The Holiday that Haunts Me

Halloween. It doesn't haunt me for the same reason spooky ghosts and skeletons in my elementary school's haunted house used to haunt me when I was six. It's haunts me now for completely different reasons. 

And the haunting doesn't start just before Halloween as you would think it should. It's starts as early as November 1st. 

"Oh Mom, I know what I want to be for Halloween next year..."

I know I've said it before. I just don't get into Halloween. I don't decorate. I don't make my kids' costumes. I don't really see much reason to celebrate, uh, death? (What is it, exactly, that we are celebrating on Oct. 31 anyway???) As Richard said to me when sneaking into the Halloween candy, "What? It is Halloween. And, it's what Satan would want!"

I suppose we do it all for the kids, right? I mean, the candy. I mean, the kids who only want candy. I mean, for the parent's who want to steal all the good candy from their kid's purple plastic pumpkin. 

Whatever.

Anyway, despite all the haunting I hate, we celebrated Halloween as to not deprive our children of cavities candy.

We started our festivities by doing what all other LDS families across the nation did and carved pumpkin's for FHE the week before.

I carved the Angry Bird pumpkin. I felt it was a good portrayal of my feelings towards Halloween. Actually, I did it because that's what James wanted and I don't trust him with a knife, but it worked both ways. The one on the left is Marianne's, then William's (He likes to make up his own, so he didn't use a pattern like the rest of us.) then the owl next to the bird is Sarah's, and Thomas carved the spider. 

We also did something new this year. We took the kids to Haunts of Harriman at Harriman State Park the weekend before Halloween. There, they trick-or-treated at all the different houses/buildings. They also had a little carnival set up in the Boy's House, and the decorations everywhere were great! Way fun for kids.
First, we took a hayride into the park.

Then we stopped off in the Dining Hall for hot chocolate/cider and cookies and popcorn. Yum! And, since it was a blizzard outside, this was heaven sent!

They had a haunted house set up in the Honeymoon Hotel. James refused to get any closer to the door than this, so we had to go through without him.

A little magic show. :)

And, of course, there was Halloween night. The weather was shockingly beautiful for Halloween. I didn't even wear a jacket at all the entire night. Quite a contrast from a few days earlier when it was a blizzard at Harriman. 

I think the main reason Thomas wanted to dress up like this was so he would have a good excuse to get a picture taken with his Dad's gun.

P.S. Notice the Halloween drawings hanging in the living room window. That would be Sarah's doing. She was just not going to have Halloween without some decorations. I tried to convince her that the carved pumpkins would be enough, but she wouldn't have it.

Thomas with his cousin, Adam.

William (Indana Jones), Adam (CIA agent), and Thomas (army guy, as usual). I love the bright green and orange Nerf guns. Keep it real, guys.

My mom always throws a fun little Halloween party at her house. 

Thought this was a cute one of Rachel.

William insisted on doing it correctly by not using his hands, which is why he is the sole doughnut eater left here. 

We eventually made it back home so the kids and their cousins could trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. 

And, so Richard could scare the neighbors with his microphone and loud speaker that he hid on the front porch. He pretty much scared the crap out of a lot of little kids, and probably a few parents, saying stuff in a deep voice like, "Oh good, I'm starving! Here's some more children to eat...hehehe." And other such creepy phrases. At one point, a mother said, "Don't worry, it's not a real person", to which Richard replied (still in his scary voice), "Yes I am!" 

It was quite amusing.

Here is James (Obi-Wan) with his cousin, Will (cop - in case you couldn't tell).

Marianne (cereal killer) with a big group of her friends who went trick-or-treating together. 

And the only child who's costume I didn't mention was Sarah's. She copied Marianne from last year and was a "Smartypants". I stuck Smarties to her pants. That's about as far as I'll go when it comes to making costumes for my kids.

As much as I dislike Halloween, I have to admit that we had a good time celebrating death/evil/whatever this year. However, I am also kind of glad it's over for a while. Hopefully, I'll get the fillings paid for before next October. . .