Halloween week o'fun

With four kids Halloween becomes a rather busy and eventful time of the year. We run around trying to put together the perfect outfits that fit our kids personalities and they love being lost in the magic of becoming someone else for a few hours.  One thing I do love is instead of wearing their costumes for a few hours one night they got to don their new identities to a few different parties. 

First up was our Matty. We knew months ago we wanted him to be Yoda and found him the perfect costume at a local store. He was a trooper on getting on his outfit and leaving on his head piece. He also brought oohs and ahhs from everyone who saw him. 

 The other kids also showed their geek personas. Laine was princess Leia, with an awesome wig to boot. Eve pulled out her inner Hermione Granger. And one costume James wore was is Harry Potter Quidditch gear. With all this Star Wars and Harry Potter love going around I admit now that I have raised my children to be geeks.

 I only made two costumes this year. Christian's and mine. Keeping with the Star Wars theme I made us some awesome Jedi robes. Then painted some glow in the dark light sabers!

 Keep your hands off ladies, this man is mine.

 We had a Bradley family party on Saturday night. The kids enjoyed our spooky treats and we enjoyed their awesome costumes.

 The next night we went to the Bellamy Halloween party, also full of spooky treats.

The cousins got together for pictures there too.

Now some of you may have noticed that James has switched costumes. Gone is Harry Potter and he has been replaced by an Evil Sith.  See, James couldn't decide what costume he wanted this year so his Virginia mom sent him two..lucky boy. That way he changed back and forth on what he wore to various parties. I don't think a five year old could ask for anything more.

Matty decided that two Halloween parties was enough and decided to crash on mom and dad's bed, shirtless. 

The next night we craved our pumpkins. The rule this year was that you had to be able to carry your own pumpkin and you had to clean it out.

Matty of course could carry his pumpkin, but Dad cleaned it and carved it. he was a very sad boy with a very happy pumpkin.

 This was the first year James had to clean his own pumpkin. He wanted the wartiest pumpkin he could find. I ended up carving it for him, after he outlined it for me.

Laine decided to make hers a Frankenstein, she gutted it and cleaned it herself.

 And Eve's pumpkin was rotten inside. She was a trooper though and still cleaned it out on her own. Then she carved it and found it amusing that you could see the rot through her pumpkin's mouth.

 Our final bit of Halloween fun actually happened on Halloween day. We started the day with some Halloween Parades at school.  James once again donned his Harry Potter costume, complete with broom. Matty and I even got some trick or treating done at our weekly trip to the library.

During the evening we went trick or treating in the neighborhood with cousins and James as Darth Vadar again. Christian and I ended up carrying four light sabers, Matty's candy bag, and Matty while the other kids raced from house to house. There was even a time where we sent one group home to drop off the candy while the rest of us continued with empty bags, only to quickly find them full again.

It was a fun holiday and I think Matty is going to go through withdraws tomorrow when he realizes that the magical time  where people just give you candy is over.