Pumpkins and Halloween

It's about halfway through November. How about some Halloween pictures finally?

Kyle and I decided this year that we were most definitely going to carve pumpkins with the girls. It really is a rite of passage in childhood. A child must carve a pumpkin at least once in their life. Right?

We opted to pick out our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch. It was only slightly more than the grocery store, and the atmosphere is worth it. Or at least it would have been if we did not get eaten alive by mosquitos! Seriously, it was terrible. We honestly got there, found a cart, and searched for 4 pumpkins as quickly as we could. And then we left as fast as possible. The mosquitos were everywhere. Too bad. I would have liked to have stayed a little longer.

The next week we carved those suckers. Carving pumpkins is not my favorite, but we did it anyway. So messy gross.

The girls drew faces on their pumpkins with crayon. Kyle did his best to carve something out of it. And then he blew us all out of the water with his own creation. 

Let's pretend like this picture isn't blury and that I wasn't too lazy to pull out my tripod, ok?

Hailey's pumpkin is on the left. Keira's in the middle. Mine on the right. 

 And Kyle's.

Onto the costumes. 

Hailey decided she wanted to be Batgirl. We found a Batgirl costume at Target and bought it on sale. It was sleeveless and a short dress, so I made a shirt and leggings to go underneath it. Easy peasy, done. (Except I procrastinated doing my part of the ensemble. Whoops!)

I really didn't know what Keira was going to be until the week of Halloween. We debated between reusing old costumes or sewing a new one. There was a super sale on fleece the week of Halloween so I capitalized on that and at the last minute decided Keira was going to be Robin. Batgirl and Robin.

(For the record, Kyle says no more of this last minute sewing business. Next year will be done a month in advance. I'm with him. My sewing table is still a disaster!) 

I found the cutest tutorial online for making a Batman costume and adapted it for Robin. Honestly, I wish I had seen it before buying Hailey's costume, so we could customize it a bit more. But, whatever. She loved it and was happy. That's what really matters, right?

I took the girls to Lagoon a week before Halloween and they got to do a little trick-or-treating there, sans costumes. Keira was super possessive of her bag of goodies. It took a lot of convincing to get her to put it down to go ride a ride. The second she got off she ran right back to the stroller looking for her bag. I moved it once and put it down below and she was very concerned when it was missing. "Bag!?"

They also went trick-or-treating at the library the day before. Keira knew the drill already and was a pro. 

Then the day of Aunt Chelsie and Aunt Corinne went along with me as we roamed the neighborhood for 1 1/2 hours. Keira refused to walk. She insisted on riding in the stroller between each and every house. Whatever, makes it go faster I guess. :)

Both girls had a blast. Who wouldn't? Free candy and you get to dress up? Done deal.