Halloween 2011

I feel like preparing for Halloween is all I have done for over a week.  I spent most of last week accumulating all of the costume pieces.  This weekend I realized I was still missing some key items.  That meant my morning was spent going to six different locations to get all of the finishing touches.  Then I spent the afternoon completing assembly. 

We had our traditional Halloween dinner - Papa Murphey's Jack-o-lantern Pizza.  I bought two simply so I would have something easy to pack in the kids lunchboxes tomorrow. One would have easily fed everyone tonight.

After dinner the mad dash to dress and style everyone began. Rehm's costume took the most prep work and assembly but was definitely the easiest to get dressed and styled. The girls took much more time as they all had to have various hair styles and makeup.  Over all I think they turned out great.

All four kids picked their costumes.  Granted I told Eliza Claire and Ruby that they had to pick something we already had as we had several costumes that still fit them. We spent 30 minutes today trying to find Eliza Claire's dress.  She had misplaced it and we could not find it.  Luckily, Michael saved the day and found it hiding in a seldom used drawer in her room.  I think she had put it there to keep it safe until Halloween and had forgotten where she put it.

Rehm's costume was inspired by one of his nicknames from school.  Apparently some of the kids refer to him as The Laptop because he is basically a walking encyclopedia.  But of course kids these days have no idea what an encyclopedia is so they call him a computer.  In telling us about this nickname, he mentioned that some of the kids even call him Super Computer.  And thus, a costume was born.

His tag line was "I'm faster than a quad-core processor, more powerful than your new laptop, and smarter than the internet.  I'm Super Computer!"  It is hard to tell from the pictures but his screen lights up and even has a power light.  He was insistent that his key board lift up to reveal his candy bag. 

Three houses into trick or treating Rehm ran into two girls he goes to school with.  He decided to go around the block with them.  When we next saw him he was with a different girl from school.  Go figure.

Charlotte had her heart set on being a mom.  I wasn't really sure what we were going to do to make her look like a mom but I think the final costume makes her look like one very hip mom, indeed.  I think the baby being in a Halloween costume it the icing on the cake.  Of course halfway through trick or treating she was done with the stroller and Starbucks cup. Her candy bag was my purse.  She complained at one point about how hard it was to juggle all of her stuff.  We laughed and told her "welcome to parenthood."

Ruby of course could not just be a poodle, since that is what she was last year.  So she decided she was going to be a fairy dog.  I think the final product came out awfully cute.  I'm so sad that this is the last year this costume will fit any of my kids. 

Eliza Claire was going to be a monkey but about a week ago changed her mind and decided to be a princess.  Her costume choice surprised me as she is not usually so girly.  I think she looks beautiful.  She was a bit disappointed that no one really commented on her costume.  Of course, she was the only one that everyone easily and quickly recognized and therefore didn't ask questions about and of course there were a million other princesses trick or treating tonight. 

The candy has all been combined and sorted into the fruity container and the chocolate container - can't have the flavors mixing, yuck!  The costumes have been put away and my bathroom no longer looks like Sally's Beauty Supply exploded there. 

All in all a successful Halloween. 
Jenn