Halloween 2011 - Part 3

We started off Halloween morning with our favorite Halloween pancakes. Everyone was very excited about them!






Then we got Coleman dressed up for school. He decided to be Optimus Prime again for his party day.


The party mom had decided to do a breakfast party, and it was a great idea. She brought waffles, bacon, pigs in blankets and grapes for the class. Along with the waffles, she brought a bag of candy for them to decorate their waffles with spooky faces. They loved it!

Andrew had Ms. Sharon two years ago, and he had fun remembering how he used to crawl into that little oven. I caught him just in time before he tried it again.




Coleman with his buddy Blake, who was an astronaut that day.



I didn't want our day to end without a little more fun, so for supper we had jack-o-lantern cheeseburgers.


And then for dessert we had pumpkin pudding cups.




Our last dress-up event for this year was a family deal. Our Sunday School class waited and had our party on November 5th, due to so many conflicts for families on Halloween weekend. We were told to come in a family theme costume, so here we are:


I personally don't care much for "emmy-ems," but I could eat this one up!

Halloween 2011 - Part 2

Sunday we had fun at our church event known as Super Silly Spectacular Sunday. Everyone dressed in costumes and enjoyed the games and bouncy things. We used this event as an outreach to our community, and it was great. There were lots of people there the whole time, and at the end, ten folks met Jesus as their Savior for the first time! Here are the photos we made.

Brent and I each worked a shift at a bounce thing, so we took turns with the boys. Andrew and Coleman had fun playing the games, and Jonathan had fun riding in his stroller with a sucker. Here are a couple of things about Coleman's costume. He decided to be Optimus Prime so that he wouldn't have to take off his costume to play in the bounce houses. And we let him keep his glasses off so that they didn't get broken jumping around. The funniest thing though was how he assumed his character when he stepped out of the van. He walked around waving and smiling at folks and when he wasn't waving, he had his hands on his hips and his chest puffed out just like a superhero does.


Coleman is always up for a little face painting, and this time he asked for a "spiky blue monster with teeth." I think she did pretty well!

There were even pony rides! The man told Andrew to put his foot in the stirrup and he would help him up on the horse's back. As soon as he finished saying that, Andrew just swung his right leg over the top of the horse like an old pro. The man was really surprised and said, "Or you can do it that way!"






Jon Jon made friends with a guide dog who belongs to one of our members. You can see he is holding his sucker very tightly.



Coleman took a little batting practice.



Both boys got to shoot a real bow and arrow, thanks to Strong Rock Camp.



We had a hot dog and chip supper and then there was a costume contest. Coleman was in the Superheroes group.


Andrew was in the Classic Characters group.



And Jonathan was in the Baby's Best group. The sun was right in Brent's eyes, so it's a little hard to see the bumblebee in front of me.

We didn't come home winners, but they each consoled themselves with some cotton candy.

Halloween 2011 - Part 1

Saturday our neighborhood celebrated Halloween. It was a beautiful day, and we had a lot of fun. Nana and Pop-O came for the day. We started off our festivities with the neighborhood party at the clubhouse. The party started at 2pm, so Jonathan stayed home with Daddy to nap. Nana, Pop-O and I loaded up Jack Sparrow and a friendly ghost and off we went.



Ever since his birthday, Coleman had been saying he wanted to be Spiderman. Knowing I couldn't pull off a Spidey costume, we went to Party City to buy one earlier this month. On the way there, he changed his mind. We came home with Optimus Prime, a transformer. I figured we had our costumes taken care of, and so I checked that off my mental to-do list. However, on Thursday afternoon, Coleman started saying he wanted to be an empire. After a little questioning, I discovered he meant a vampire. It was just too close to Halloween to make a return trip to Party City, and I had spent all the money I was going to. So I told him he could either be Optimus Prime, or he could be a ghost.



He was pretty cute, and he was the only ghost in the neighborhood. Andrew hemmed and hawed for a long time in the costume department, but finally landed on Captain Jack Sparrow. He really got into playing his part.

When we got down to the clubhouse, they had a big bounce house for the kids. So Coleman took off his costume and his glasses and they both had a lot of fun.



Inside, the clubhouse was decorated beyond belief. I think the neighborhood consensus is that the couple who planned this year's party have earned themselves a permanent job! There was candy everywhere, Subways and chips, cookies and cakes, craft tables, cotton candy, more inflatables, and a candy bucket for each kid in the neighborhood!




After the party, we came home, ate supper, and dressed Jonathan up for trick-or-treating. Coleman added a GT cap to help hold his eye holes in place. It was moderately effective. That night Brent said he thought Coleman saw about half of Halloween. Here are all three yahoos before heading out for candy.



Jonathan was most unhappy about his costume, until he was given a sucker. Then everything was okay.



Heading out - We thought Jonathan might like to ride from house to house and then get out when we got to the doors. You'll see below that Pop-O pulled an empty wagon around the neighborhood.


When it started to get dark, Jon Jon and I headed back home where Nana had been giving out our candy. Brent, Pop-O and the boys continued on for a while.


Here they are trick-or-treating at home. You can see that Coleman has already lost his cap and is trying to get out of his sheet.

It was another super fun night. They loved giving out the candy again this year. We had more fun on Sunday night at church, so stay tuned!