I had to explain to them that if we carved them that early, they'd be rotten by Halloween.  So they settled for decorating outside with them until the night before Halloween when we carved them.



 

Of course, I was super excited to try something I found on Pinterest for the Puppy.  I saw this absolutely adorable jack-o-lantern where they had carved hands and feet for the baby.  You can see my lame attempt above.  #1, the pumpkin wasn't near big enough for both hands AND feet, and #2, try getting and almost-7-month-old to hold his hands on a pumpkin long enough to trace them well.  As you can see, we did our best.  The Puppy still loved his jack-o-lantern, as you can see.  Snip was overjoyed  because he actually got to use the carving tool this year and did his lid, eyes, and nose by himself.  The Big Dog helped him do the mouth.  Snail wanted round everything and he wanted to taste everything that came out of his "pun-tin".  All around great night!  Topped it off with the Puppy crawling for the first time....what just happened?  The littlest is on the move!  I'm really in trouble now! 


Snip also had his Halloween party and parade at preschool on Wednesday.  We have an allergy in his classroom, so coming up with a super-cute, creative treat was a little difficult.  I was planning to do rotten pumpkin teeth (candy corn), but that has something in it that the little boy can't have, so I went with my back-up plan of mandarin orange cups with jack-o-lantern faces.  (Pinterest) He had a great time helping me with these, and both he and Snail enjoyed counting them once we were all done.  I was beyond excited this year to be able to help with the party.  This is one of the big reasons I quit my job, to be able to do these kinds of things.  As a teacher, you only get so many personal days, so that was always something I worried about in the future and having three running to three different places.  The party was great!  The kids got to go to stations and do crafts, sing songs, play games, and wrap each other up like mummies.  The snacks were great and they had so much fun!  It was nice to have this indoor celebration since we knew we wouldn't be outside trick-or-treating much because of cold, snowy, sleety weather.

Wednesday night the boys got to go Trick-or-Treating, but we only did 3 houses, and two of our neighbors brought treats to OUR door.  It was freezing, and miserable.  Same thing happened last year.  They were still super cute, and very excited.  We drove across town to our friends' house and the boys enjoyed visiting and we enjoyed some treats of our own...my very first Blue Moon!  Yes, I am broadening my horizons in the world of beer.  It was very yummy, though I've been told it's better in a cold glass with a slice of orange...guess I need to try that!

The boys were superheroes this year.  In the past, I've usually made their costumes....When Snip was two, he was a John Deere tractor.

And last year, when they were 2 and 4, they were Max and a Wild Thing from Where the Wild Things Are.

So, this year, yep, I slacked.  But mostly, it was because Snail is COMPLETELY OBSESSED with Batman.  Since his birthday in August he's been saying he wanted to be Batman for Halloween.  Well, that made dressing the Puppy easy...Robin! Snip wanted to be Fin McMisile from CARS 2, but this Mumma was not all about making another "car" costume (see above tractor) this year, so with a little convincing and a lot of talking it up, he agreed to Spiderman.  So, I leave you with my little  superheroes.