Halloween 2011

Halloween this year was a little different (besides the obvious “Jon-is-gone” factor). Our ward/neighborhood didn’t have a trunk-or-treat event. So the kids and I had a chance to do some good, old fashioned, walking-up-to-the-door trick-or-treating.

Getting ready to go trick-or-treating.

Not sure why Alex kept pulling that face. Haha! He was so excited to be going as Luke Skywalker. (With a light saber and EVERYTHING!) Yippee! I know he’s sporting a fauxhawk, but when I asked him if he wanted “Luke hair” or his own hair, he chose his own. Good choice, buddy. Good choice.

Elise chose to go dressed as a soldier this year so she could be just like her daddy. (Love the salute!) I found some of Jon’s old patches and pinned them on to make her look more legit. Also, you can’t see it, but I put her hair into a chignon so it would be off the collar in an “authorized” hairstyle.

Taysum in his Cat In the Hat costume. He was so patient and still when I drew on his whiskers and nose. Bravo, my boy!

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of these Despicable Me inspired pumpkins at my friend Emily’s house. Aren’t they awesome?!

We ran into a couple who had decked out their horses with lights and were riding them through the neighborhood. The picture’s not great, but it was super-cool.

After we finished walking through the neighborhood, we drove out to Uncle Kent’s. Every year he decks the place out with all the jack-o-lanterns we do at his pumpkin carving party.

Here are our contributions for this year:

This pumpkin was super-gnarled. I worked with the imperfections to create the face of a hag and I love how it turned out!

Alex directed this one. He wanted Frankenstein and told me exactly how to put on each feature. Then he carved it all by himself!

This one kept rolling to the side so I carved one that could work upright or on its side. Win-win! :)

I wish I could say I came up with this by myself, but the truth is, Alex was the mastermind behind this one. He found it in a book and asked me if we could do it at Kent’s pumpkin carving party. So we took it with us and got ‘er done! Kent liked it so much he gave it the Place of Honor at the beginning of the walk! Any of Jon’s family members can tell you that’s a pretty prestigious honor! I snapped pictures like crazy because I’m positive it’ll never happen again. ;)

When I took this picture, Elise said, “Happy-Halloween-I-love-Daddy!” :D  Love that girl!

Raechel and Sherrie carved these fun Disney pumpkins. So cute!

We were so excited about how the cat pumpkin turned out, we made a second one to put out at our place.

Sherrie found this cool project for milk jug ghosts on Pinterest. (We love us some Pinterest!) So for a week or two we collected jugs and then drew faces on them with Sharpies to make them look like jack-o-lanterns. Then we stuffed them with light strings and anchored them with the biggest rocks from Alex’s rather extensive rock collection. They turned out fantastic!

Taysum didn’t even make it to his great-grandma & grandpa Mortensen’s house. I carried him in and laid him on his blanket on the floor. He stayed that way till it was time to go home. :)

The older two lasted a little longer, but they were O.U.T. by the time we made it home. They both told me (before passing out) that they had had a great day.

One holiday down. And we made it through in one piece. Whew!

Happy Halloween! XOXO