Halloween 2008

Ali: Padame from Star Wars/ Spencer: Policeman/ Tanessa: gangster/spy girl(?)

The kids painting their baby pumpkins, which has become a tradition

The kids gutting their big pumpkins to carve........

Spencer was so disgusted to touch the guts that we had to threaten him so that I could get a picture. I really thought he might cry. The girls, on the other hand, loved getting their hands all gooey. They liked playing with theirs and mushing it between their fingers. What is wrong with this picture?

The actual carving turned into more of a daddy project. Spencer wanted a pirate skull with swords and Ali chose a stencil of a ghost. Both were hard to carve so dad ended up doing most of it. Tanessa's was pretty simple and she did hers all by herself. Except she let her brother and sister help a little since they didn't get to do much on their own. However, they were all very proud of their pumpkins! I had to leave to go to Bible study right when they were beginning to carve them so I told them to finish taking pictures. They went wild with the camera!

The finished products

The day started with Spencer's field trip to the high school to go trick-or-treating with his "big buddy". Their big buddies are high school home ec. students. Spencer's big buddy's name is Carla. They trick-or-treated at the high school classes then went back to the home ec. room and played games, had hot apple cider, and treats.

Left to right: Spencer and Trey; Spencer trick-or-treating at the high school; Spencer at the party in the home ec. room

It was a rainy day and the kids were supposed to do their "laps for learning" fundraiser. Marcie and I revolted because we didn't want our kids running in the mud at school. So we pulled them out and they went home and played. Then we worked the system and brought them back in the afternoon for their parties. Are we cheaters or what? We did feel a little guilty because we knew that we would let our kids go out in the rain that night or that we would let them play sports in the rain and mud. But I covered by saying that we wouldn't want them getting sick and not being able to play their sports the next day, right? Well, it sounded good at the time. Spencer and Trey's teacher revolted against "the walk" too, so they stayed at school for the whole day.

That night we went trick-or treating with the Marcie and her kids. We went out really early and my husband made fun of us the whole time but oh well. The kids still got lots of candy. Tanessa had gone with her dad, so it was just the younger ones.

Spencer and Ali

Ali and Tayah

Left to right: Spencer trick-or-treating; Ali,Tayah,and Trey trick-or-treating; Marcie and Jayda

After all this, we went with Marcie and kids to her church's trunk-or-treat. On the plus side, I got rid of all my candy I had bought. (usually, I end up eating it) But my kids brought home a TON of candy. (and I'm helping them eat theirs). On the way home, we went by my mom's house and got even more candy.....

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of anything after dark......but I did have my camera with me every step of the way, if that helps.

Other random pictures.....

Left to right: Spencer with his friend Brenna at the Kernville School harvest festival the week before Halloween; Ali and Spencer being bored and creative and making Halloween masks with whatever they could find at the time.