Happy Halloween 2021

We got no troubles, life is the bubbles, under the sea! 

Sophie picked our theme this year and wanted "ocean" costumes. With that to guide us we ended up with a Charlie Shark, Griffin Octopus, Daddy Crab, Sophie Mermaid, Mommy Anemone, and Davey Pirate (above the ocean, but still counts). The shark and pirate were already in our costume closet, we bought the mermaid at Target, and I made the other three. Overall, not too stressful this year. 

We had beautiful weather for both our ward party and trick or treating on Halloween night so the costumes needed no modification. Griffin eventually did succeed in ripping off his octopus eyeballs, but everything else held up fine. After the weirdness of the covid Halloween, it was nice to have everything go nice and easy this year!

Making our costume debut at the ward Trunk or Treat

Pumpkin carving crew - Sophie did her own pumpkin this year!

Sophie - Sea Turtle

Davey - Jurassic Park

Charlie - Blippi

Griffin had already gone to bed so I carved a page from his favorite Halloween book.  The chickens always make him laugh real big!

Pumpkins aglow and ready for the big night

Love these salty sea kids

Ready to hit up the neighborhood!

Sophie stayed out an extra hour with dad to bring home a big haul

Video: 2021 Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Halloween this year consisted of carving pumpkins and going trick or treating. There weren't any school parades or ward parties or community events, but it turns out we didn't really miss them all that much. The biggest concerns we had were weather related, but luckily there was lots of sun on the two days leading up to Halloween to help melt all the snow and ice from our big storm, and by the 31st the sidewalks were clear and dry.  It was so nice out that night we didn't even need to wear coats to Trick or Treat!

Last year I waited to long to buy pumpkins and they were all sold out mid-month so we never got to carve any. This year I made sure to snag some early and then we carved them as a family on Halloween Eve.

The kids do not like cleaning out the guts, but with four pumpkins to prep, there was no way I could do it all on my own. It was either help, or no pumpkin for you!

Charlie was the easiest request this year - just a happy face

Davey wanted me to make him a Mario pumpkin, but I didn't have the time or energy to figure out something that complicated so he got a Goomba (from Mario) instead

Sophie wanted me to make her pumpkin match her shirt! I thought I did a pretty good job. 

Griffin went to bed before I got around to his pumpkin so he didn't get to give any input or take a picture with the final result, which ended up being a lion.

For some reason I did a little impromptu photo shoot of the kids in the Halloween shirts. I don't remember why I did this, but I got some cute photos of them!

Trick or Treating was different this year. Our neighborhood has an older demographic and there were definitely less houses participating this year. We had to try about 12 houses when we first started out before finding one that opened with candy. It was still a successful night though and the kids brought home plenty. They just had to walk further to get it!

Our house decorated for the trick or treaters, of which we had about 5

Our sweet neighbor saw on Facebook that I was making the kids Mario costumes for Halloween and she put together these cute mystery blocks with chocolate coins inside! They were such a fun surprise and the kids thought they were so fun!

Halloween 2020 Video Clips

It's-a me, Mario!

So far we are still sticking with themed family costumes for Halloween, and this year we were the Mario Brothers! In addition to Mario and Luigi, we also had Princess Peach, Toad, Bowser, and King Boo. Sadly our ward Halloween party was cancelled (curse you covid!) so the world never got to see us in all our glory, but the kids were still able to wear theirs out Trick or Treating.

These costumes were all labors of love. I am not an experienced seamstress (probably because I only do it once a year at Halloween) and spent many nights at war with these costumes. It was my first experience with elastic, gathers, sleeves, and pants and I sewed things together inside out, attached pieces before finishing the edges, measured way wrong, put snaps on backwards, and the list goes on. But in the end they actually turned out wearable and recognizable!!

Dave's costume was my crown jewel creation and I'm still a little sad he never got to make his debut as King Boo. Maybe someday down the road he'll have a need to wear it again. 

Best brothers around

The cutest toad and prettiest princess you ever did see!

Mario must have been a popular theme for the year. This was a picture we got from Davey's preschool with the other Mario's dressed up that day.