Halloween

it started off with a bang at my family Halloween party.

Then Ladybug had her school Halloween party.  She was so excited about the mummy-oreos I made for her to give to classmates.  She wore her Minnie Mouse costume (complete with ears) and upon arriving at school, found that a friend had dressed up as Mickey! So they made a complete pair.  She brought home her artwork for daddy-a painted spider with squiggly legs and was so proud of him.

Our ward had a Halloween party on Saturday night.  The girls looked beautiful in their princess dresses.   Butterfly chose to be Belle (of course), Ladybug was our Rapunzel (completely with long, flower adorned golden wig) and Lovely was a preciously sweet little Cinderella.  In theme with the girls, I dressed up as the Fairy Godmother and Daddy was our very handsome Prince Charming.  During the costume parade, we were announced as the "Happily Ever After Family".  The girls loved the pinata, ate donuts off a string and went fishing over the curtain.  They played with friends, ate lots of treats and had a great time.

Butterfly had a school party as well and chose to wear her Tinkerbell costume.  She helped me assemble little treat bags for her friends including spider suckers we had made.  She looked perfect in her green dress and her beautiful fairy wings and came bounding out of school with stories to tell of games, ghost stories and trick or treating.  She also had a spider she had created, using her hand prints overlapping with her fingers extended out as the legs.

That afternoon, Butterfly helped me bake and decorate cookies.  We made "gingerdead" men using a gingerbread man cookie cutter and decorating them to be skeletons and mummies.  She eagerly helped deliver them to some friends and neighbors.

We spent that evening at Grandma and Grandpa's house for a bonfire (a recent windstorm knocked numerous branches out of the trees).  We roasted hot dogs and s'more and then spent the evening carving pumpkins.  Grandma had hidden the pumpkins among her porch decorations, tangled in spider webs and being held by goblin hands, defended by ghoulish monsters.  But Butterfly and Ladybug marched past the creepy decorations and picked out their pumpkins, not at all flustered or frightened.  Our pumpkins turned out pretty good and I think the adults may have had more fun than the parents (me included of course).

Finally, after much preliminary celebrations, Halloween arrived.  The girls had stayed up late, so excited about going trick or treating soon, that they slept in the next morning and I had to wake them up.  So it was some rather reluctant and cranky girls that I herded out of the house in the morning.  Butterfly went to ballet while I taught a class at the gym.  And then I took my Tinkerbell, Minnie Mouse and pink flower fairy to the library's storytime Halloween party.  We arrived in time to listen to the stories.  But when it came time for activities  the room was so packed and lines were so long that we only made it to half the stations before we had to go.

The festivities continued that evening for the "official" Halloween.  We invited some of our closest friends over to celebrate with us.  They made soup, I made rolls and Grandma and Grandpa brought some fruit for a tasty dinner.  As we prepared the food, trick-or-treaters began to arrive.  Following their example, our girls dashed outside, and over to the neighbors' house, without permission and without pants.  (They had shed their costumes from that morning and were only wearing undershirts and tights.)  Fortunately, they were quickly discovered and retrieved so we could address their behavior (and wardrobe).  We managed through dinner, simply too excited to even stay seated.  And eventually they donned their princess dresses, we left a bowl of candy out and began canvassing the neighborhood.  As predicted, the girls didn't last long but they had a blast.  Butterfly eagerly dashed ahead each time, frequently having to be reminded to wait for her sisters and friend.  (they made such an adorable group.  Princesses in gold, purple, blue and pink.)  It was wonderful and fun and silly, with many opportunities to curtsy and twirl.  At the very last house, they skipped past the scary decorations and up to the front door.  We teasingly tried to get Butterfly to ring the door bell, which was inches under a large and creepy spider.  Her first sign of fear, she refused and eventually we told her to just knock instead.  She knocked and suddenly another large spider shot out from under the door's wreath, dropping down to startle her.  She screamed, burst into tears, immediately followed by Ladybug who also seized up in panic, ready to cry.  It was a very clever trick and startled all of us but was a little too much for the girls who were getting too tired.  Our neighbor had answered the door immediately, laughing and teasing with us as we recovered and rewarded the girls with generous candy.  After which, we headed home.  The girls dumped all their candy out, sampled a good portion and played while we skyped with cousins and settled down for the night.