Parties, pumpkins and Halloween!!!

 While Blake was gone I watched a friends kids for the evening and thought it would be fun to do a little Halloween party while they were here. We made green and orange jello, shaped as bats, cats, witches, ghosts and pumpkins, Remi made a veggie plate, that kind of looked like a jack-o-lantern, we had orange kool-aid with gummi worms, pumpkin shaped pizza with jack-o-lantern faces, pretzels the kids shaped into bones. For their treat they got to paint sugar cookies, then have black and orange popcorn while they watched scooby doo movie. They had a blast!

Remi's jack-o-lantern veggie plate

Halloween Jello

coolaid and worms

Halloween popcorn

pretzel "bones"

 Grandma Jones sent her annual halloween shirts and candy for the kids and they had fun opening the package and modeling their shirts!

Halloween shirts and treats

trying on our mustaches

Broden getting mom in trouble

Broden the tough guy

Remi the boss

Alissa the ninja

 We had fun carving our pumpkins the Saturday before Halloween. Broden drew his pumpkin exactly how he wanted it on paper, then we carved it together. Remi wanted an ice cream cone and Alissa picked a cat off the computer that she wanted on her pumpkin. Blake drew it for her and she colored it while we helped the other 2 with their pumpkins. Parker loved cleaning out his pumpkin!

Remi and Broden cleaning them out

Alissa, Blake and Parker picking out pumpkin designs

Broden's finished pumpkin

Alissa's colored pumpkin

Alissa's carved pumpkin

Parker cleaning out his pumpkin

Left to right, Broden's, Parkers, Remi's and Alissa's

Halloween night we headed to base to do some trick or treating with friends. There are SOOO many people who go on base. Some of our friends handed out $250 dollars worth of candy, one at a time in 45 minutes. CRAZY! The kids had a blast thought and got tons of candy!

Alissa the bee, Remi the cat and Broden the bat

Alissa the bee

Parker the dog, he didn't quite know how to open his bag for more candy, when he already had a piece in his other hand.

Parker checking out the scary guy in a chair

Alissa's candy

Broden's candy

Remi's candy

 I try not to spend money on Halloween costumes every year, I don't really know why. I guess thats just  how I am. I remember growing up we used what we had to create costumes, so maybe that is why I do it. We borrowed both Alissa's bee costume and Parker's costume from friends. I did make wings and antennae for Alissa though. I used 2 hangers and some old tights for Alissa's wings, then just put gold glitter on them to make them fancy. For the antennae I used a black headband and put gold pipe cleaners from another project on it with black yarn balls on the end. They were pretty cute. Remi wanted to be a cat and I suggested she wear her black skirt and shirt and we could make her a tail and ears. Then another friend offered ears, so she was set. All I had to do was bed a hanger to look like a tail, wrap the tail with some batting and black material then pin it on. Super easy and free! Broden wanted to be a bat. I cut out his wings out of some scrap black material and pinned them to a black shirt. Then he just wore his black school pants. For his ears we took Blake's ear warmer and sewed some big felt bat ears to them. It wasn't my favorite costume as far as the ones I have made, but he loved it and that's what matters. So this year for Halloween everyone's costume was free! I love making costumes, and I am ok spending some money on them too. I just need to plan ahead a little more than a week. Things are a little harder to find here than they were in the states:)

The kids had a blast with all the Halloween festivities. We went to Blake's work party the Friday before Halloween, where they went through the "Haunted Hallway", played musical pumpkins, ate and colored. They had enough candy after just that one party. On Halloween day I took the kids to another party at the hospital. They did a few crafts, then trick-or-treated around the hospital. After that we went to the bx food court and got their picture taken and in exchange got a free kids meal. So we got 4 free kids meals! After we ate we headed home to relax and regroup for more trick-or-treating that night.

We now have WAY TO MUCH CANDY! I am hoping to find something to do with it besides eat all of it here. We not only have candy our kids got, we have the candy we bought to pass out, then didn't end up passing it out. Oh well. The kids had so much fun dressing up and seeing all the other costumes and Halloween decorations. Hopefully we will learn to eat candy in moderation:)