Halloween party

Ah! Halloween! In an effort to once again be the polar opposite of my big sister, this is one of my least favorite holidays. While it does include my favorite food (candy) it distracts from the beauty and loveliness of my favorite season. Right when the leaves are their crunchiest and the world is alight with bright and vibrant colors and the bugs are dying a slow angry death...we are forced to pick a costume that is creative and original and clever and parade around begging for candy. Then there is the decorating! Such pressure...only to get to pick from a few bland themes...death and dying. Throw into the mix 3 children who hate dressing up (I know! WTH?), one who hates chocolate (which leads to fits after the treats are handed out), and a mother who has not a single crafty/creative bone in her body. The J.W. door-to-door preachers might have a better chance with me, if their little booklet said, "Join us! We don't do Halloween!"...with all the stuff about no birthdays, no blood transfusions, and only a few hundred allowed in heaven WAY on the back page. (not dissing the J.W. people...I just get them frequently, and they immediately ruin any chance of converting me by ringing my doorbell and waking up my baby. I'm just saying...)

Anyhoo...Michael pretty much sums up my feelings on Halloween here...

But of course we do Halloween...this weekend we had a chili cookoff/Halloween party at our new church. Which I keep meaning to tell you about. But this post is about Halloween. ;)

Our costumes?

You get 3 guesses as to what Andrew picked...and the first two don't count. We finally bought him a new football costume. The OSU one that he's worn for several Halloween's is a size 2-4. I mean, he still wears it around the house...but those pants were TIGHT.






Then we have our Super-man. Best costume EVER...thanks to my friend Michele for lending it to me. No head piece to rip off or annoy the 1 year old...just pure cuteness as he toddles around with his cape.

And, finally...my princess. (gag...barf...) Lily INSISTED on being "Ariott", AKA. Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Thank heavens my friend Sharon was nice enough to let us borrow her daughter's costume. But then the arms were too itchy, so we had to put a flowered shirt underneath. And then she refused to wear the red wig or even let me spray some red hair dye. She did, however, wear the crown all night long. So I present Ariel...in dire need to get to the beauty parlor for a dye job.

The whole crew.

Action shot.

At the party...Andrew doing an "eyeball in the spoon" race. They also had plastic skeleton gloves that you filled with candy corn and popcorn, a haunted house done by the youth group, some sort of game with fancy straws (I was chasing Michael a lot...didn't get the full idea). Oh...and lots and lots of chili.

Lily and Michael waiting around for us to help clean up and get the room set up for Sunday School the following day.

Don't feel too bad for my kids. On Thursday, the Halloween fairy will make an appearance and do all sorts of fun prep for the big day. Thank heavens.