Costumes & Trick or Treating

Emmalyn - a strawberry

Ashlyn - Ariel

Sadie - Rapunzel

Kali - a vampire princess

I tried to convince Ashlyn to be a witch this year because Josh's mom already had a witch costume. But she decided she wanted to be Ariel. In the end I'm glad we went with her choice because she sure looked cute as a red headed Ariel. And Kali's costume was her own invention. I had never heard of a vampire princess. Sometimes she referred to herself as Dracula's daughter. I think she just wanted to be a cute vampire and I think we achieved the goal.

We really had a fun Halloween this year. We started out by trick or treating at Josh's work. Emma was adorable. As soon as she realized people were putting candy into her bag, she was saying thank you very loudly. Afterward, we went to my parents' house to show them the girls' costumes. Then we went home, ate dinner and trick or treated around the neighborhood. We finished off the evening by passing out candy while watching an old episode of Heman.

Halloween Dance Recital

Today our Halloween activity was watching Sadie do her Halloween dance. All the girls dressed up in their costumes and performed for the parents. Kate and Sadie are in the same dance class and they got to dance side by side. They did such a good job.

Carving Pumpkins

Today we carved pumpkins, one of my favorite activities and one of Josh's least favorite activities. The girls fall somewhere in between. Sadie doesn't like digging out the insides. Kali enjoys most of the process, and Ashlyn is young enough that she was just focused on separating the seeds from the pulp. I was just glad Josh was willing to fix my mistakes and fill in where needed. I broke Ashlyn's stem before getting the top off and I couldn't work on Sadie's while helping Kali. So he got Ashlyn's top off, helped Sadie, and then roasted the seeds. I also loved that the weather was nice enough that we were able to do our carving out on the deck. It sure made for a much easier clean up.

But my most favorite thing this go around was the finished product. I think these pumpkins are the best we've done yet.

Parry Halloween Pary

Our Halloween celebrations started early this year. We celebrated with all the Parry cousins tonight so that Grandma and Grandpa Parry could have a chance to see everyone's costumes. There were some super cute costumes, great food and fun games. The girls got to bob for apples, eat donuts from a string with no hands, and play a musical walking game for toys.

Witches Brew

My mom has a witch's pot that Sadie has been obsessed with so she finally bought one to give to her. Sadie could hardly wait to get home to make her own brew. My mom started giving her suggestions of what to put in it and gave her several things to add. She ended up adding lucky charms, popcorn, pretzels, fish crackers, dried mangos and cocoa roos--probably one of the more interesting concoctions I've ever seen, but the girls loved it (until the next day when they decided it wasn't that good of a mix after all).

Halloween Decorations

My girls beg me to hang up Halloween decorations every year, but I'm not really into all the gory stuff so I never do. This year, a friend of mine found this idea and I decided to give it a try. It was a big hit.

Halloween Costumes

Kali knew right after Halloween last year that she wanted to be a black cat for Halloween this year. I'm so glad because I loved looking for her costume and I must say that it turned out to be one of my favorites (the fake eyelashes were a lot of fun). She really was a cute black cat.

Sadie also knew that she wanted to be a cowgirl right after Halloween last year. The nice thing was that I already had her costume from back when Kali was a cowgirl. She looked super cute in her costume too.

And Ashlyn was a "Fewee". She was so cute when I let her try on her costume for the first time. She could hardly wait to show it to Dad because she said he would say, "Hi fairy." I don't think he did, but that's okay. As soon as she found out she'd be getting candy for dressing up, nothing else mattered. My favorite was when she would tell people thank you because she says, "Kainkoo".

And who could help but smile at this chubby little chick. She was such a good sport. The first time I put the costume on her, she didn't like it much and even cried a little. But after a while, she realized that she was going to have to put up with it. She was just this round blob and so adorable.

Sadie's Halloween Dance

Sadie's Halloween dance was very cute too. Unfortunately I got a bad angle. But she did a great job and you can't help but smile watching girls that age dance.

Kali's Halloween Dance

Kali got to dance a contemporary dance for Halloween this year. It was pretty cute, but I feel bad for her because she was put in a place where she didn't have enough room to move around with everyone there watching. So just imagine her moves bigger and better because she likes to go all out. It was pretty fun to see her be the main part of the dance at one point too.

Carving Pumpkins

Pumpkin carving is one of my favorite parts of Halloween. However, it has turned out to be a lot of work over the last several years while helping our kids carve their own pumpkins and usually I just end up frustrated. This year was different for some reason. I think it's because our kids are getting older. Kali was able to carve her pumpkin's face all by herself. I only did the opening. Sadie did a great job too. She carved out the face, but we just had to make the lines a little straighter so that we could actually punch them out.

Ashlyn was a completely different story, but what else do you expect from a two-year-old. She wanted to poke holes in her pumpkin by herself. I kept trying to convince her to wait until I could help her, but after a while I finally gave up and let her stab her pumpkin several times with a pencil. It kept her entertained for quite some time and then we carved the face on the opposite side.

Pumpkin Patch

We've never been to a pumpkin patch before but were invited by Hannah to go this year. It was such a fun experience. The girls got to climb and jump on hay bales. They got to pet and feed a few animals at the petting zoo and...

they got to go through a mini corn maze. They could have also gone on a tractor ride and pick out pumpkins, but we already bought pumpkins for the year. I want to make a tradition of this in the future. Josh also happened to find some money in his jacket pocket that he had forgotten about so he took us to Village Inn to finish off the evening with some pumpkin pie. The girls loved it and I did too. What a fun evening!

Halloween

Kali decided to be a witch this year and had so much fun Halloween night.

Sadie, our Little Red Riding Hood, had just as much fun. This was the first year that we didn't have anything to do Halloween night. So the girls actually got to go trick or treating in our neighborhood and then came home to hand out candy and watch The Wizard of Oz while eating popcorn.

The popcorn was Ashlyn's favorite part. She sat quietly watching the movie with a bowl of popcorn in front of her, slowly munching it away.

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin carving was so much more enjoyable this year. I love carving pumpkins and each year I look forward to doing it with the girls. But then it turns out to be much more of a task and headache than it's worth. However, this year was different.

Both Kali and Sadie were able to join in on the majority of the carving and gutting. Kali even carved an entire pumpkin on her own. It looked like an alien, but it made both her and I very excited for next year.

Ashlyn spent most of her time getting into mischief and making messes, but she too seemed to be enjoying herself.

Here's the finised product. So much fun!

Trick or Treating at Work

Every year the girls look forward to trick or treating at Daddy's work. This year was no different other than Ashlyn being able to join in on the fun. She was so funny. When she discovered that people were giving her candy, she ran from station to station saying, "kaykoo, kaykoo, kaykoo" which means "thank you, thank you, thank you". After the girls finished, they decorated Josh's whiteboard and spun in his chair. That ended up being almost as much fun as the trick or treating.

Halloween Dance

We also enrolled Sadie in dance this year and she is a natural (as long as she's not day dreaming). Her teacher has commented several times on how well she's doing. Her first recital turned out very cute.

Halloween Parade

Sadie had her Halloween parade at preschool today. All the costumes were so cute, but I must admit that the cute little girl dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood was my favorite. She had so much fun that she couldn't wait to tell me about her funnest day ever at preschool. She got candy and toys from classmates. She got to frost and eat a ghost cookie. She made a spider with a jack-o-lantern head. She got to practice her Halloween poem. And she got to bring home a Halloween pencil with a haunted house eraser on it. Oh the joy of seeing life through the eyes of a four-year-old.

Halloween Dance

We put Kali in dance this year and tonight was her first recital. She's very aware that most of the other girls in her class have taken dance before, but I think she's doing excellent. The Halloween dance was super cute. This video begins a few seconds after the dance started because the girls near her kept bumping into her. But the smile on her face after the dance is over tells me that she's enjoying herself.