Halloween

After changing his mind numerous times about what to be for halloween, Ethan then decided he DID NOT want to dress up.  He just wanted to be a normal person.  He seemed scared of dressing up.  My sister brought a spiderman costume for him, which I thought he would love, but he was afraid he would need to cut off his hands to put webbing in so he could be spiderman.  Even after explaining about it all being pretend, he still wasn't interested.  The week before Halloween when I told him he needed to decide so I could get costumes ready, he settled on a pirate.  I had everything we needed and pulled it all together, but then he changed his mind again.  The night of our Ward's trunk-or-treat he told me he thought people would laugh at him.  He dresses up at home all the time, but something about it being for Halloween made him nervous this year.  We had a couple costumes on hand that he decided to be at the last minute   For our Ward trunk-or-treat activity he dressed as a red crayon.  For Halloween night he decided to be a dragon (he was excited he could wear all green, his favorite color.)

Decorating halloween cookies with Aunt Annie and Uncle Ian.  Annie said Brielle decorated (and ate the frosting off) the same cookie about 5 times.  

Pumpkin carving.  We had lots of stencils, but it takes a lot of adult help to get them done.  Elise and Gavin really wanted to have the princess and pirate which Danny and Megan were nice to help them with.  I convinced my kids to carve their own so I didn't get caught finishing the stencil carving while they ran around to play.  Brielle wanted a cat, Ethan wanted a jack-o-lantern with a sad face and hair, they did them almost all on their own and were happy with their results.

Ethan as a dragon, Elise as Repunzel, Brielle as the Tooth Fairy and Gavin as a singing cowboy (inspired by the musical 'Crazy for You).

The kids are lucky to have extended family around.  Aunt Alana and Cousin Allison came out to take the kids trick or treating.  We went to a few houses in the Finlay's neighborhood.  There are not many trick or treaters on the Mesa, and the kids get special treatment at these houses with individually wrapped presents (toys, puzzles, games, notebooks, etc.) and king size candybars.  Their buckets were filled quickly by our nice friends.

Elise was NOT happy when James borrowed her Repunzel hair.