I was a bit skeptical when they scheduled the ward Halloween party outside, but it turned out to be a beautiful evening. Thanks Suze for the great photos!
I'm not into paying full price for Halloween costumes, but James NEEDED to be a duck this year. Random people have been calling him ducky because of his blonde crest of hair and he waddles so cutely. I looked at making a duck costume, but we found this one at Costco (which btw has been ruining our budget since we got the membership so I could get my Blendtec blender this summer) and it was much cuter and cheaper than a costume I would have made.
Ryan was "playing army" while were were enjoying peanut butter fingers and amazing creativity exhibited for the trunk-or-treat. (He was in Nebraska for his Change of Command... The nice thing is this means he won't be traveling back to NE one weekend every month for Army drill).
I took the boys to the Spooktacular while Ryan was in class. Alexander LOVED the slide and spent most of the evening waiting in line for it (I don't think he quite understands the concept of lines yet, because I was distracted for a bit and a bunch of kids cut in front of him and he just patiently waited in the same spot until I coached him to move up whenever the space in front of him became empty.)
Alexander wasn't so sure about sticking his hand in a tank with a tarantula get a piece of candy. Luckily big brother came to the rescue.
Yes, that is a blurry photo of Benjamin riding piggyback on a unicycle!
A reporter from the
Daily Universe interviewed Benjamin. It's a bummer his photo didn't make it in the paper, but he was quoted. "But perhaps the best thing about the night according to 5-year-old Benjamin Lewis, 'It gives candy.'"
I am a bit disconcerted by the hold sugar has on my family. Ryan says that I come across as an extremist when it comes to candy, but he explained to our neighbor that I have a love-hate relationship with processed foods (i.e. sugar) and I go crazy after 8 p.m. at night (bedtime) which is why all the refined sugar has not disappeared out of our house... yet!
Benjamin's p.m. kindergarten had a shadow show on Friday.
He was proud of his puppets. The pink one is a grave stone.
I was wondering how Ryan was going to get James out of the dramatic play area. It took quite a bit of coaxing.
I want to be the Weird Parents! Watch out Lewis boys!
Ryan volunteered at Benjamin's a.m. kindergarten on Halloween.
There was a sign posted by the basement laundry for a Recycle Maze and I asked Ryan to take Benjamin there on the way home from picking him up from school. Ryan wonderfully called and invited Alexander along. It was a great thing because the maze was one of the boys' Halloween highlights this year.
I didn't realize what I was asking of Ryan when I assigned him to carve pumpkins with the boys while I made dinner. He had never carved a pumpkin before?!!?!? We've been married almost 10 years and I didn't realize that?!?! He helped Alexander and Benjamin worked on his own with minimal instruction. Benjamin's pumpkin was half rotten b/c it had a nick on it that I should have swabbed w/ rubbing alcohol and covered in Vaseline when he brought it home, but I didn't. It actually worked out okay though b/c the jack-o-lantern looked like it had a lobotomy and the molding seeds inside added nicely to the visual.
I saw a recipe for a snake calzone, but the boys said we needed a spider because it was more Halloween-esque. The finished product looked a bit like a crab to me. (At least it wasn't one of the Queen's crabs... Sorry, obscure DG reference from my days in the AF. Ryan was wearing a pith hat as his costume, but I didn't get a photo.)
Benjamin's a.m. teacher said she had special treats for kids in her class who trick-or-treated to her house. We left a bucket of candy on our doorstep and headed out with the jogging stroller. James was content to watch for the first 1/3 of the journey, but then wanted to follow his brothers. He helped knock on the doors, grabbed some candy, and waddled back to the jogging stroller at a few houses.
(As an aside, it's amazing how quickly babies learn. Our friends the MacCallum's were watching the boys the other evening and James knew which door was ours. He's also recently started knocking on our front door from the inside when he wants to go out to play.)
It was just over 2 miles round-trip and we got to Benjamin's teacher's house right around 8 p.m. He received a large Hershey's candy bar, skeleton eraser, and candy corn pencil. We stopped trick-or-treating at that point and I carried James in the sling while B&A rode in the stroller and were too busy contemplating their candy haul to fall asleep on the walk home for us.
Alexander loves racing Mario Kart. He would race ALL day long if he could.
He was still trying to race and play with Thomas trains at the same time.
Alexander really wanted to be Luigi (or some other Nintendo character) for Halloween next year, but the pickings were very sparse. This costume was size 10 (which I could have altered to fit) but it had been returned because it was missing a button and when I asked the cashier if they'd give an extra discount b/c it was defective, she said I couldn't purchase it. He got a Thomas costume instead.
