Getting ready for Halloween

I can't say that we have done much to get ready for Halloween. The girls have a stash of costumes that they play with all year long. Sarah buys them on closeout after Halloween. So far we have not had to plan costumes for the girls, they just pick one out of the closet that day and away we go. We didn't really decorate the house either and we did nothing special for the Trunk-or-Treat. I guess we were all just tired from our bout of the flu and Sydney's party last week.

So enough of what we didn't do. Here's what we did do.

We did go to the Trunk-or-Treat.

We did put Evie in my favorite little piggy costume.

We did decorate cookies. OK, Sarah decorated cookies.

We did carve pumkins.

This is Sydney's Jack-O-Lantern. She designed and carved it all by herself.

Sydney's Jack-O-Lantern again. She wanted to carve "BOO!" onto the side of the pumpkin but I didn't realize what she was doing until it was too late. I did my best to salvage the B and then showed her how to do the O's. She's pretty proud of her pumpkin. Tara was asleep on the floor while we carved pumpkins, probably a sugar crash from all the junk she brought home from school today.
We had seven pumpkins from the garden this year so I spent last night hollowing out all seven pumpkins and carving two of them. I carved another tonight as Sydney carved hers. Hopefully Tara and Sarah will carve the other three tomorrow. Otherwise I'm just carving standard Jack-O-Lantern faces rather than intricate designs. These three pumpkins were hard, especially the moon behind the haunted house. I think they all turned out great.

Here's Syndey's Jack-O-Lantern next to an owl pumpkin that I carved last night (finished around 12:30). It was our largest pumpkin but the back rotted out so I cut the rotted part out and set it up against the tree.
I carved the raccoon tonight while Sydney carved her Jack-O-Lantern. I think it turned out pretty well. It's definitely bright. I'm most pleased with the other pumpkin with the moon behind the haunted house. It took me forever and I messed up and thinned out the shell too much to the right of the house but now that I see it in the picture, I think I really like the bright glow behind the house. It's a little eerie.
It was fun to actually carve nice pumpkins and not Walmart junk or whatever's left over at the fruit stands a few days before Halloween. I saved seeds to plant next year. They were good pumpkins. The funny thing is that the plant that produced the best pumpkins just sprouted up in our garden, probably from the crappy Walmart pumkins that I composted last year.

We are looking forward to Halloween festivities tomorrow, however Sydney just came down with the flu last night and is pretty miserable. She showed a little bit of life tonight as we carved pumpkins but it quickly faded as she was finishing. Hopefully she feels well enough to participate tomorrow. The YMCA and Zoo Montana have activites tomorrow that we will try to go to, even if its just me (or Sarah) and Tara. Bummer to be sick on a holiday, especially when begging for candy is involved.

*********************UPDATE********************

In the comments Kimber mentioned that Evie was the cutest piggy she's ever seen. I just thought I'd throw up these pictures from Halloween 2004. I think it might be a draw. This is my favorite picture off Tara. She made a cute pig too. They look surprising alike in this costume. I didn't think they looked much a like before comparing these pictures.

Halloween 2004 - Tara in the pig costume

Halloween 2004 - Sydney (dragon), Tara (pig). Syd made a cute dragon too.