Halloween festivities

I went with Weston's class to the pumpkin patch.  

Nathan didn't want to carve pumpkins this year, but he was interested in the pumpkin seeds.  He cleaned them off and roasted them.

Army man, duck, skeleton, Jasmine, and Gru

I'm not actually a big fan of Halloween, mostly because it ends up being a lot of work.  I have a hard time spending $20-50 each on costumes, which is what they typically are these days.  That means that I usually try to make or find costumes or accessories at the thrift store.  I lucked out and found Jared's request on sale at Target for $8, so I bought that.  Owen wanted to be a duck - likely because he has a group of friends at school that call themselves the "duck squad".  I didn't have any luck finding yellow (or even white) shorts or hat at the thrift store, so I did order those on-line.  I found some old shoes at the thrift store and spray-painted them orange.  We put orange tape and cardboard eyes on the hat.  At least he still wears the shorts, shirt, shoes, and hat.  Weston wanted to be an army man, which you would think would be easy, but I didn't find any costumes at the thrift stores.  He already had a camouflage hat.  I finally found some adult sized jackets at the thrift store - most of them were $20, but I did find one that was only about $6.  I just had to alter the jacket a little bit to fit a little better.  Savannah wanted to be Jasmine, and I thought we had a suitable dress already.  About 3 days before the festivities, she tried it on and it was too small... I ended up cutting off the top part and cutting the sleeves so she could get her arms in.  Then I found a skin colored adult tank top that I altered so she could wear it under the top.  I also found the skirt at the thrift store.  The most expensive piece for her was the wig.  Nathan wasn't going to wear a costume at all, until he got invited to a costume party, and I thought he needed something.  So I put together a Gru costume at the last minute - he didn't pick it.  I just thought about what we already had - he had a black jacket and pointy black shoes.  He wore some of my black pants that are tighter around the legs.  The only thing I had to make was the scarf, sewing some gray fabric on black.  It was a pretty simple costume, almost to the point of not being a costume, but people did recognize that he was Gru from Despicable Me.  I made Alex's costume out of drapery fabric, and I did put together a pretty good hat just from cardstock with fabric glued around it.  I had to buy the beard.  I made my cloak, and I bought a skirt that I can wear again.  I calculated that I spent $103 total, but $47 was on things we can wear often.  For the non-rewearable, we averaged about $8 a costume, so I guess we did pretty good on being thrifty. 

We went to a fun Halloween night at the church - chili, games, and trunk-or-treat.  

We had German pancakes (colored orange) for breakfast on Halloween.  Grandma sent some fun self-inflating balloons in the mail.  We had pigs in a blanket, watermelon, and Martinelli's for dinner.  Nathan and Jared had other plans with friends.  Owen and Savannah did some trick or treating around the neighborhood.  Weston knocked on 3 doors, but then he was done.  He still doesn't like candy.  

We did our annual party with friends.  They always put on such a great party.  The theme this year was Harry Potter.  I made some "cockroach clusters" (in the first photo below) - chocolate balls with melted chocolate and pecans.  Alex dressed up as Dumbledore and I was Ginny Weasley.

Thanks Julie and Donald!