Happy Halloween

Let me just get confession out of the way...I have been a blog-slacker the last month or so!! But I have been busy too, so something has got to give! I know it is late, but here is a run-down of our Halloween celebrations (seriously, I think it went on all week!) We had a great kid party at Nicole's house - she got the week kicked off with painting pumpkins and decorating cupcakes. Then we got booed (with a treat, it is a good thing even though it sounds bad!), so Oliver helped me make caramel popcorn to do the next round of booing. He took it upon himself to draw and cut out a ghost for every popcorn we had (four of them, plus one for me because they were so cute). I mention this part because Oliver has really blossomed as an artist recently. He is spending a lot of time these days coloring and creating things, and it is one of the things I enjoy most as a mother to see how he recreates the things he sees in his life. He also did an amazing self-portrait this last week. I'll post it in its own post. Anyway, he and I went out after dark to deliver all the treats, and he LOVED it because we had to be sneaky to avoid the neighbors seeing who was booing them. It turned out to be a great family activity. We carved pumpkins the same night we did our booing (I think it was Wednesday) - and we had some great jack-o-lanterns this year. Jed did a classic Jack, Avery wanted a cat, and Oliver picked out a really cool monster thing from his book. I was very nervous to cut it out for him, but it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. I also did a Dora the Explorer for my pumpkin. Jed baked up some pumpkin seeds for us too, and they were the BEST pumpkin seeds we've ever had!! I think we will do a second batch they were so good. Next came Trunk-or-treat on Friday. You actually have to decorate your trunk for trunk or treat, so Oliver and Avery made some ghosts out of napkins earlier in the day, and we strung them up in our trunk. It was our first trunk or treat ever, and everyone had a great time. After we got done, the kids came home and dumped out their candy in piles, and just started playing with it. The didn't really ask to eat any (I think they had one piece that night), they just kept playing with it. Oliver sorted it by candy type, and Avery made a little "nest" with her blanket and put all the candy inside, then she sat on it! So cute! The next night was the real Halloween, and we visited my family, then headed up to Sharma's for Chili and rolls before trick-or-treating in her neighborhood. We also went to the Harry Potter house before calling it a night!