Happy Halloween!

It was another wild and crazy Halloween night in our neighborhood.  People come to our area from many miles away.  I seriously saw several large buses pull up and discharge huge groups of kids.  What can I say - we know how to do it right here!

We were so lucky that the incessant rain paused long enough for trick or treating. Hooray!  We had five families join us this year for trick or treating.  Dan and the other Dads stayed back at the house and handed out candy.  Actually, Dan handed out candy while simultaneously preparing the next day's seminary lesson.  Don't you think it's pretty cruel to have early morning seminary the day after Halloween?

This year Bailey attended a Halloween party at her friend Laura's house (a few blocks away in our neighborhood).  Joseph and Aubrey were our trick or treaters.
 
Aubrey and her good friend decided to go as opposites - an angel and a devil.  They said that they decided to be "opposites of themselves" - thereby proving that Aubrey is generally angelic!

Aubrey was the only one of our kids who was able to wear her costume to school.  At her school of Arts and Academics they make their own rules (you can do that when you are an artist), and they somehow justify it.  No one else in the district is allowed to wear costumes, especially the elementary kids.  I think that's sad - I used to love watching the kids parade through the school in their costumes!  At least it's less pressure on Moms like me who don't go all out on costumes.  In fact, Costco is my favorite source for Halloween wear.  I say to Joseph . . . "Look!  Costco has Iron Man, Spiderman, or Incredible Hulk. Which of these three choices are you going to be for Halloween?"  No discussion, no crazy talk about homemade costumes.

Aubrey's costume was a little bit of a challenge.  Have you seen the costumes that are marketed to teenagers?  Let's just say that they are incredibly inappropriate and involve very little fabric.  And a devil costume?  That's an invitation for a really skimpy costume. And, I already established that I am not going to make any costumes . . .

But, eagle eye Dan noticed a devil costume in the Walmart ad which looked cute and totally appropriate.  He headed to Walmart the next day to pick it up because I have a thing about avoiding Walmart if at all possible (Target all the way for me).  The cost of Aubrey's costume, which included a headpiece and a pitchfork?  $8.40.  Wow.  Way to go, Shopper Dan!

 

Joseph debated between Captain America, which would have been a rerun from last year, and the Amazing Spiderman. Spidey won out at the last minute, and what a good choice it was.

 

While waiting for friends to arrive, both kids trick-or-treated at our own door.  That way they got their pick of our candy before the hordes of people descended.

What a fun Halloween.  They only thing that could have made it better would have been for it to be on a Friday night.  I think we should start a petition to change Halloween to the last Friday in October, no matter the date.  Who's with me?

Mud and Pumpkins

 
We waited too long to make our annual pilgrimage to the pumpkin patch . . . by the end of the first week of October it was raining heavily, and it hasn't stopped yet!  But, tradition is tradition, so on Friday, October 27th (which was a no school day) we spent a few fun and muddy hours at Bi-Zi Farms. 

 

 

 Bailey and this goat had quite a conversation.

We were lucky that rain didn't fall on our heads while we were there, but the ground was exceedingly muddy.
 
After six years of living in muddy, rainy Washington, I finally broke down and bought myself a pair of rain boots.  Aren't they cute? Now I need to break down and buy pairs for the rest of the family,so they can wear they that one day a year that we go to the pumpkin patch. No one actually wears rain boots just in the rain around here.
 
The traditional pumpkin launch.  Just like every year, we ALMOST got the pumpkin launched into the bucket. If only we had succeeded - we could won a very awesomely tacky scarecrow from the dollar store.

 

 

 

 Learning how to lasso.

 Aubrey caught the steer!  Or cow or whatever it is . .

Dan and I really hate the corn maze. How is it fun to get lost intentionally and then spend up to an hour trying to find our way out?  The experience feels like a recurrent nightmare I have.  Our kids, on the other hand, love the corn maze.  So we dutiful parents traversed the muddy paths and found our way out, thanks to the map Dan and Aubrey carefully  followed.

 

 We made it!

 And now . . .  to find the perfect pumpkin.

 Bailey was dancing through the pumpkin fields. She really, really loves everything about autumn.

 

 

 Washing the pumpkins off and heading home.

Til next year!

Disgusting Dinner Delight 2012

 
The lights are low, the spooky music is playing, and all the Porter children have willingly agreed to partake in this year's Halloween dinner, where all the food is creepy, disgusting, and downright frightening. 

This was the menu for this year:

Vampire Feast                       Witch’s nose

Scab remover                        Scab Slab

Zombie intestines                   Bones and Blood

Vampire heart lacerator         Zombie eyeballs

Ghoul Drool                                        Crunchy cicadas

 Entrails of Frankenstein        Monster jaws 

Haunted spirits                          Macerated Metatarsal

Flying saucer                                      Otherworldly apparition

The owners of the Disgusting Dinner restaurant created a new rule for 2012.  All dining patrons were required to decide together which menu item they would like to order first, as a group. And then second, and third, and so on until they had received all the creepy food.  This tweak to the rules increased the surprise factor when each new dish was presented. 

And how do you like our abundance of spiderwebs in the picture above?  We don't do much housework around here.

 

Dan and I prepared the plates and then Dan delivered the food in  the most spooky, creepy, and frightening way possible.  Who knew that Dan was such a great actor? Can you see him off to the left of this picture?

 

 
Dan and I looked through cookbooks and ideas on Bailey's Pinterest boards for some new "spooky" foods.  Dan found this idea (and he put it together).

The strawberries are supposed to have white chocolate tails that make them into ghosts.  I didn't quite manage that, and I have to say that the version on Pinterest looked cuter than mine, but oh well!

 And, courtesy of Martha Stewart online, mashed potato ghosts.

 This is one of Dan's favorite ideas . . . Ghoul Drool - made of lime sherbet blended with Sprite. He created this one all on his own, and it was a hit.  Joseph wasn't so sure at first, and had to give it the sniff test

 but soon realized that it was delish, and Ghoul Drool was very much in demand.

Another of Dan's ideas and creations:  flying saucers made out of peanut butter and bananas.  

 Dan was exceedingly helpful with the dinner this year - I couldn't have pulled it off without him!  The morning after our Halloween dinner I was hosting a luncheon at our house for 8+ women. The morning of the luncheon I was only going to be home for a short time, as I needed to run Bailey to the orthodontist to get her braces off!  So, on Monday I prepared food for our Halloween dinner but also prepared as much as possible for the luncheon.  When Dan came home we used teamwork to pull it all together.  It was a really good time - these kinds of family memories are more valuable than any material possession!