Halloween Preparations

Decorating!  I love Cat's contributions - pumpkins, bats, and ghouls on the banister, and a bunch of bats trying to escape out of the front door.  The top left picture is of a pair of pumpkins Jack painted using the cups from a cardboard egg carton.  He did such a good job, even though they were small and I'd planned for Cat to do the painting.

Hoot Owl Cookies.  These ones turned out much better than the ones we made a couple of years ago.  (This is the recipe we used this year - supposedly it's the original.)  And I love looking at the finished cookies and reflecting on the number of eyes each owl has, and finding which ones look like they are recovering from a bad fall out of a tree.

I really tried to do costumes on the cheap this year, but didn't want to make anything.  So that meant looking at the thrift store, online, etc.  I found the too small dragon costume for Jack from someone selling it online for a good price.  Then the next week I found the too big one at a thrift store.  Hmm.... which is better, too small, or too big?  (In the end, Jack said he liked the smaller one better, so that's the one we went with.  Thankfully we were able to return the bigger one to the thrift store.  Yeah!)

I suddenly wanted to make sugar cookies one Sunday afternoon, and the kids were my busy little helpers.  After assigning herself the job of using the spatula to place the cut cookies onto the pan, Cat referred to herself as "the spatulist."  I like that.

Because I hadn't planned on making sugar cookies, I wasn't really prepared with anything to decorate them with.  After a quick search online, though, I found out how to make your own colored sugar.  Here, Cat is demonstrating.  (If you are curious about the process, check out my other post here.)

Frosting the cookies, or, in some cases, eating the cookies.

The FHE Jack-O-Lantern:

1. Scoop out the guts.  This requires teamwork.

2. Place the pumpkin on your head to determine whether all of the guts are out.

3. Draw the face.  It might take you a few tries.

4. Cut out the face.  Best left to Daddy.

5. Admire the face, then scoop out remaining guts that are showing through the face holes.

6. Place Jack-O-Lantern on your front porch, alongside one that simply has stickers on it and only took seconds to create.

This week is pretty full with various Halloween events, which is so fun!  Thank goodness all of this prep work is out of the way, so we can just enjoy the festivities.