Halloween 2014

Lots of pictures this year. Maybe that is because there were LOTS of people.

We had 33 people for dinner before trick or treating, and our group for trick or treating was 42 people! Through out the hour of walking some left or went home, but it was lots of fun and safe.

First the decorations:

I hung the bats I cut out last year, and some more this year. I also put up cats, ravens and skeletons I cut from paper last year. As if the bat wall in the dining room was not enough, Ally asked for the living room to be “spookier” so we put up spiders and webs and skulls and owls.

She loved how the skeleton above below was poised on the light switch. We even made spooky finger food (chocolate fingers on pretzel sticks).

We had out candy corn, popcorn, our holiday theme pretzel rods and cake pops of course.

Ally and Becky carved a pumpkin on Halloween, and we roasted seeds to snack on as well. Ally loved hamming it up for the camera.

I found some cool pumpkin stickers – can you tell which pumpkin is the stickered on and which is the jack o lantern?

A highlight for Ally was getting a card from Grandma Debbie and Poppy – it had $5.00 in it. Ally loves cash.

Then she and Cloey changed into their matching Jack o Lantern T-shirts to greet our first guests – the Jellyfish (Doyle family).

The girls ate dinner picnic style in Ally’s room (Kai, Mia, Lily, Ally, Violet & Stella) and the boys ate at a table in the living room (River, Liem, Nicky, Erik & Aiden).

Dessert – yummy cake pops – which look so sophisticated when dads (Andrew & Thom) dressed in black eat them at the kids’ table!

Finally it was time for costumes and trick or treating. Ally was thrilled with her cat costume, and she was bundled up for the chilly night in 2 pairs of pants, 2 shirts, a fleece, her warm fur costume and black shearling boots.  She never complained of being cold all night.

More friends came over to join us for the walk around the neighborhood and our annual picture. All 18 of them from top left to right:

Gwei (Matilda), Stella (Rapunzel), Millie (a vet), River (jellyfish), Ally (black cat), Olive (ghost), Max (Harry Potter), Erik (creepy black goblin with red eyes), Cali (chicken), Nicky (batman), Mia (fox), Liem (creepy red and black scary thing), Violet (Ariel), Khai (Princess), Lily (Cinderella), Aiden (Blues Brother), Bennett (Dragon), Lila (Jellyfish).

We ran into a friend from school Lizzie and her parents, so the group was 19 kids strong for a while.

The chaos of that many children trick or treating!

Lizzie is the girl next to Ally in the red & black – I think she was a Samurai. I tried to get small groupings of the kids so the costumes were visible. My favorite shot of the night was Princess Khai and Batman Nicky – these two have been friends their whole lives and were having so much fun.

Aiden & Max  and Olive, Lizzie & Aiden        

Liem, Ally, Erik & Olive then Ally and Stella.

Mia & Lily’s parents dressed as salt and pepper shakers!  Hanh, Shannon and me, and Cloey too. Cloey was dressed as Snow White and she walked the entire time. Most of the way with Becky – she barked if I had the leash.

Becky and I – we wore Cat ear head bands to match Ally. Towards the end of the night, Ally was hot in her cat hat, and Olive had enough of her ghost costume, so Olive wore Ally’s cat head – I thought it was funny how together they make a whole costume!

The few brave who made it back to our house after the whole hour of trick or treating;

Erik, Nicky & dad John. Lizzie and her parents, Daniel & Rua.

Olive and her parents, Drew & Lucia. Aiden, his mom Lili who was Bat Girl, dad Dennis and his grandma came in costume too.

Gwei! It was so much fun to have Gwei join us this year. Trick or treating with her goes way back to 2008:

 

Our family! Becky went inside to clean up from the party and Ally and I stayed on the porch with Cloey and handed out treats. We gave out over 120 pieces in 30 minutes! That was the quickest ever. I think next year we need to buy more stuff. It was fun.

Ally asked to stay up late, I said 9pm, and she was thrilled (usual bedtime is 730). Before bed she sorted her candy – she had 67 pieces. I think she decided Kit Kats are her favorite, and she loves skittles.

Ally, Cloey and Becky fell asleep all snuggled in Ally’s bed around 930.