"Ghostly Girl" and the "Viking Princess"

From the risen dead to the plundering vikings, our Halloween was full of fun!  Audrey searched and searched the costume catalog for the perfect costume.  When she found "Ghostly Girl" she knew that was the one.  She loved the idea of being one of the "risen dead" on Halloween.  It was a spooky, but not scary costume.  She appeared to be floating down the street with her long, tattered gown.  Her favorite part of the costume was the wig and hat.  Claire, on the other hand, went back and forth between several costumes until she finally decided on the Viking Princess.  Her costume did double duty since she had to dress up for her school's International Fall Festival, where each child had to choose a country to represent.  Claire chose Sweden and went back into their early history to represent the vikings that pillaged and plundered through parts of eastern Russia.  She wanted to be a princess, but not your everyday Disney princess.  The Viking Princess costume was the ticket!

We had a great time trick-or-treating through a few of the houses in our neighborhood before joining Audrey's friends and their family for candy-seeking adventures on their street.

Below are some photos of the girls in their costumes... Enjoy!

"You are next!"

 "Stop!  Give me all of your gold and jewels!"

And of course, it wouldn't be Halloween without some silly photos... :)

 Hope everyone had just as much fun on Halloween as we did!

Trick or Treat

One crime fighting Bat Girl and a rosy-cheeked Princess made for a great Halloween! Audrey and Claire really enjoyed dressing up this year, especially Claire who is now old enough to understand the concept of trick-or-treating. She slept through the entire event last year so this time she enjoyed it to the fullest. We went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood with our friends, James and Shannon, and their three children. The girls had a blast. Claire told me "This is the best!" Below are some photos of the my "incognito" children... :)

Off on the right foot

Our Caped Crusader
Our Sweet Princess

We don't have pictures of the actual trick-or-treating for a few reasons:

1) One camera battery did not charge
2) One Bat Girl went at mach speed leaving no time for photo ops
3) Sometimes you just have to put the camera down and enjoy the moment! :)

The Halloween Party

Last year was the first time that I had dressed up for Halloween as an adult, but Brock and I both had a great time. So this year we decided to have our own Halloween party with some of our friends. The invites (creepy, corpse fingers with a black reminder ribbon) were sent out and everyone was encouraged to get into the Halloween spirit with both their costume and their themed party food. Well, everyone rose to the occasion. Below is a photo story of the party and the food...

First the costumes...

Caesar and Athena

The Group Shot

(L to R): Superman and Lois Lane (James & Shannon), Michael & the Witch (Richard & Gemma), the Gladiator and his Goddess (Eddie & Tammy) and Athena & Caesar (Amy & Brock)

And the cleverly named food...














The party had a few "Kodak-worthy" moments too...

Eddie's Wardrobe Malfunction

and of course some Karaoke shots...

It was a great night and lots of fun was had by all!!!

Two Black-Eyed Peas and a Party

When it comes to school costumes, you might say that I am a creature of habit. But I absolutely love the "Black-Eyed Pea" costume, especially for little kids. So of course when it came time for Audrey and Claire to get dressed in costume for school, they were "Black-Eyed Peas".

~ Audrey ~

~ Claire ~

Audrey did not have a school party - public schools do not seem to have any parties now, which is completely different than when I was in public school. But that is a topic for another blog. So Audrey didn't have a party, but Claire did at her preschool. The children paraded through the school on a costume parade.

Claire the Black-Eyed Pea

The Costume Parade

"Hi Mom!"

Claire and some friends

After the costume parade, the children headed to the pumpkin patch for story time with Mrs. Elizabeth.

Ready for the story

Then it was back inside (to the nice air conditioning!) for games, pumpkin decorating, cookies and a Halloween movie - "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" - one of my favorites.

Picking out a prize

Showing her teacher, Mrs. Sabrina, her decorated pumpkin

One Happy Black-Eyed Pea

Claire really enjoyed her first school party! Sweet Memories! :)