Thurs. Oct. 31 - Happy Halloween!

 Micaela and I went to a "Play and Learn" at Riley's school and she made this jack-o-lantern

 Painting milk carton ghosts

 They looked great

The girls made a pumpkin patch

A close-up of the spider cupcakes that Riley and Anna decorated

 Banana ghosts for Halloween breakfast

Riley's class did a fashion show; they all walked the catwalk

Then sang a scary song about "Old Mrs. Witch"

 I was pretty proud of my creative jack-o-lantern this year

 Seamus checked out Riley's face paint halfway through the process

The crowned monarch

Our 4 jack-o-lanterns

Happy Halloween from our scary skeleton and happy butterfly

Halloween was so fun this year. Both girls really enjoyed choosing their costumes, decorating the house and crafting Halloween projects. One thing that I have always admired about Riley is her decisiveness and vision. She wanted to be a scary skeleton and bypassed any of the cute skeleton outfits or pink-skirted skeletons for the classic black and white costume. She patiently sat still while I painted her face so she could complete her look. She never even complained when Chad had to scrub it off her face (so much for easy-wash off) at the end of the night, true dedication! Micaela loves butterflies right now so she wanted to be a butterfly. She wore her wings all morning (we put them on to practice and she wouldn't take them off) then for hours at night, well beyond when she had stopped trick-or-treating. 

We did lots of fun projects leading up to Halloween. We painted milk jugs with ghost faces then put lights in them to decorate the window. We made a foam pumpkin patch, orange and black pinwheels and cut out ghosts to float from our curtain rods. I have always loved Halloween and enjoyed getting the girls excited with all these festive activities.

Daddy was gone until Wednesday night so we didn't carve pumpkins until the day before Halloween. Micaela wanted a Hello Kitty jack-o-lantern while Riley chose a cyclops monster jack-o-lantern. My Packers-chomping Bear pumpkin got a lot of comments, even the Packers fans were complimentary of my creativity and carving. Chad chose a bumpy pumpkin which turned out to have a very thick skin but made a cool jack-o-lantern. Our pumpkins looked great next to the scary crypt monster that Micaela had chosen to hang on our door. 

On Halloween morning Riley's preschool class all wore their costumes and put on a fashion show. It was adorable to watch all the kids walk the catwalk. Riley was the only girl in her entire class that didn't wear a dress (lots of princesses, supergirls and cheerleaders). I really admire her confidence and individuality. She received lots of compliments from her classmates and from other trick-or-treaters all night long. 

Trick-or-treating starts at 4 pm in Appleton which is great for little kids. We had a warm but rainy Halloween. Chad came home early to hand out candy while I took Riley and Micaela trick-or-treating. Micaela went down the block then decided she was done so Riley continued with her friend Annika and her mom Paula while I took Micaela home and ran back to Riley. It was hard to juggle an umbrella and pumpkin full of candy but we had a good system. Riley and Annika went house-to-house for almost 2 hours before the rain finally drove them home.  Micaela had a great time handing out candy with Chad; despite the rain we had a steady stream of kids, we have a very family-oriented neighborhood. We finished the night with some candy and "Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." Ahh the memories!