Tricks and Treats 2013

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This morning I sit and think about the last week and smile.

I love Halloween.

Which is funny because I used to despise it.

Having kids changed my perspective on the matter, I think.

We started out by hitting a local corn maze and checking out the fun stuff they had at that place.  We only had Cas, Brynn, and Sean on that trip.  Jayme, Tayler, and Cali went to a Halloween party with Granny Suzann.

We had a theory that if we followed one of the walls and turned whenever it did, we'd find out way out.  So we followed the right wall and made every turn that the right wall made.

Turns out that was a pretty good theory, we made it out in 20 minutes.  Which kind of sucked as we planned on spending at least an hour lost in that thing.  Our new plan will be to wander around aimlessly, until we're good and annoyed with the the whole thing, and then pick a wall to follow until we get out.  Because when you're following one wall all the time, you don't end up going on the same path twice.

Who knew that racing plastic ducks would be so entertaining for "bigger" kids?

We hit the haunted houses and blow up mazes there and wandered around until it was time for us to take the kids home and meet up with friends for the Haunted Forest, which was pretty lame this year.  But the company was good and I managed to freak myself out over nothing at all.

In those respects I call it a success.

Also, Casidee and Sean braved their first Haunted House this year, Castle of Chaos.  The story Casidee tells has Sean clinging to her.  Sean's story doesn't agree to that detail.

Cas is a pretty good sister, letting Sean tag along with her friends to the Haunted House.

We have good kids.

We carved our pumpkins.

And Jayme crafted the Corpse Bride out of clay:

I got a wild hair and bought a storage rack of a yardsale website and went to town hanging up years of costumes so all the parts would be together and they'd be easy to pull out and find.  It seems we use various costumes all throughout the year and I got sick of lugging the totes in and out of storage.

We stayed up late on a school night *gasp* and decorated the tables for the church's trunk-or-treat.   I didn't get a picture of them, but they were purple and black with spider webs and spiders and looked pretty good, even if I do say so myself.

I told the kids I wouldn't have time after work to do a lot of makeup on costumes before the tunk or treat so they were welcome to try the makeup themselves or wear a different costume for it.  I came home and found Brynn had tried her hand at her own zombie makeup (she ended up accidently glueing her eye shut when she put a fake tattoo over it instead of getting it on her cheek), Tay had tried her hand at her own clown makeup,  and Cali opted for easy devil makeup.  They all did  a great job.  I helped Jayme with some Queen of Hearts makeup, Sean pulled on his mobster costume, and Cas dressed up like Sherlock Holmes with her pea coat and blue scarf.

Finally it was Halloween.  For the big day we had:

Zombie Cinderella:

Jayme spent Halloween with her mom as this Queen of Hearts:

A Clown:

 A Zombie Nerd:

And a Gangster:

A Sugar Skull:

After searching for a cheap Snow White costume so Casidee could be a zombie Snow White, she decided last minute to borrow my leather jacket, throw on her fedora, and just have me paint her face.

Teens.

Turns out I was asked to do the makeup of two of her friends as well, but I didn't get a picture of them.

I seriously love Halloween makeup.  I should have worked in Hollywood.

I cheated and just went with some awesome, purple feather eyelashes that I'd found at Wally World.

And even wore them grocery shopping, where a lot of people starred. :)

It was all good until I tried to wear my sunglasses:

We set the kids loose on the neighborhood and they brought back pillowcases full of candy, and completely exhausted.

Tayler managed to walk blisters into her heels.

The Man and I tried to watch Gremlins while we passed out candy.  I've never seen that show before, but seriously, it was cheesy and we didn't make it very far into it.

And with that it's over.

It's time to focus on Thanksgiving dinner, which we're hosting this year, and Christmas for our Circus, as well as The Man's and Jayme's birthdays, New Year's Eve, and our fourth wedding anniversary.

The next two months will be full of the focus of love and family.  I'm hoping to create that atmosphere anyway.

I hope your haunting was fun, and as your holiday season begins, I hope it's full of love.

Give Away: Pumpkin Masters Carving Package

It struck us over the weekend...

boredom.

But it just so happened that we had some pumpkins from our garden, and a box of fun kits from Pumpkin Masters so we decided to try our hand at some of the designs.

Let it be known that I love carving pumpkins (considering my track record of loving all things October and Halloween, this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone).

One Halloween when we lived up on the farm in Washington, we found a field that was full of pumpkins.  Pumpkins for as far as the eye could see, a sea of orange.

They had already sold their fill to the stores and what was then lying in the field was free grabs.

If you can carry it you can have it.

So I took my baby girls and some friends and we loaded up the back of my Suburban with pumpkins.

And I proceeded to stay up late into the night (watching Disney's Ichobod Crane, no less) and I carved pumpkin after pumpkin as decorations for our church's trunk or treat.

I used Pumpkin Master's patterns and knives then too, and that was... 9 years ago?

This year I got a package chalk full of all sorts of cool things from Pumpkin Masters, there was the usual carving patterns, but then we got to try new stuff like shaving the pumpkins, and hole punches, and a kit for little kids, as well as some blinking lights to put inside the jack-o-lanterns when they're finished.

(Guess what, I get to give a package like this away!  Enter below).

One word of caution... if you have a thicker pumpkin, you might want to help your child cut the lid with a bigger knife and thin out the meat a little. Our poor little Pumpkin Masters knife just wasn't quite up to the task of our big pumpkin and it's thick meat, though it was perfect for our other regular sized pumpkins.

 

I like using the Pumpkin Masters kits because I can let The Circus loose with their imaginations on the pumpkins and I don't have to worry about them using big knives.  The Pumpkin Masters knives are perfect for carving safely, and I find that even I, as an adult, prefer to use them over my big kitchen knives.

 We have the pumpkins from our garden sitting on our porch now, and we've been making big designing plans on how to use our new tools and patterns for our "real" Halloween Jack-o-lanterns closer to Halloween.

Thanks to Pumpkin Masters, one of you can play with pumpkin carving tools and patterns too!

I get to give away the same kit that we got:

(here's a reminder picture for you)

 Entering is easy, just use this handy dandy rafflecopter to enter.
This give away will only be open for two days, it will close tomorrow, Wednesday October 16th at midnight, mountain time.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I want to give Pumpkin Masters time to mail you your box in time for carving pumpkins for Halloween.

Winner will be emailed on Thursday morning where I will ask for your info and then send it on to the good people of Pumpkin Masters who will then mail your goodies to you.

But remember, you can always buy these fun kits at your local grocery, drug, or craft store.

And! Pumpkin Masters is having a pumpkin carving contest. To enter just share a picture of you carved creation by one of these ways between now and October 31:
post it in instagram or twitter with #PumpkinMasters2013
submit your picture via the Facebook app
email your picture to: social@pumpkinmasters.com

They have six prizes to give away, including $5,000 for the Best Pumpkin.
Specific rules for their contest HERE.

{picsource: pinterest}

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.