Happy Halloween!

For the last couple years I've been telling the kids that they don't have to wear coordinating costumes if they don't want to, but I'm always happy and relieved that they end up choosing to.  I love it!  This year we decided (after much brainstorming and debate) on Harry Potter, Hermione, Ron, and Hedwig (the owl).  It turned out really great!  I was planning on making myself into Professor McGonagall, but time and sickness (dang this cold!) prevented me from getting farther than cutting out half the pieces.  The next step would have been to make Dan into Hagrid, which would have been AWESOME.  Maybe one of these years I'll get around to getting the grown ups into costume.  Maybe.

Here are some pictures from before trick-or-treating tonight.  A big thank you to Grandma & Grandpa Smith for providing the robes, glasses, and wands!

 Dan started snapping some pictures of Harry-Ryan before we went outside.  Which is good, because I didn't end up getting another good one of him...

...which is mostly due to his current love of making weird faces instead of smiling.  Which is funny, until they're all that way!

Sweet, sweet Hedwig-Nathan.  I made his costume from a white sweatshirt, some fleece for the hat, and a whole bunch of felt.  I love how it turned out!

Oh. My. Gosh.  Perhaps someone with a Photoshop talent could make me a decent picture of my four children?  Because they are apparently incapable of doing so on their own.

 Katy.  Sweet daughter of mine.  What are you doing?  David and Ryan look great!

 Is there a rule that only two of them can look great in any one picture?  Nathan looks adorable, Ryan looks great, but David's smile isn't as good as in the previous picture.  And Katy...why does your face look like that?

 Okay, this is probably the best one overall.  They all look pretty good.  So now I'm mad about the plant.

 Maybe a different background?  Only, you can't see the pumpkins, you can only half see our cute monster door, and why is the side of my house so gross looking?  None of the kids look very happy, either.

And it's Ryan's turn to ruin the picture (although not intentionally I don't think).

Maybe I'll have more luck with individuals?  The lovey Hermione-Katy.  Always happy to have an excuse to wear some of Mommy's makeup.

Harry and Hedwig!  I love it!

I'm so happy we got the orange hair stuff!  It really makes for a good Ron!

Another picture of Hedwig.  Because he's adorable. 

Side note: I had several people call him a girl tonight.  What?  This is pretty dang gender neutral, leaning towards boy because Hedwig is a boy.  Right?

Okay, kids, let's try again.  Nope, still not great.  Oh well, I give up!

 One more lovely picture of Ryan...

 And another adorable picture of the not-baby baby.

 Flapping his wings!


We then met up with some friends from the neighborhood and made our rounds.  It was nice to go with them, especially because between grandparents and parents the rest of our group had a 8:4 adult to child ratio.  That sure helped out my 1:4 ratio!  I was slightly annoyed that Harry and Ron kept hurrying ahead, but at least they were still with our group.  It just defeats the purpose of coordinating costumes if nobody sees them together!  It's hard to hurry a two year old though.  He kept stopping to look at people's decorations. :-)  And he was definitely ready to go home before everyone else was.  So then I got my arm workout for the day carrying his heaviness!  I deserve at least a few pieces of candy for that, right?


When I was getting Nathan in his jammies  tonight we had the following conversation:

Me: Were you a white owl?
Nathan: Yep.
Me: Did you say "who, who?"
Nathan: I said "trick or treat!"
Me: What happened when you said "trick or treat"?
Nathan: I got candy!
Me: And then what did you say?
Nathan: I said "thank you."
Me: Did you have fun?
Nathan: Yep...let's do it again!