Halloween

Halloween and all the "harvest" festivities that come with it have finally come and gone.

I don't like Halloween.  I never really have.  For years we got away with going to a festival and "trunk and treat" at our church down south.  However, this has been our second year of real trick or treating with the kids.  I'm still not sure what I think about it all.

I know the "background" of the day, and of course that makes me not want to be a part of it.  However, I also know that my kids are almost always dressed up in crazy clothes anyway...it's just a day when they don't look weird doing it because everyone else is ;)  We also live in a super sweet neighborhood, and truly enjoy the time we get with our neighbors...even if everyone is dressed up in strange clothing.

Painting pumpkins with our friends down the street.

But, that's as far as we go...dressing up and knocking on people's doors as a family.  We don't decorate, in fact, this year I still have not gotten my autumn decor down out of the attic....I guess it's to late now.

I also think this whole "harvest festival" in Florida thing is kind of lame.  I mean...who are we kidding?  It's still in the 80s (and sometimes 90s) with  a breeze that puts us at 79 degrees and we all go running for our jackets.  To my knowledge, there is not a lot of harvesting going on, like there would be up north.  Now in Ohio...I bet they know how to work a harvest a festival.  But here....again, it's just an excuse to dress up and sip pumpkin lattes (except for me, I don't drink coffee).

So, yes...we participated in Halloween and even went to a "harvest festival", although I'm not sure what was harvested. Jeremy had to work one Saturday, so I took the kids to a little festival, and they had a grand time.  They got their face painted,

 played drums,

I love her face here!

 bounced in bounce houses and slides, fed animals at a little petting area,

This little girl is SO SWEET and gentle with animals.  She truly has a gift with them.

 and picked out our carving pumpkin.

Daddy "carving" our pumpkin this year.

However, we also spent a lot of time talking about a greater meaning of October 31, Reformation Day.  It went perfectly with our CC memory work this year.  So, the kids had to tell me why Oct. 31 was special before they were allowed to trick or treat :)

This year, Nicole wanted to be a termite (WHAT???  Who is this girl's teacher, and what is she teaching her?  oh...wait, that's me)  But, she finally changed her mind and decided to stick to what she knew best- adventuring.  So, she was an adventurer.

Hannah was a princess ballerina.

Nathan was also an adventurer (and then decided an hour before trick or treating that he wanted to be Shamu. Hmmmm.

 I don't even know what to do with this little boy.  He's so crazy!

One of the fun parts about homeschooling is that you get to dress up early and stay dressed up all day, so they did.  Nate and Nicole got covered in camo, and Hannah transformed into a princess.

So, just before we went outside, Nate decided he wanted to be Shamu.  I cut up an old pillow case, spray painted it, then covered his face in black and included two white patches near his eyes.  He was so excited (He has a Shamu stuffed animal that he has adopted as his sleeping aid)

I had fun painting the kids' faces, until they asked to paint mine.  Of course, I said yes to them...thinking they would make it pretty.  Well, this is how I turned out.

Hannah said I looked pretty....I guess that's all that matters.

We had fun seeing our friends on the street.

Hannah the Princess Ballerina and Viana, cat woman

The kids with their friend Alex, the biker dude!

Once again, Nicole worked hard to think of some tricks in case someone chose "trick" over "treat".  One was to dangle a spider in front of them (fake spider of course).  However, the best trick was when she knocked on someone's door, then ran and hid in the bushes.  When the person came out looking, she jumped out and said, "Boo!".  Thankfully the guy thought that it was really funny :)

All in all, it was a fun Halloween.  We have lots of candy, and lots of memories.