Halloween 2008 Photos and Commentary

Happy Halloween!!

I think Halloween may be my favorite holiday. Or maybe a tie with Christmas. I like Halloween A LOT. Now all the festivities are over and tomorrow will be spent celebrating Adrian's birthday and changing the decorations out for Thanksgiving decor.

Maybe a trip to Target for clearance Halloween goodies?

Ok, that's probably a bad idea!

Here are the 2008 Halloween pics (well, the first one is from Thursday):

Isabella just looked so cute in her thrift store dress that I had to take a picture of her. Unfortunately she was too busy going outside to look at the camera!



Yesterday I painted mason jar ghost lanterns. I think they turned out pretty cute. I made six and then lit them up with LED tea-lite candles tonight for Halloween.





Earlier today I made mini caramel (and chocolate) apples. They are like tiny versions! I made more than this, but the plate with all the chocolate-covered ones turned out the best.



Here's Adrian and the kids ready to go trick-or-treating.



Xavier designed his own costume. He was a mad scientist who was half normal, and half monster-ish. He looks unhappy in this pic because he was just informed he couldn't use the sack from the Halloween store (that he had saved for weeks) as his trick-or-treat bag. Bummer.



Orian was Annakin Skywalker. He pitched in $16 of his allowance to be able to buy the upgraded costume. He also got puked on at school today, LOL. Poor guy.



Isabella was a kitty cat. We tried to give her a kitty nose and whiskers with Halloween make up, but it didn't turn out well and it was going to be messy, so she went au naturale.



Adrian took the kids to trick-or-treat in the neighborhood. They got a fair amount of candy but Adrian said there were a lot of houses that weren't handing out treats. I am not sure if it's a Killeen thing or what, but I think trick-or-treating is a nice community activity and it lets you see/get to know neighbors you've only seen or spoken to in passing before.

After trick-or-treating, we headed out to the city carnival. We decided to put the candy we had left on a table by the front door with a little note ("Happy Halloween from The Neals"). Before we left, I mentally accepted that I might come back to no decorative (plastic) candy dish or even no table.

The kids were excited about the carnival, as evidenced by Xavier's slightly happy expression. That's pretty happy looking for him, LOL.



The boys got to do the haunted house, which Xavier pronounced "pretty gay" (I know, that's a terrible thing for a kid to say, but it's the "sucks" of the 90's...one of these days everyone will be saying it. I'm pretty sure gay people even say it).

Orian got a little scare from the haunted house, but he was reluctant to admit it.

Isabella got to roam in a pumpkin patch and we stood in line for 30 minutes to have a balloon flower made for her. She loves balloons and she loves flowers.





The carnival was really overcrowded and didn't offer a lot in the way of entertainment. I don't think we'll go next year. Adrian mentioned that it might have been less crowded and offered more if it had been for-profit.

We've heard that Austin has a really great Halloween parade, so maybe next year. By then we'll have 4 little ones in costumes!

When we got home, we were pleased to discover the candy dish was still there, as was the table. All, and I mean every.single.piece, of the candy was gone, but that's to be expected. I just hope that it was spread out over many trick-or-treaters and not gobbled up by the first teenager to arrive on the scene.

Not that *I* would have done something like that as a teenager, but you know, if some wicked teen came by...