Halloween!

I was working on a blanket for Wallace all week and just now got a chance to go through the photos on my camera.  So...a little belated with the Halloween post...  

I really need to learn how to make costumes for the kids.  Maybe next year I'll start a little early and buy patterns.  This year we got suckered into that stupid Chasing Fireflies catalog again... The costumes are really nice, but they are just just stupid expensive.  Seriously...I've got to find a cheaper way next year.  These things only really get worn once!  

Anna wanted to put on her costume on Sunday...and since we paid so much for it I let her.  May as well get some miles on it.  She wanted her picture taken, but she just kept giving me this fierce face.  Out of like 200 photos, I only kept about 5.  "/  Instead of coming across as fierce, she looked more like I was forcing her to stay out there and take photos, when quite the opposite was true for once.  ;)

I only kept the ones where she was at least sort of smiling.

She was a mermaid princess with magical powers (because it came with a wand).  She had a cape. It was pretty much awesome.  

For Halloween we always trick or treat in our old neighborhood where my Mom still lives.  It's small and contained and the houses are fairly close together.  It's just perfect for them.  And it always starts with a community hot dog roast.  This was the first year where all three of them knew what was going on.  Last year Meredith was so confused by everything.  At one point she snuck past a guy who was handing out candy and got into his house!  He had no idea she was even in there.  It was a little awkward trying to explain to him that my kid was loose in his house.  "/

Ugh.  Anna.  What is up with this face?  This was the face she was giving me in all of the photos on Sunday!

This one's better.  

Wallace was a skeletal knight, except I didn't buy him the mask.  I figured he might hate wearing it, and it was a $25 add-on item.  Good grief Chasing Fireflies.  Really?  All of the accessories are sold separately!  I ended up getting his sword and shield much cheaper on Amazon.

Meredith's little witch costume was so adorable.  And she LOVED it!

Here we are all done up.  She wanted big girl make-up.  I did the best I could.  I'm not really all that great at putting on my own make-up so her expectations really shouldn't have been very high.  She seemed happy with it though.  She smiled...sort of...

The thing I was most surprised with was how Anna and Wallace stayed in character.  Anna was putting spells on everyone, and herself, so she could walk to trick or treat since she was a mermaid and all.  

We ended up only walking through about half of my Mom's neighborhood before their buckets were full.  Meredith could hardly walk toward the end of it.  She insisted on carrying her own bucket the whole time.  It just kept getting heavier and heavier, but every time Josh and I tried to grab for it to help her she'd flip out and suddenly have a death grip on it.  I finally just carried her while she held her bucket.  

But the costume fun doesn't end there.  We are fortunate to get lots of hand-me-downs for Wallace, and sometimes we even get costumes!  Meredith spotted her favorite man hanging in his closet about a month ago and she insists on wearing this one every now and then.

Guess she's shooting some web here.  She actually ended up sleeping in this that night.  I couldn't get it off her.  I dropped her off at my Mom's the next morning in it.  I get her there very early on my way into work, so I just put her in the crib she has there every morning and she falls back to sleep.  My Mom wakes her when it's time to get ready for school.  Ha!  I'd imagine it was quite the thrill to see her when she woke up.  :)