Happy Halloween!

"Tender lumplings everywhere
Life's no fun without a good scare
That's our job, but we're not mean
In our town of Halloween"

Danny Elfman for Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas


Today was Chloe and Owen's school parade and parties. I ran back and forth between both parties. Chloe's class had a little dance, while Owen's class had games and a story. Both classes had snacks right after the parade. The parade has been going on since I went to school there (and before). All the kids dress up in costume and parade around town. Family members and town people come out and watch. It's so fun. Although I heard one kid ask another when the parade was and the other said "We are the parade".

Owen had a wonderful time at his class party. It was his first school party. He soaked it all in and really enjoyed it. Chloe had fun at the fifth grade dance and won a prize for the Fanciest Girl.



Phoebe got to watch the parade with Danny, Mom, and Betsy. She liked it. She dressed like a cheerleader. A mountaineer cheerleader of course.






We came home and after dinner Owen started feeling bad. He's had a cough since yesterday but has been okay. Now he has a 102 fever and is just laying in the chair. Hopefully he'll feel better for some more Halloween fun. We want to make caramel apples tonight and watch The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and The Nightmare Before Christmas, our favorite.

Some pictures from the parade and school parties:

Chloe with her Fanciest Girl award, with the boy who won Fanciest Boy.



At the dance:



Playing a game:



At the parade:



Wrapping the teacher aide up like a mummy:



Owen's class:

Spider Snack

The kids and I have been doing some Halloween crafts and treats this week. Yesterday evening we made a bat craft and then made this spider snack. So easy, even little ones (like Phoebe) can do it.

Spread peanut butter on the inside of two Ritz crackers. Lay 4 pretzels across one cracker (to look like 8 legs) and put the other cracker on top. Put two raisins on for eyes. Phoebe wasn't a fan of the raisins and took hers off before she ate it. Chloe and Owen ate several for their bednight snack (as Owen calls it).

Jack-o-lantern

We carved our jack-o-lantern tonight. Phoebe didn't want any part of it. She said it was stinky when Chloe and Owen were scooping out the inside of the pumpkin. Chloe drew on the eyes, Phoebe helped do the nose, and Owen wanted the mouth to have fangs. Once we lit the pumpkin, Phoebe was afraid of it.






I remembered to turn off my flash and got this awesome picture:

Trick-or-Treat!

We had our little community trick-or-treat yesterday. We always pick the day that works best for us and don't really go by the schedules that are set up for trick-or-treat. We all met at our church and rode a little bus around to the houses for treats. A neighbor owns a daycare and we use her daycare bus. The kids had lots of fun. We went to the church afterward for food and fun.

Here are my treaters; Miss America, Darth Vader (who didn't allow many pics), and the Princess.







Here's the crew with the bus:

Ghost Toast

Here's a cute "recipe" for kids this time of year. You make some toast and then using a ghost cookie cutter, cut a ghost out of the toast. Then spread cream cheese on it (I use the whipped kind), and make eyes with raisins, mini chocolate chips, or mini m&ms.




You can eat the scraps (which I do and spread cream cheese and strawberry jam on, yum!), or save them, and the next day melt some butter in a pan, and put in the scrap of bread with the ghost cut out of the center. Then crack an egg in the center and fry it. Flip it only once after the egg is good and set. Chloe loves it this way.

Here She Is...

Chloe wants to be Miss America for Halloween. We were looking online this evening for a red dress for her to wear (she says it has to be red), and she asked me what Miss America does anyway. Then she said "Walk around and look pretty?". I said pretty much, yes. Then Chloe said "I'm good at that".