A Charlie Brown Halloween

I love Halloween!

Our Halloween celebrations started out with an awesome Halloween themed birthday party for Sammy's little friend, Sean. The party was complete with ghoulish treats like a watermelon carved into a brain (it was amazing!), white chocolate covered pretzels with marshmallows on the ends that looked liked bones, spider cookies, and Halloween cupcakes. I was so impressed with the work Chiyo put into the decorations and food; it was such a clever party. Also, her boys were dressed up in homemade Pinocchio and Jimminy Cricket costumes. They were adorable. 

I worked hard all through the end of September and through October to prepare for the Family Housing Halloween party I was in charge of. We ended up having over 200 people come and despite my fears about our much smaller venue (the room we usually use for big events is in a building that has been condemned for asbestos. Yikes!) the event was a huge success. Miss Amy Haywood performed some fun Halloween songs for the kids and then we had 8 foot long sub sandwiches and treats for lunch. Laurie-Anne had made hundreds of ice cubes with spiders in them that gave the drinks that creepy Halloween feel. It was my favorite event of the year. 

Kelly and Miss Amy singing songs with the kids.

Look at all those cute costumes!

Luckily it was a nice day (despite the snow on the ground) so people were able to eat outside. We had just the right amount of food. Hurray for a perfect guess on the sandwich order!

Jessica with the ghoulish spider ice cubes. 

Once again, I got super into our family costume. We were Snoopy, Lucy, and Sammy was Charlie Brown. It was simple - Don just wore an old white sweatshirt and some pajama pants of mine (yes, he definitely fits into my pants - and they are long enough). I bought Sammy a Charlie Brown shirt and I just wore an old dress I had and stuffed plastic bags into my sleeves to make them puffy. Then, Don used his awesome art skills to make us masks.

Here we are at the church Halloween party.

My favorite costumes of the night were Kelli and Evan's. They were Kevin Flynn and Cora from Tron. So clever!

I also loved Staci and Scott's family's costumes. Staci handmade her boys into Robin Hood and Little John. She was friar tuck (with her pregnant belly) and Scott was Prince John. So fun! They won the Family Housing costume contest and Staci deserved it! I am so impressed with her skills!

After the church party, we took our two beautiful pumpkins from the farm over to Staci and Scott's for some pumpkin carving fun. We put Sammy to bed there and Stace and I carved our halves of the pumpkin.

Staci's half

My half

Then, we covered up our halves with wet paper towels and the boys carved the other halves.

Scott carved his face upside down. I love Staci's hand in this picture. She was so mad Scott ruined her awesome face.

I had spent so long carving my pumpkin so Don decided to carve his as quickly as possible. He carved what looked like the Koolaid man. Combined with my skull face, the pumpkin ended up looking pretty comical.

Stace and Scott with their pumpkin. 

A few creepy attempts at taking a picture of our pumpkin...

Such a great time!

We had one last get together with the Cullises at the rocket ship park before they flew back to South Africa. Sam sure misses Nina and Fynn. He definitely has a thing for blond girls and ladies. He is also in love with Staci. He talks about her all the time when we're at home and always gives her hugs and kisses. 

Cute Nina.

Sam and Fynn pushing the stroller together.

Me and Bx. 

On Halloween night, we got ready to go. Sam was really freaked out about trick or treating. We showed him the Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin movie to try to help him see that trick or treating can be fun but this was his reaction...

We went to Staci and Scott's house first to see if he would warm up to the idea.

"Staci's house!"

Charlie Brown! Even still, when I ask Sammy to get his church shoes he says, "My Charlie Brown shoes, mom!" Also, for about 3 months, every time I'd ask him what his favorite color was, he'd say, "Charlie Brown." 

Trick or treating at the Jacksons! Sam was happy to see William and Adam and get his first pieces of candy.

And here are our costumes! I was so happy with how they turned out.

Cute Adam was so sad about the dumb squirrels eating his pumpkin. 

Sam really started to enjoy trick or treating when he realized people were giving him candy. He also really liked being with William and Adam. I was so glad Stace and Scott came out with us. 

Eye on the prize! He was running from door to door. 

William had fun smashing his pumpkin that had been eaten by the squirrels.

Cute kiddos.

Sammy's load. We traded him a toy buffalo and a cow for his candy. He was really happy about it. It was such a great Halloween. Next year, Sammy will probably want to be something specific and I'll have to work our family costume around him. Now that will be a real challenge. I love Halloween!!!

The Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Snoopy masks lived a long life in our house. Sammy insisted that we hang them on the kitchen cabinet knobs for several weeks. It made cooking pretty difficult because he'd demand that I put the signs back up every time I opened a cupboard. I finally used them for a sign for my Thanksgiving event for Family Housing to advertise the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving movie we showed in the lobby. They will continue to make their yearly appearance at that event; I'm happy they are useful for something. Don did such a great job drawing them!