-hm-hm-hmm-hmm-hmm" and it finally clicked. "Hm-hm" means his avengers suit! This kid is a total crack up, we were telling my parents this story and we looked over at him while we were telling it and he had a big old grin on his face. He loves the fact that we think he's funny.
Here are pictures of him throughout the last month as he plays in his costume:




I really can't adequately describe how often he wants to wear his suit. He looks so dang cute in it we just have to pull out the camera again and again when he wears it.

Which finally leads me to posting about Trick or Treating on Halloween with the boys. It was SUCH a warm day, didn't need a jacket that night at all. My sister Emily came and joined us this year dressed up as Hermione. Chico was VERY insistent that I dress up too so my mom and I threw together a Cat Woman costume last minute (like literally it took like 15 minutes and we did it an hour before trick or treating). Brent lucked-out in not having to dress up because he got home right when it was time to leave.  If I could have had my way he would have worn a superman t-shirt underneath a partially unbuttoned shirt and undone tie. Woulda been hot, guess there is always next year. ;)
Anyways! Back to the kids. They really enjoyed taking candy from our neighbors.  Chico was especially skilled at taking more pieces than he was supposed to when the adults weren't paying attention.




I got made fun of for the trick or treating sacks I supplied for my children. Yeah I guess they are a bit tacky.


After hitting a bunch of houses we stopped at our neighbors house because they had a little neighborhood party in their driveway going on, we stopped and socialized there for a bit. It was a lot of fun. When we have a house someday, I'd like to do something like that. It was really fun to be able to chat with the neighbors whilst eating food and sitting around the fire.
Well the kids got a lot of candy which we ate too quickly and Chico has already commenced in planning what he wants to be next year. He has had at least 5 different ideas already. :)