It was the eve of the eve of All Hallow's Eve, when witches and warlocks and... smurfs... converged in the woods. The annual Windham Park neighborhood Halloween parade was about to begin.
Papa Smurf thinks that when he hides his eyes, others can't see him.
This little girl was captivated by Lorelei. Or maybe it was the blue face.
The kids had to get a picture with our neighbor, Jack. They play constantly. I'm so glad to have great neighbors with kids on our cul-de-sac.
Here's L with Anna-Banana from up the street. Lorelei literally thinks that's her name.
Their proud Daddys. They're buds.
It was a beautiful night for some early tricks and treats at the park.
We had our family Kumbya on the eve of All Hallow's Eve. While we Skyped with Grandma and Grandpa Connelly, Kayla and Tyler, in Canada, we did our pumpkins. Gryffy insisted on these Woody and Buzz pumpkin pokers from Target. He had been rearranging them on his pumpkin all day. We use these every year before the carving begins.
The kids are responsible each year for designing the pumpkin on the computer.
Mommy draws the design from the screen onto the pumpkin, and carves away! Daddy always gets scared watching Mommy wield her knife.
The best part: ooey, gooey pumpkin guts!
Our Kumbya Lesson (thanks, Tasha!): You are like a pumpkin. God lifts you up, takes you in, and washes all the dirt off you. He opens you up, touches you deep inside and scoops out all the yucky stuff--the seeds of doubt, despair, comparison and unforgiveness. Then He carves you a bright new smiling face and puts His light inside you to shine for all the world to see. ~Anonymous
Striking a match!
We spent Halloween morning at Lorelei's school party and parade. Here are some of the moms that pulled it all together. I love the half day moms--they're really involved at the school and many stay at home. Which means lots of extra playdates after school at Deanna Rose park. And one of these fabulous moms has planned a weekend spa getaway at a lodge this December for the soccer moms from L's old team. T-shirts, coozies and all. Can't wait!
I'm the class photographer, so I lined up the little monsters for some smiles...
... and sillies.
As they paraded classroom to classroom, Lorelei and Gryffin went hand in hand. Daddy also got to party with us that day. Lorelei loved having the whole Smurf family at school.
Best part of the day? The dance party!
Halloween night crept up on us (don't mind the mess in the background--Brainy glasses, Awanas guidebook, cooking supplies for a dinner with friends, video camera, treat bags, and a bag of cupcake ingredients for an upcoming article).
All this mess made the family go blue in the face.
Getting ready to go trick-or-treating at 6 o'clock. We were the first ones out, but we had an Awana's carnival to get to that night, too!
Our nice next-doors, Steve and Jo. They usually have a car wreck in their driveway, but Steve hurt his shoulder this year, which put him in the shop instead of his cool car.
We mostly neglected our trick-or-treaters. Notice the porch lights are out? But since Daddy passed up playing with his band at a Chiefs football game (in which the Chiefs won in overtime, by the way), it was kind of a no-brainer that Brainy Smurf wanted to tag along with his little smurflings. Brainy had his priorities straight that night--while a lot of other dads were indoors watching the game, and Daddy could have been right there and been paid to do it, he chose his family first. Touchdown!
The scariest house on the block goes to the Olm-Shipmans, who are insane about Halloween. We love it!
We had to remind the kids to say thank you a few times, so I came up with a strategy. I told Lorelei that she needed to say thank you, and then tell me the eye color of the person she said it to. And she looked every last one in the eye. I'm sure they were wondering why she was yelling "blue" and "brown" as she left with her bag of candy. Gryffy was getting better at doling out thanks by the end, and had a very adorable "twick-or-tweat!" to offer.
The rest of the night was spent door-to-door with Anna-Banana. We loved seeing all the neighbor kids running around, getting spooked. Because being scared is oh so fun.
BOO!
Happy Halloween!
No comments:
Post a Comment