Our Halloween 2014

 The boys, enjoying the Halloween section of Target

Another Halloween season has come and gone, and I have to say, I am POOPED! It was fun as always, but this October was complicated with more surgery for me and a major bout of sickness for little Char. Thankfully, having little Halloween-lovers in the house really helps with holiday moral and we were able to have a wonderful time anyway.

To start off the month of ghosts and goblins, we made mummy meatballs (thank you Pinterest) with edible eyes:

Coobie approved heartily! 

We had our favorite 'Boo-nilla' shakes and used our creepy salad prongs (Thanks again, Kathleen!):

 We read some of our favorite Halloween books:

We had all sorts of outdoor fun since Kansas is a treat in the Fall!

For example, we went on cold hikes with cold treats:

 We hid in abandoned stumps:

And had fun bonfires:

We also were nice enough to remember our favorite little rats for their annual pumpkin pancake breakfast:

Mason's rat is nearly 2 pounds. He is now two-years-old and I hope he lives forever. There really is no sweeter creature on this earth then Mr. Fratso. 

 Then it came time to iron down exactly what we were going to be for Halloween. I was a big girl this year and actually let my kids pick their own costumes without any sort of brainwashing or pressure on my part. The boys and I have been reading the Narnia books so Char decided and that he wanted to be Edmund and Coobie decided that he wanted to be Reepicheep (the talking and hilarious warrior mouse), and Mason decided on....a ninja. (Way to kill the Narnia theme, Mason!) As much as I would have loved the idea of going for a family theme, I was over the moon that Mason picked one of the easiest costumes in the world to make! Hot dog!

Coobie was so excited to be his favorite Reepicheep that he started wearing a strip of newspaper in his pants nearly everywhere he went at the beginning of the month:

He also wore a strip of the faux-fur that I used on his costume around his waist whenever he could.

I had really good intentions of finishing all three costumes before my dreaded surgery mid-month, but somehow painting and home improvement projects won out instead. This left my boys with serious doubts of my ability to make their Halloween costume/dreams come true. As sweet as my boys are, they really could not care less that I just went under the knife and instead constantly peppered me with questions about when I was going to get off the couch and sew.

But eventually I did and I fell back in their good graces:

 So well, in fact, that the boys insisted on wearing their newly sewn costumes all over town:

 They better of liked what I made them since this is what my craftroom looked like afterwards:

Yikes!

When Halloween finally rolled around we dolled ourselves up and got ready to party!

Now an intermission for some glamour shots:

Mason was over the moon for his costume but it was the first one I tackled post surgery and you can tell. Thank goodness he is seven and doesn't care about sewing techniques!

Walmart carried the exact sword and sword holder that he was picturing!

Coobie was certain that he was the cutest little mouse that ever was. Who cares that nobody had a clue who he was?!

Char's outfit was certainly the hardest to make. It took all sorts of mediums to make it live up to what he envisioned. And if anyone know what Edmund was supposed to look like, it was Char, since he ate up the books and has since watched the movies a zillion times. Add that to the fact that he was feeling terrible for the whole two weeks leading up to Halloween and I really wasn't sure what he would think of my costume attempts. Luckily, he was a fan.

 Chippy had a check-up at the doctors on Halloween but he was okay with it since he got to have special time with his ever-favorite Poppy AND got a glove full of candy to boot!

I crocheted the chainmail and freezer-stenciled the lion

 I love Char

The boys had been suggesting that I go as Medusa for a whole year straight (I guess I had been a little too grouchy?) so I used a sheet, some wire and a bunch of green hair spray to make their dream come true:

After paying visits to some of our very favorite people:

 If you think he looked bugged, imagine being the one who had to buckle him in and out of his car seat while he wore that hairy get-up!

We headed home and ate gross pizza while finally carving our pumpkins before it got dark:

 Pumpkin carving is fun, but pumpkin carving with power tools is even better!

 McCabe told James that he wanted a full moon and a werewolf on his pumpkin and boy was he pleased with the results!

Last but not least, we headed out on the town to collect candy to our hearts content!What a month!

Happy Halloween!!!!