Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone! We actually have all our celebrating in already, since our town does a downtown trick-or-treating on the Wednesday before and neighborhood trick-or-treating on Thursday. We took full advantage though, going out both nights and enjoying watching Colter soak it all up.

Let's back up to Tuesday though, which was a beautiful day. Keith managed to get home a bit early, so the pumpkin carving was able to happen outside. Three cheers for pumpkin gunk staying outside! I am not a fan of getting my hands down in that goo, and Colter wasn't so much either, but he did want to help with the carving.

Meanwhile, Elliott had no qualms about slimy stuff on his hands.

Ok, maybe a little unsure.

Hmmm...what is this stuff?

 I wonder how it tastes?

 Let's take some nice photos out front with the pumpkins! Right...

On Wednesday, we suited up to head up Main Street. 

Let's try those pictures out front again!

Colter wanted to be a hermit crab, so a hermit crab he was.

He managed really well all night with his bulky shell, which ended up a bit heavier than I anticipated.

Elliott was an avocado because, well, because Colter said he should be an avocado. Green head to toe, with a hat I knitted for him and a produce label made with an iron-on transfer.

 Colter was so excited to wear his costume, and I'll admit I was pretty excited about how it turned out.

As for making it, I was a little stumped at first. You know you have a challenge ahead of you when a Pinterest search only has about three results. I texted a bit with my fantastically creative friend, and landed on a long tube of fabric, stuffed and spiraled into a shell. I sewed it onto a thrift store backpack, and then sewed and stuffed legs and attached them to the straps.

His claws were made out of the same fabric as the legs, and attached to a long piece of yarn that went through the sleeves of his shirt like mittens for little kids so he wouldn't lose them. I also put a piece of elastic on the underside of each claw so it could stay around his wrist without flopping around. His eyeballs were one of those silly headbands for parties with springs and two balls on the top; I just painted the balls white and added some goggly eyes. By raiding my mom's fabric bins, pulling apart some old pillows for stuffing, and checking the thrift store, the only new thing I bought was the headband (and it was on clearance at Target). Even Elliott's costume was all things my mom or I had on hand. My little eco-crab and eco-avocado!

I do find it funny that for three of his four Halloweens, he's gone as a shelled creature: a turtle, a lobster, and now a hermit crab. Perhaps a manifestation of his introvert ways?

Keith's parents were able to join us on Thursday night to see the boys dressed up, share some snacks, and bring the boys lots of goodies and some Halloween books. What a treat for all of us!

I think we'll be swapping the usual afternoon cartoon for some Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin today, just to make sure we do something Halloween-ish on Halloween (besides eating candy!) Hope you all have a wonderful Halloween, with just the right amount of spooky and sweet!