A Very Merry UnHalloween

Thanks to hurricane or tropical storm Sandy, whatever you want to call her she's not very nice, we are not having Halloween today. You can read it for yourself on our community website: "Halloween has been cancelled and rescheduled for Sunday, November 4th." Now, other communities just rescheduled their trick-or-treating or beggar's night but South Euclid just cancelled the whole darn thing. I wonder if I will get a citation for those pumpkins sitting on my porch....
Anyway, even though it is not Halloween here, I realize that it may still be Halloween for our friends and family so I thought I'd post some pictures of the Halloween fun we've been having over the past week.

Last Thursday, the boys had their preschool fall festival which always includes a costume parade. This year, Gabe's class made pig costumes and Elijah and David John's classes (they have the same teacher, David John goes in the morning and Elijah in the afternoon) made owl costumes. The boys were very proud of their work and I thought they looked pretty stinkin' cute.

 

On Thursday the boys also picked out their pumpkins which we carved on Sunday. It is always a labor of love to carve their detailed little drawings, especially when you are being heckled about taking such a long time to carve something that only took them a couple of minutes to draw. Benjamin used our plastic pumpkin pieces again this year (after he pushed his pumpkin off the table and caused it to almost split in half). The older boys noted that it looked the same as last year. I said, "Really? He chose all of the pieces again. There's no way he chose the exact same ones." I went back and looked at the picture from last year. Sure enough, all of the pieces were the same except one. I guess he has a very distinct sense of taste when it comes to plastic pumpkin pieces.
Here is Benjamin and his pumpkin he chose before...

...and after.

Just for fun, here he is with his pumpkin last year. Uncanny.

This is David John's before...

...and after. He drew a pumpkin on his pumpkin. Yes, that is a five o'clock shadow on the pumpkin's cheek. His pumpkin had hair and a lopsided beard.

Here is Elijah with his massive, very thick, difficult to carve pumpkin:

I love the face he drew. The nose is supposed to be leaf-shaped. I'm not sure if I captured it quite right. The little shape to the left and slightly beneath the nose is the mustache.

Finally, here is Gabriel with his gigantic pumpkin before...

...and after. Gabriel wanted to make his into a pie, but settled for drawing this really cute pumpkin person instead. After I carved it, he said, "Mom! It looks like it has three eyes instead of a nose!" I replied, "Honey, I cut out exactly what you drew. You drew it that way." Pause. Then he said, "Oh, well I meant for it to look that way. It's more spooky."

On Saturday, we went to Boo! at the Zoo. I chose not to take the camera so that we could enjoy ourselves without worrying about getting pictures. It was dark and rainy anyway. Before we left, we got a picture of the boys in their costumes. Get ready for the cutest picture of the Beatles ever! (A big thanks to the Evans who helped me make these awesome instruments.)

From left to right that's John, George, Paul and Ringo. We've been listening to Beatles music a lot in preparation. Favorites are "I Want to Hold Your Hand", "Drive My Car", "Love Me Do" and "Yellow Submarine". I hope everyone appreciates our sacrifice in letting our boys' hair get shaggy so we could give them awesome Beatles haircuts just before Halloween. We sure love our fab four and the boys are looking forward to dressing up again on what we will call "New Halloween" on November 4th.