Halloween Recap

We had a fun Halloween this year. For the first time ever, I made the girls’ costumes. I was pretty unsure of what I was doing, but I had Eleanor patting me on the arm the whole way through, telling me, “Mommy, you’re so clever.” That certainly helped me to keep going even when I had no idea what I was doing.

Eleanor wanted to be Word Girl, and it wasn’t too hard to convince Phaedra to be Word Girl’s faithful sidekick, Captain Huggy Face. I think they looked so cute!

I got their costumes done on Friday and let them model for me a bit just before it started getting dark. Since Halloween was on a Sunday, we did our celebrating on Saturday. We went to the church for a carnival followed by trunk-or-treat. My mother and Grandpa Gary met us there to be in on the fun.

What really made it feel worthwhile that I made their costumes was watching Eleanor at the carnival. She had been waiting so long to dress up as Word Girl, and she was enjoying it so much. Even with all the fun activities they had, each time we finished a station, she had to zoom around in a big circle like she was flying. I think she enjoyed flying around the gym floor more than she did playing the games and winning prizes.

It cracked me up to watch her try to eat the doughnut on a string.Phaedra liked choosing prizes.

I know this picture is blurry, but I had to have an example. She was supposed to be trying to throw the beanbags through the holes of a jack-o-lantern face cut out of a big board. She didn’t even really look where she was supposed to be aiming. She just plopped the beanbags in a pile about 2 feet in front of her and then went over to choose a prize. She did this twice. The third time she dragged me to this station, she just went straight for the prize bucket without even feigning interest in tossing the bean bags. I guess we won’t be signing her up for softball anytime soon.The one time I got to take their picture together while they were posing for Grandma. I think I need to have Grandma there the next time I want them to cooperate for pictures. My thumb-sucking Huggy Face.

Eleanor won these vampire teeth and was really curious to see how they looked.

Eleanor wanted her face painted. Grandma tried to talk to her about what she was going to have painted on her face, and Eleanor told her, “I already know what I want, and I’m going to tell her” (indicating the girl painting faces). When it was her turn, she sat up there and said, “I want it to be pink and make a circle.”After watching her sister get her face painted, Phae decided she wanted hers painted, too. This picture doesn’t really capture the look of trepidation she had on her face the whole time it was being painted.

Cute little ladybug.

I didn’t take any pictures of trunk-or-treat. It was dark and raining, and the kids wore their jackets over their costumes. I was glad we had been able to show off their costumes at the carnival at least. Phaedra wouldn’t let anyone touch her bucket until it started getting too heavy. Then, she let me carry it for her, but she was really conflicted about it, changing her mind over and over.

After trunk-or-treat, we went to Studio Grandma and Grandpa’s to show off costumes and enjoy some celebration there.The girls got to decorate their own cookies. Phaedra was so impressed that she got to hold the knife to spread her frosting.Eleanor loved the yellow sprinkles and covered most of her cookies with them.

Phaedra just loved shaking on those sprinkles!

Happy Halloween!