Halloween Fun!

I know it's a month later but I wanted to blog about our family's Halloween adventures.  This year was so great!  We decided to all dress up as Disney characters.  We had quite a time picking out costumes.  (we host a Disney Party later in the year so these costumes will get worn again!)

Anyway, we'll start with Maggie.  She was Cruella Deville.  She got such a kick out of her wig and her red gloves.  She even found a little Beanie Baby Dalmation to carry around.

Allison loves the fact that her name, when combined with "wonderland" sounds just like Alice in Wonderland.  So, I bought her this costume this year.  She looked so cute!  Allison and Lydia were my only two trick or treaters this year and they hit every single house in the neighborhood.

Peasant Belle just fit Jillian perfectly...you know the phrase from the movie..."Dreamy, far off look, her nose stuck in a book?"  Yep, that's our girl!   Belle was the perfect costume for her!

Lydia, along with probably 100 other girls that came to our house this night, was Anna from the movie "Frozen."  Not terribly original, I know, but Lydia was so happy!

Charlotte stole the show at our house however.  She bought this Coronation Dress for Elsa (Frozen) weeks earlier with her own money.  Before the trick or treating began, she went over to my friend Pamela's house to get her hair done and then best pal Jenna came over and did her make-up.

Here is the finished product.  Charlotte literally had little girls coming up to her in wonder, asking if she was the real Elsa.  They even gave her hugs!  Charlotte ate it up!

She looks pretty accurate, don't you think?  I'm pretty sure tonight was the greatest night of  Charlotte's life!

Casey was the only one that wasn't a Disney character.  He was Paul Blart, Mall cop.  He wanted to use his Segway so we came up with this costume.  He and I actually took the kids trick or treating on these babies.  It made the night much easier.

Yep, I was Maleficent.  I hated this costume because it made my head itch but it was fun to ride the segway with the flowing cape.  It looked like I was floating. (Allison's head looks weird in this picture, don't you think?)

While we were with the little girls trick or treating, Jillian and Maggie manned the popcorn station.  They gave out 300 bags of free popcorn to our 600 pieces of candy.  I think a lot of the adults enjoyed the warm popcorn.

While they ate popcorn, we of course had our traditional Nightmare Before Christmas movie window with surround sound playing.  Our house seems to be the gathering place, with lots of people just standing in the street, watching the movie.

Here is a picture of the lines we had for popcorn.  Our neighborhood was packed with people.  Almost every house had some sort of decoration and there were a few as elaborate as ours.  We love our neighbors!

A few days before Halloween, our neighbor Shanna asked us if we wanted this giant pumpkin to carve.  We painstakingly cut through the very thick walls to make a basic face.  Casey then put an LED light inside that flashed to the beat of the music.

This is what happened to Mr. Pumpkin the day after Halloween.  24 bags of pumpkin pulp are in the freezer!  Casey did all the work on this project.

We are now almost done with November and heading into the Christmas season. We are doing something different this year.  Instead of a traditional Christmas at home, we are skipping the presents, the cards, the goodies, even the tree...and we are going to California to enjoy a four night cruise.  We needed something different this year and the cruise was the perfect fit.  So, the money that we would have spent on Christmas, is going towards a fun memory for our family!  (And it has sure made the holiday season easy for me!)