Before the big night, and all month really, we had some other great other Halloween things going on.
We had a Cub Scout carnival for the boys and their families. I've become the Den Mother for the Wolves and we're loving it! We picked two games, so I did the apples on a string game, and a Halloween duck pond. The games were a hit! There were many other fun games and the kids all had a fun time, except for Cov, who was traumatized by a Grim Reaper costume. The eyes glowed through a mask and it was too much for Cov. The boy showed Cov it was just him under it, but Covey hated it and wanted Dad to take him home. Lucy dressed up like a red princess, Emma a witch, Cal wanted to be Inigo Montoya, and Cov a Washington State football player.
One of the best things we did was had our Branch Barn Dance. We held it out at one of our family's barns. First, we had a Trunk-or-Treat. Our car we decorated as "Witch's Book Mobile". We tried to make it look like a witch was reading books and had a bunch of other Halloween books all around. It turned out pretty cute for minimal effort. There was a big bonfire, chili cook-off and a bunch of sides and goodies, hot chocolate, hay rides behind the tractor, cute games in the barn, and lots of dancing in the loft of the barn. It was so fun to see everyone let loose and have a good time. The kids, especially Lucy, really got into the dancing! It was pure joy! This Branch really knows how to party! We can't find our charger chord for our good camera, so these are all just pathetic pictures. But we had a great time and were glad Jeff & Shirley could come with us!
We had some fun class parties for the kids. They didn't get to dress up at all (lame) but we still had a great time! I was able to help in Lucy and Cal's classes. In Lucy's class, we made spider hats, played bean bag toss, spin a pumpkin, Halloween bowling, and did an eye-ball spoon relay along with some fun treats, including these apple monster mouths. In Cal's class, I helped do some relay games likes bat toss and the eyeball and spoon game there, too. Emma had a fun fall party and the kids did most of it themselves, planning and hosting. For Cov, we did a several fun Halloween theme days for Mommy preschool. He really liked monster day and especially the Frankenstein mask we made together.
The day before Halloween, we carved our pumpkins. Cal was pretty funny and kept commenting on how disgusting it felt to scoop out the guts! The other guys loved it. Cov and Lucy did fun foam pumpkin stickers, and Cal and Emma both did their own. I helped them very little, which was nice, because usually I end up carving my own and everyone elses, which I resent sometimes. Haha! We put some old, broken up crayons on top of a pumpkin and melted them in the oven. It turned out pretty cool! I painted a bat one and cut out foam bats to look like they were flying in the light of the moon. And, I carved a "Princess Bride" pumpkin. Dave wrote "Anybody want a peanut?" on one of his and put a bunch of peanuts around that one, and "Pumpkin Pie" on another and threw it in a pie tin. That boy, he's so funny. We finished off the night eating roasted pumpkin seeds, yum!
We made a bunch of fun (and creepy) food and snacks, of course. Here's a little sampling. Maybe I have too much fun. Most of these were Pinterest ideas, a few my own. ;)
The day of Halloween finally arrived. The day before was beautiful and warm and the day after was beautiful and warm, the the day of All Hallow's Eve was stormy all day. :( Boo! The kids mostly had a regular day at school and Cov and I did a few fun things together. After school, we hurried and did homework, ate dinner which consisted of tomato soup with goop, homemade giant cheese sandwich, mandarin orange cookie salad, and veggies and dip, and then it was time to get costumes on!
Dave was Fezzik (Andre the Giant!) - "Anybody want a peanut?" He made a good one. He forgot to let his facial hair grow until about a week before so his sideburns were pretty short but still worked. We got an afro wig from the dress up box. Sewed an easy peasant shirt and striped pants. And he pulled on his boots. Some people at his work party thought he was Howard Stern, but they hadn't seen Princess Bride (gasp!). Others said they knew just who he was by looking at the pants alone.
I was Valerie - "I'm not a witch, I'm your wife!" It was easy to do, too. I just whipped together an easy peasant dress, dyed some cheesecloth and made it look raggedy for a shawl, got some old jewlerly and then put my hair in tight curlers, ratted it and sprayed it with temporary gray and white hair spray.
Emma was Inigo Montoya - "You killed my father, prepare to die." We used one of my white tops, brown leggings, made a vest, got a belt together, faux mustache, black hairspray and got her a sword, of course! Emma even helped make her vest, which was fun!
Callahan was Westley - "As you wish." He enjoyed being him and helped me sew together his mask. All of his costume was made out of black scraps and it was pretty easy to throw together. We purchased some black pirate boot covers and black sword for him, too.
Lucy was Princess Buttercup - "Enough about my beauty. Everybody always talks about how beautiful I am. I’ve got a mind, Westley. Talk about that." This was a no-brainer, as Lucy likes to get dolled up and was so happy no one else wanted to be her. I made this dress out of scrap fabric my mom gave me a few years ago. We got a wig on clearance a few years back and never have opened it, but it worked perfect for this! We also ordered a crown on Amazon from China and are lucky it got here in time! Tied some gold ribbon around her waste and the lady was ready.
Coverton was Vizzini - "Inconceivable!" He was pretty cute and was excited to tell everyone before Halloween he was going to be zuchinni. Haha! But he got the "inconceivable" quote down and kept saying it on Halloween. My mom helped make a pattern for his costume and we sewed it together while she was here - yay! Then he wore some of Lucy's leggings and his black boots. We got a bald cap, trimmed it down and assembled fake hair along the sides.
We made a little costume for Jazzy as an ROUS - Rodent of Unusual Size. Emma was determined her cat would dress up. I tried and tried to make it fierce and scary looking but it wasn't working, haha! We used some faux fur material and added some cut out details with felt and hot glue. It was pretty funny but she mostly liked playing with it and not wearing it.
We started out at the hospital, where the residents in the rest home pass out candy. They are such great people, it was fun going in to see them and the kids got a ton of candy there. Then the Anderberg clan picked us up in their hay wagon, which they covered with a tarp, to take us around the neighborhood. They're so great, and I'd have to say we had the sweetest ride in town! We went to the hospital again (we weren't sure they were going) so we just stayed dry and warm and said hi to some people, then the senior living center, and a few friends houses. Dave stayed at our house to pass out candy. We gave out full-sized candy bars and we think there were between 50-75 people that came by. Then we went to Kris & Sherie's for some homemade donuts and hot chocolate, Ichabod Crane & Charlie Brown, visiting, and the kids played together. A couple of the dads took the big kids around still more, so Emma went back out, but everyone else wanted to play. It was so fun being with their family and getting to be "honorary Anderberg's" for the night. Then we came home, the kids checked out the goods a bit, and we watched a little Halloween show and went to bed as the kids had school the next morning. It was the perfect ending to this story book story Princessbride Halloween.
