Halloween this year had all the usual facets: pumpkin carving, costume making (and buying) and trick-or-treating. The kids also had a new experience this year, as their school lets them wear costumes to school and participate in a parade. Here are some pictures from all of the festivities. First, pumpkin carving.
And, the finished products:
Bruce got into the costume action this year when his Loon team decided to dress up like the team leader. It’s really not that different than how Bruce dresses for work, except he doesn’t wear running shoes. Or white socks.
I’m still waiting to see the group picture with everyone dressed the same …
It seems like we switch off homemade versus store-bought costumes every year. Last year, Finn was a very elaborate house and Ezra had the store-bought Ninja costume. This year, Finn wanted to be a gladiator so we bought his costume.
Other than the rip in the shoulder of it that happened immediately upon his first trying it on, it was a good costume. Perhaps the cutest gladiator ever. (Just one mom’s opinion, of course.)
Ezra wanted to be an Enderman from Minecraft. I think they make costumes for the Minecraft characters, but the ones I’ve seen are just block heads. He wanted something much more involved, so he and Bruce designed and built his costume. It came out really good. The dirt block he’s carrying also served as his candy receptacle.
I should have taken video because the still pictures don’t capture how funny it was to watch him move in that huge costume. The kids at the school parade went crazy and kept holding up the line because they were playing with Ezra’s costume.
Here’s a shot of Finn’s class along with their fifth grade buddies who walked in the parade with them. Finn’s buddy was “Tomato Man” and is wearing a black mask and a shirt with a T on it. He’s right behind Finn, and I love this picture because he’s holding onto Finn’s shoulder. Finn is completely enamored of his buddy, and this gesture is just so sweet.
The kids spent the school day having parties and other fun activities, and came home fully sugared up. For trick-or-treating that night, both boys invited a friend and we walked around our neighborhood. Here are the four of them before we headed out. That’s Finn’s friend Kyuhyun as a knight and Ezra’s friend Lucas as a stormtrooper.
Our neighborhood was surprisingly quiet and Ezra didn’t last long carrying around that heavy costume, but the kids still managed to haul in quite a bit of candy because many neighbors were so happy to see trick-or-treaters that they really loaded them up with candy.
Here they are at my friend Marlene’s house; she gave them full sized candy bars. I think they thought they’d died and gone to heaven.
And soon we were back home for the traditional sorting of the loot.
Another successful Halloween! (I have many more pictures here.)