Halloween

Most of you have probably seen these pics...

but anyway.... As you can see our little Andrew was a tiger and little Allie was a kitty cat. It took us a while to find their costumes. Andrew had his heart set on being a prince (he wanted Allie to be a princess), unfortunately we couldn't find a cute (Disney prince-like)costume. We ended up in Old Navy saw the little kitty and tiger costumes(which i liked because they were not only cute but warm), tried them out and Andrew was sold! I think he liked the idea of roaring at the top of his lungs and we were okay with it... 'cause he was a tiger. Allie roared quite a bit also.

I think this was the best Halloween yet.... since the in-laws stayed home Saturday, the 4 of us (Richard,Andrew, Allie and I) were able to roam the streets of our town as a family (no one left behind to give out candies). Actually, we only went to houses on our street, Andrew got tired of walking. Allie, on the other hand, rode her little red car. While Richard waited on the sidewalk, I pushed Allie up neighbor's driveway(to show off her cute costume) while Andrew kept on telling me to "stay back!" (he wanted to trick or treat ALL BY HIMSELF!). Did I mention the weather was perfect? It wasn't crazy cold (i think it was around the 50's) so we were able to stay out later. After, Andrew and Allie enjoyed giving out candies to trick-or-treaters with their Grandpa.

Spiders

I am finally starting to enjoy Halloween.

Pre-kids, I have to admit, Halloween was nothing but another candy eating day, for me. I didn't even really like the whole dressing up thing. One year I dressed up as an Oreo. I had 2 big round, brown felt thing front and back and I was the cream filling. Yeah, very creative. Another year, when I was still in culinary school, I dressed up as, guess what? a chef, not just a chef, a pastry chef, with rolling pin in tow.

Anyway, now that Andrew is old enough to do crafts and help with baking, etc... I am starting to actually LIKE Halloween. Not the scary Jason/freddy Krugger type of Halloween, but the kid friendly Jack-o-lantern, cupcake spiders type of Halloween. And I just love, love, LOVE that at least one of my kiddies can do little projects with me now.

This is what we did today:

Spider Balls (I got this idea from Bakerella.com-she's awesome- wish i could make my spider balls as cool as hers but I AM working with a 4year old)

Ingredients.... we had to work with what we had... Andrew's frozen cupcakes (we made some last week).... leftover tub icing from last week, black sprinkles, m&ms for eyes and pretzel sticks for legs...

We crumbled 3 cupcakes.... This is me trying to teach Andrew that it's okay to get your hands dirty.... I have to teach him that it's okay, weird.

We mixed some icing with the crumbled cake and made them into balls.

Cooled them in the freezer..... while in the freezer we melted the chocolate.....I dipped the balls, one at a time, Andrew sprinkled the balls with black sanding sugar and I added the legs and eyes before the chocolate hardened.

Ta dah! Spider Balls!!! Not my best work but it sure was FUN!

This is Andrew ending up with black lips from the black sugar on the spider. No, he's not sad, just showing his lips.

Btw, since I mentioned the whole cupcake making thing from last week, here are some pics...

Andrew helped with baking....

He even iced and decorated his own cupcake....

Allie loved the cupcake.... can't you tell?

This is my cupcake with cupcake toppers I made... no Halloween parties this year so I might as well use them.

I have decided.... Halloween Party next year! I think I'm ready for it! I might even wear a costume :)

Pumpkins,pumpkins... and more pumpkins!

Nothing says Halloween like Pumpkins! (at least here in our household)

A new tradition , started last year.... Mama carving the pumpkins! (A pumpkin, actually)

Steps:

1. cut...a.....(@!X#)...freaking... hole...on....top! (This took longer that I expected)

2. scrape inside pumpkin

3. Let the kiddies have fun scooping stuff out of the pumpkin.... they loved this part...

4. Let Mama carve away while Andrew and Allie run around the house.... "is it done yet?", "can I see it?", "I want to do it!" by Andrew...Et Voila!Awesome isn't it? :)

It's not as easy as you think... my fingers started cramping in the middle of carving this alien/monster....lest you think I am this awesome pumpkin carver I have to confess that I used a stencil...doesn't make it look less awesome!

Anyway, the kids loved it!

Allie Getting ready for pumpkin project #2

This one was a whole lot easier. The only problem was that the pumpkins were a little too small. (note to self: buy bigger pumpkins next time)

Ourrrrr Pirate pumpkin....Mr. Potato Head style.

Andrew's school Pumpkin... (pumpkin #3)

I volunteered to come to school and help the kids decorate their pumpkins... Oh so fun! and I got to see how my little boy interacted with his classmates.