Last Monday for FHE, we decided to carve the pumpkins. Eric had the "brilliant" idea to do more in depth carvings, instead of just the regular faces. He thought it would be fun to let the kids choose a character that they wanted to carve.
I searched the internet to find some free patterns for the characters the kids wanted. Tanis chose Spongebob Squarepants, Shaylyn chose Danny the Phantom and Lex chose Thomas the Train.
We had no idea what kind of "fun" we were in for. While I made dinner the kids cleaned all the guts out of their individual pumpkins. After we ate dinner it was time for the carving.
Eric had the job of cutting out the patterns so that I could trace it onto the pumpkin. Then I had not only the job of tracing the pattern on the pumpkins, but carving it out as well. I did the Spongebob one first and I really didn't do a very good job of it. Eric had to try and rescue what he could. Then I attempted Danny the Phantom, but towards the end he was proving difficult as well, so Eric finished him up. Thomas the Train was the easiest for me as he was mostly just a bunch of straight lines.
We got all the pumpkins carved out and ready for display. I lit them each up and took the pictures. They didn't turn out very well as I still don't know how to adjust the camera to get the kind of picture I want at night...
Spongebob lasted most of that night, but by the next day he was pretty much "dead." We asked Tanis if there was another character he would like that we could carve into the back that might be easier. He chose Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
I freehanded the outline from a picture I found online and then carved Jack's face into the pumpkin. He worked out pretty well and was pretty easy to do, compared to what we had done the night before.
Halloween was kinda crazy, but we had lots of fun. We got Tanis off to school in his costume and then came home to straighten the house before getting Shaylyn ready and off. The parade for Tanis was to start at 12:30 and Shaylyn starts school at 12:45. Her parade would be at 1:00.
I knew we would be cutting it close, but didn't know how it would work. The school our kids attend have quite a few little open areas throughout the school where they do music class and stuff. So parents were all sitting around in these areas. After just a few minutes we saw Tanis' class rush by. They weren't really starting the parade, they were just heading somewhere.
Before I knew it, it was 12:45 and I hadn't seen Tanis' class come through the "parade." But, not wanting Shaylyn to be late, we took her to her classroom. Luckily, Tanis' class was sitting in one of the open areas right across from Shaylyn's school class waiting to have their turn in the parade.
So, I was able to see Tanis in his "parade" and even got some pictures. Then we waited for a few minutes for the Kindergarten to do their parade. It all worked out really nicely.
After school the kids played with friends for awhile while we waited for Eric to come home from work so we could have dinner. I made canned Beef Stew for dinner with hard rolls and then we headed out for Trick-or-Treating around 6:30.
The kids lasted for about an hour or so and we were able to hit 2 1/2 streets in our neighborhood. Eric stayed home to pass out the candy (I HATE that job) and I took the kids. It was so much fun to see all the kids dressed up going around the neighborhood. I really missed this the past couple years as where we were at before always did the Trunk or Treat thing.
In case you can't tell for sure, Tanis was Harry Potter, Shaylyn was a PINK Wonder Woman and Lex was Buzz Lightyear.
With all the fun that we had, I do have to say I did kind of miss our "traditional" Halloweens that we've done since we had kids. Growing up we ALWAYS had Chili for dinner that my mom made and that has continued. Plus, my mom and sisters would come with me as I took the kids trick-or-treating. So I did miss that we weren't able to meet up with family for our "traditional" Halloween Chili and the group trick-or-treating, especially since it was my nephews first time trick-or-treating. (Truth be told though, I didn't really care that I missed the chili) If Halloween had been on a day where the kids didn't have school the next day, I would've got to my mom's. But since they had school, it just wouldn't have worked. Maybe one of these years...
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