Halloween

Halloween is over and gone for another year.  The boys were all very happy with their costumes, and I spent a *little* less time on them this year than last, which is a good thing. 
Saturday night was the church Trunk-or-Treat.  I sent Ben and the boys on ahead while I attempted to finish a costume for myself.  It was a sad failure, and I ended up just wearing a black dress and witch's hat.  But I made it in time to see some of the reaction to Ben's costume.  He dressed up as Joe Dirt and was quite the sight.  The costume works a little too well on him-- he didn't look like himself, but he didn't really look like he was dressed up in a costume, either!  The wig is exactly the same color as his real hair, which I think helped to make it more real.  After, we went to a Halloween party at the home of a fellow homeschooling family.  I made cupcakes to bring, just like the ones I made last week.  The edible ink markers are fun!
Yesterday was church as usual, and then the festivities began.  I made dinner while Ben helped the boys cut the tops off their pumpkins and begin scooping out the insides.  The pumpkin carving took a while, but I believe each boy actually cut almost all of their pumpkins themselves (I think Ben helped Mosey with the knife insertions).  We made our traditional pineapple and watermelon jack-o-lanterns, too.  The result of all of this was a great big, huge, gigantic mess in the kitchen.  Ben moved some of the pumpkin scooping and carving to the floor so the boys could reach better, but that also served to expand the mess as well...  I was up until 2:00 AM this morning cleaning everything up, mopping the floor, sorting the seeds from the guts for roasted pumpkin seeds, and generally trying to get ready for the start of this week...
But anyway, the boys went off trick-or-treating at about 7:30.  They went by themselves this year!  Brigham and Mosey were done by about 8:30, but Joseph wanted to keep going, so Ben went off with him and he stayed out another 20 minutes or so.  He really cleaned up, I can tell you!
I didn't get very good pictures of their costumes.  I really wanted to take some pictures before it got dark, but we were finishing pumpkin carving, and it just didn't happen. 
I tried to let everyone (including myself) sleep in this morning, but the boys were all up by 7:30 anyway.  It ended up being a slow lesson day, anyway, because Joseph woke up sick.  This kid can't catch a break-- he just got over a stomach virus a couple of weeks ago!  This one appears to have been pretty short-lived, though (knock on wood), and he was feeling better by this afternoon.  He wasn't sick from too much candy, either-- he's pretty disciplined. 
OK, it's way too late and I'm very tired, so I'm just uploading all my Halloween pictures because it takes too much energy to decide which ones to post and which to leave out.   Also, I am too lazy to put them in any kind of order.

Ben as Joe Dirt at the church Trunk-or-Treat.  I think he caused a scandal!  :-)

Brigham as a zombie at the Trunk-or-Treat

The cupcakes I made.

Mosey the pirate!  He has a problem with maintaining eye contact when I have the camera out, and I was about out of battery, so here's what you get.  He was SO excited about this costume, and has worn it about 15 times since it was finished.  I made the shirt and vest and belt.  

This is Joseph just after Trick-or-Treating last night.  This is a recycled black cloak from his grim reaper costume a couple of years ago.  I added the silver trim to make it more alien-y.

It was Joseph's idea to use a swim cap under the hood so his hair wouldn't show.

Joseph's bat pumpkin.

Ben striking some poses on our front porch Halloween night, as we greeted trick-or-treaters.  Do you like his ball-point-pen barbed wire tattoo?  Maybe I should be a tattoo artist.  :-)

Brigham was my most enthusiastic pumpkin-guts cleaner-outer.

Brigham the zombie after coming home from trick-or-treating.

Brigham's cat pumpkin.  Good design, huh?

Joseph was at first not excited about carving pumpkins.  I think he doesn't like to compete with Brigham (and everything turns into a competition with twins) when it comes to things artistic, and he's a bit of a pessimist anyway.  He kept drawing faces made of squares and rectangles, saying that was all he would be able to do.  I encouraged him to try something else anyway, and I'd help him if he needed help.  As it was, he did the entire thing himself!  I think he surprised himself and I'm so glad he did it!

Mosey working on his pumpkin with Dad.  Ben helped him begin the cuts, but I think he did most of the actual cutting himself.

And here is the final result of Mosey's first jack-o-lantern!  Good job, baby!

Pineapple man.  His mouth was better when I cut it, but it got kind of squished down by its own weight.

Pirate Mosey coming back from Trick-or-Treating.  He weighed his candy bag this morning-- 3.8 lbs!!!  Oh, my.

This is my skull jack-o-lantern.

The trick-or-treaters, about to head out.

Here's watermelon face.  I like this one this year.  Carving watermelons and pineapples is a tradition in our family since the time a few years ago when we waited until Halloween day to buy pumpkins.  The grocery store was sold out, so instead Ben bought a pineapple and watermelon.  I love this tradition!  You get to eat the guts and all the parts you cut out!  (Although the juice it generates is pretty spectacular and exceedingly sticky...)

Here is Joseph this evening, after he was finally feeling better.  He dumped all his candy out on the kitchen floor and organized it by type.  We have dentist appointments coming up later this month, and looking at this, I'm thinking the boys better start brushing their teeth 5 times a day!

So, that was the Halloween weekend. On to Thanksgiving!