Halloween Week

The week before Halloween was Red Ribbon Week for Eliza and Luke.  Like a good perfectly average mother, I completely forgot about it on Monday so they didn't participate that day.

Tuesday - Hugs not drugs (bring a stuffed animal)
& "I mustache you not to do drugs."

Luke was still wearing his mustache when he went to bed that night.

Wednesday - We are crazy about not doing drugs!
(Crazy hair day)

It's hard to tell in pictures, but I put Eliza's hair in three
French braids, then chalked it in rainbow colors.

And you can't tell from this picture but Luke's hair was chalked too -
purple chalk and plenty of product, haha.

Thursday - Sock it to drugs!  (Crazy sock day)

Friday's theme was Drugs are scary - don't do them!

Kids wore Halloween costumes to school and had class parties,

though no parents were allowed to volunteer, and there was no costume parade.

Halloween Fun:

Jack wanted to be a gorilla for Halloween,
so I asked my cousin if we could borrow his gorilla costume,
even though Jack didn't have anywhere to wear it outside of
the house.  It was still fun for him to try it on a couple of times!

Eliza, nearly completely transformed for school on Friday.

A gorilla, Pippi Longstocking, and a scarecrow.

This was the lowest-budget Halloween I can remember -
a borrowed gorilla costume, a can of spray paint for Eliza's hair,
some rafia and a black face paint marker for Luke.

Friday night we went for a drive and saw cool Halloween
decorations and some entertaining music-synced light shows.

Biggest Flop of Halloween: these cupcakes.
First of all, they were much cuter in my mind.
Second of all, nobody really liked them.
Oh well, live and learn.

Out of an abundance of caution, we did no trick-or-treating
this year, and chose to spread treats out on our driveway instead
of handing them out.  The kids were disappointed but we had
a fun night at home and I think it worked out just fine.

I made us a temporary fire pit using Ben's old charcoal stove and some
pavers and bricks we found in the garage.  It was perfect for our campfire
dinner and ghost stories - and this time I didn't actually scare the kids.

Luke had some ghost stories to tell too.

Ben punctuated the stories with hand gestures.

I found a printable scavenger hunt online
and the younger 3 had fun running all over the
house and finding a big bowl of Halloween candy
to enjoy while we watched "Casper," and for the
next week, and beyond...

Eliza's class party was kind of a craft-a-thon -
she made these TP-tube monsters, painted rocks,
and drew on this mask.  Very cool.

Not pictured: Luke carved a miniature pumpkin all by himself!  He really wanted to carve a real pumpkin but that's one Halloween activity we just didn't make happen this year.  Maybe we'll carve a Thanksgiving pumpkin instead.

Also not pictured: Cat and her best friend Janie dressed up as Salt (Cat) and Pepper (Janie) for a school activity the day before Hallween.