Trunk or Treat... Halloween 2010!

Halloween is an extremely fun holiday full of such traumatic traditions!  This year my Dad and Mom came over Saturday morning and carved pumpkins and made treats with the kids.  For as long as I can remember, my Dad has carved the pumpkins in our family and has always taken such joy in the chance to absolutely scare the pants off of us.  So with no exception, this year he took out his sadistic 'tradition' on our poor children :)!  This is how the tradition plays out:  He lifts the lid off the pumpkin making a big to-do about all the 'guts' coming out.  Once the children are nice and intrigued by the graphic nature of what's happening, he will take out a handful of guts and toss it down in disgust.  The next handful is PUUUULLLED out while moaning and groaning about how hard it is to get  out.  By now the kids are intensely quiet and concentrating quite hard on the task.  The third handful is REALLY stuck... SO stuck.  He pulls and pulls and usually one poor child (Abby this year) gets up on their knees and ventures a look inside.  And that's when... he SCREAMS... shaking and desperately trying to pull his arm out of the pumpkin as some unknown force pulls back from within.  This was usually the point at which at least one of us as kids would book it out of the garage, kitchen, dining room, wherever we were.  This year poor Noah looked like he was going to soil himself, Abigail startled then laughed like crazy and poor baby Elias started screaming from the loud noise.  Thoroughly please with the result my Dad stopped once Mom told him to "CUT IT OUT!" Mike laughed, and well I videotaped it.  I'm so grateful for parents who are intent on continuing tradition!  LOL!!

This year because Hallow e'en was on a Sunday, we celebrated at our church on the Saturday night instead!  We had what's called a "Trunk or Treat" and it was AWESOME!!  This is how it worked, everyone dresses up, decorates the trunk of their vehicle, and then we all gather in the parking lot of the church.  The kids trick or treated around the parking lot from trunk to trunk and collected more candy than we would have endured on a regular Hallow e'en and all in a fraction of the time!!  Afterwards we all went inside the church where a committee of very talented members had decorated the gym. We had snacks, games and of course dancing and enjoyed a fun, safe and exciting Hallow e'en night with the kids!

It took a lot of convincing on Noah's part but we finally got him to agree to make his face "look dead". When he first saw my makeup he cried and tried to cower into Mike, who just pushed him, flailing and screaming, closer to me. I guess this sadistic 'enjoy your child's misery' characteristic is quite normal amongst fathers?!?! But regardless of our initial set back, Noah did eventually put his dead face on!

                                        

Abigail invited two friends from school so we had a full van.  Although Abby was the one to invite her friends, it was Noah who stole the attention as he danced and romanced his way into Abby's friend's arms!  What a funny kid!    

Abby ended up winning a prize for the spookiest costume and she got a ribbon!  She was so proud of herself! 

Aunt Rachel and Chris came too.  The kids were pumped about that!  Their costumes were ridiculously funny.  They dressed up as Tetris pieces and fit themselves together quite perfectly for some great photo-ops.  If that's not true love, I don't know what is!!  Bahah!!

     

It was a great night.  I'm not sure whether it was more fun for the kids or the adults, but either way, it was a BLAST!!  We hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween!!! 

 

 

Love from the Willmotts