Pumpkins, Costumes, and Parties

I'll be brief, I promise!

PUMPKINS:

I'm going to show you the happy pictures first.  Remember these as you read on....

Great start, great finish, but it got a little hairy in the middle when Mom and Dad tried to force Adam to get over his pumpkin negativity.  We decided our family Halloween tradition is fighting while carving pumpkins.  First, every face I tried to draw for Adam didn't fit his "angry" description, and any plea from me for him to draw it himself resulted in a whiny, "But I don't know hoooowwww to make it look angry!"

Then came the dreaded attempt to get Adam to touch the pumpkin guts.  Let's just say Adam and pumpkin guts have had a rough start:

But now he's almost six for crying out loud!  We figured this was the year to give it a go.  Finally realizing he couldn't handle touching it with his bare hands, we offered him salad tongs.  Tongs in hand - and with a guarantee of not even having to touch the slime - we still had all this...

Maybe next year we'll manage to enjoy the process.  Or maybe we'll can it altogether...

COSTUMES:
I guess we ended up with a bit of a movie/television theme this year, and for very little effort, the boys sure got a lot of compliments!

There wasn't much to Kirk's costume, but I was glad I went to the trouble to fund a V-neck shirt when my brother commented, "Oh, that's why you're wearing a gay shirt."

PARTIES:
I didn't seem to get as exhausted by all the parties this year as I have in the past.  Maybe it's because the kids' costumes were super easy, and the makeup was kind of fun.  Anyway, here's the highlights:

-- Grandma Tess's Annual Party --
We enjoyed the traditional games and cookie decorating, but the highlight was definately the new addition:

-- School Carnival --
Hot and stuffy, but we still had a pretty good time.  We hit the playground in the dark to cool off and discovered that Dylan's newfound ability to slide down the stairs backwards means he also thinks he can handle ladders, ect.  I'll be watching him a little more closely at future park outings!

-- Ward Party --
We came, we ate (Kirk at 5 bowls of soup), we costume paraded, but I guess I didn't take any pics that night.  Amazing!

-- Children's Museum --
We have the annual pass, and I like to make sure we're getting our $$'s worth, so we carted the kids off to their Halloween Spooktacular.  It was well worth it.  The crowds were not at all out of control, and there were lots of fun activities for the kids to do.  My favorite was the corn maze trick or treat, just perfect for little ones.

-- The Real Deal --
Trick or Treat!  Dylan made it to about 12 houses, Alex made it to about 20, and Adam went for two hours and filled his entire pumpkin!  The rain didn't pose too much of a problem, and I really enjoyed being the one to take the goons around this year.