Catching up on October

We carved the boys pumpkins for Family Home Evening the Monday before Halloween. When I say "we" I mean Steven. I meant to be involved, but Sarah had other plans, so we (Sarah and I) watched. Each year the boys contribute more to the jack o' lantern process than the last. Both boys designed their own jack o' lantern face. I was surprised at how well Michael's turned out. He doesn't care for drawing yet, so it's great to see his skill now and then. Jacob cut his face pieces out and taped them to his pumpkin and traced it on by poking wholes along the lines for Steven to cut out. It was pretty funny. Jacob was all ready and eager to scoop the guts out, until he saw what was inside. He said, "Oh, I forgot what it looked like, maybe when I'm ten." Apparently, that's the magic age.

We had the boys pose with their completed pumpkins. They wanted to make the same face as their jack o' lantern's. Steven just kept snapping shots of Michael.

Halloween night we went out with Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Dave and Aunt Melissa, cousins Mark and Lily. It is fun having cousins near by, we wish all the cousins lived closer. Jacob and Mark have a cute relationship and Lily is four days younger than Sarah.
While trick or treating, some girls in the neighborhood were admiring the babies. One said, "That's a bumblebee and that's a cow." Michael retorted, "that's not a cow, it's a giraffe!" So cowboy Markie doesn't have a "horse", he's got a giraffe.

This year's costumes: I'd like to thank Santa for bringing Jacob the spaceman suit two years ago and for making it too big. Jacob LOVES dressing up and he was excited that it fit without rolling up the sleeves. Grandma Rosenlund found this cute tiger vest at Once Upon a Child resale shop and Michael loved it. I tried so hard to find tiger fur to make matching pants, but without success. Plan B: sweatpants. Since I thought Sarah was going to be born in the middle of October, I didn't even think she was going to be participating in Halloween, so THANK YOU Nicole for lend of the bee costume. Cute kids!

The stash! We still have candy. I cannot wait for it to be gone!!! There is a family in the ward who has a neat tradition that I am seriously considering. They let their kids pick 25 pieces of candy each and then the rest gets put away for decorating gingerbread houses at Christmas. Who eats the candy on the gingerbread house anyway, so why buy new candy? My brother and his family has a similar tradition. They make a thanksgiving pinata and use the Halloween candy for that. I love these ideas--limit candy intake with the kids knowing that the rest is going towards a fun tradition that they can look forward to.