Our Halloween {2015}

I don't know if our Halloween was an epic one, but I thought it was a fun one for our little family.  It was the first time I have actually been able to get us all to dress up as a family with a theme.  Usually, Eddie refuses to join in.  Since Evan wanted to be Harry Potter this year, I knew we just had to all participate.  We needed a Professor Dumbledore and a Professor McGonagall for sure.  I have had a pin posted to Pinterest forever of a homemade baby Dobby the house elf costume so I was just beyond excited about dressing up Mattox.  Brody was the real challenge.  I convinced him to join in for a family picture dressed as a dementor, but he didn't like the idea of being the bad guy who sucked all the joy and happiness out of people.  Haha!  He was a good sport though.  He was much happier in his pirate costume with his little brother as his little parrot companion.  I think it was a great costume year for us.  I guess the only sad thought I had is that our little Mattie would have made a cute little Hermione. 

We attempted to carve two pumpkins this year.  The weekend before Halloween, Eddie and the boys did the work of cleaning out both pumpkins.  They looked great, and I didn't want them rotting by Halloween so I told Eddie about how to spray the inside with a bleach solution and let them dry to keep them looking fresh longer.  We decided to wait a few days to cut them.  I was able to take pumpkin pictures of Mattox with the cleaned out pumpkins.  On Friday when we were going to carve them, one of the pumpkins still looked great, but the other one was a fail.  It was completely rotten and soft on one side.  That one had to be thrown out.  There were no more pumpkins at the store or at our local pumpkin farm across the road from our neighborhood.  The boys were very sad not to get two carved pumpkins. 

On Friday night, I carved this Mike Wazowski pumpkin from Monsters, Inc. for the boys.  I used the different technique of shaving the outer layers of the pumpkin without cutting all the way through so that the light reflects softly through the thin pumpkin that remains.  I think I could have shaved it a little thinner for a better effect, but it was still cute. We enjoyed it even though I forgot to light it on Halloween night. 

Evan, Mattox and I got dressed up the week before for Evan's Cub Scout carnival. 

Brody wanted to wear his pirate costume.  They had a little duel, pirate v. Potter. 

Then, the dementor came to our house.  Yikes.  He was the cutest dementor ever, but that probably makes him even scarier. Harry defended sweet little Dobby. 

These were the looks Eddie and I were going for.  My hat wouldn't stay up on my head.  It was just a cheap witch hat from Target.  Eddie ordered my cloak from Amazon which was pretty cheap.  I know Professor McGonagall doesn't always wear glasses, but since mine are more necessary, I think I pulled it off. I made Eddie's hat, hair and beard with left over scraps of white batting, gray silky fabric and some gold yarn.  Since I don't sew, the hat was just stapled together.  He wore a cheap gray blanket as his robe.  I wanted a silkier sheet, but the blanket was only $5 so whatever. 

Our Harry Potter family. 

Brody the pirate and Mattox the parrot made an appearance at a special Halloween story time at the library on Friday. 

Story time was a packed house, but I managed to sneak these pictures from the other side of the bookshelves.  I love when they sing "Rock A Bye Your Bear" by the Wiggles.  Brody is so cute doing the motions of rocking his teddy bear, going to sleep, and saying "Shhhh."  

Thankfully, Daddy could join us for story time, and this little sleepy parrot was very happy about that. 

The kids trick or treated and got treats from Max in his wolf suit from "Where the Wild Things Are", the raccoon from "The Kissing Hand," The "woman" in the yellow hat and Curious George, and Princess Fiona from Shrek. 

Brody was happy with all of his treats which mostly wasn't candy. 

The festivities on Halloween day started with our town's Fall festival, Hollyfest.  It was a lovely day with blue skies.  We didn't know this would be the last day for the next couple of weeks where we would see blue skies and no rain.  Brody commented on the unusual clouds that day so I took a picture.  I also took a picture of our town's new symbol on the big screen.  I think it is very pretty.  The old one was just red and green holly so this new one shows the green holly leaves and blue water for the spring. 

First stop was at some inflatables.  This one was football themed.  Brody wouldn't go in by himself so Evan had to get permission to go with him. 

Brody liked this little fish ride and was so proud he rode by himself.  He was waving and giving high fives (or taking his hand back and laughing). 

We watched Evan the pro shoot some basketballs. 

I really think having a trampoline has helped both of these boys.  In the past, they have both been scared or timid about getting into big bounce houses but not anymore. 

We all enjoyed taking pictures with this scary scene. 

The boys walking their new pet.  I really think this is the pet for me.  No food and cleaning up required.  

Of course, trick or treating was the highlight of the day.  The boys loved our new neighborhood which had some very good decorations.  There was a little decorating contest earlier in the month. Dumbledore probably got the most compliments from other trick or treaters as he pushed Dobby in the stroller. 

The boys enjoyed fighting lots of scary creatures.  

Some of my favorite scary decorations were the Chucky doll hanging from a foyer chandelier, a zombie eating a leg in someone's scary graveyard, and a ghoulish figure in a black trench coat.  I thought the spider decor on the garage doors was more in the realm of cute. 

A mummy graveyard and a scary Grim Reaper completed our list of favorite houses.  The boys had a great and "scary" Halloween.  We also liked these Star Wars painted pumpkins.  

So I am too lame to do a whole post for my 1000th so this one is it.  At least, it is my 1000th published post.  Since I blog more as a way to publish our memories from over the years, these posts tend to be more lengthy and sometimes incorporate whole months of memories.  I tend to think of it as more about quality than quantity here.  I haven't written much for followers or readers over the years and started the blog in 2009 as a way to memorialize the years of our life since we started our family in 2003.  I find that this is the most manageable way to organize our memories.  I have printed my blog posts from 2009 which actually incorporate our memories from 2003 through 2009 in 3 volumes that cost about $100 each.  2010 to the present are considerably more lengthy as we added to our family and so the amount of pictures we take has also grown.  Those years will probably require at least two printed books each.  My blog posts tend to be very picture heavy so that makes for longer posts and more printed pages.  One of the inspirations for my blog was actually my husband's grandmother's memoirs she hand wrote.  I hated that my kids may not ever get to really know the stories of our lives, and I hated having so few memories from my own childhood.  I knew that attempting to hand write my own memoirs would result in failure because I hate to write.  Typing is so much easier.  Plus, I wanted a way to include our pictures to help tell the stories.  Blogging was the "answer" to my goal, and I have been blogging the events of our lives ever since.  I hope you enjoy the stories! 

On another note, I have created another little monster blogger.  Evan has started his own blog as a way to share and preserve some of his writings.  He is a budding writer and loves writing about history, things he loves, and his own stories.  I suspect we may have a future published author on our hands.  So hop on over and give him some encouragement.  I may help him add some of his past works on there, but he is starting to be able to type well on his own and will be working to add new posts when he can.  I am going to leave some of his spelling errors in his earlier works for nostalgia purposes.  I may even include a couple of my own childhood stories over there for comparison.