Halloween Activities

     We had a very busy weekend. On Friday, we went to Zoo Boo (trick or treating at the zoo). On Saturday, we had Thing 1's second birthday party (pictures and post coming soon!). Sunday we carved pumpkins and Monday was Halloween. For Halloween, we did safe trick or treating and traditional trick or treating. Below are pictures and details of each event. I hope you enjoy!

Zoo Boo

     This is the second year that we've gone to Zoo Boo. We go to the zoo often, so we really go to Zoo Boo for the crafts and the trick or treating. I was a little disappointed that there weren't many booths set up (only 5) and they didn't have any crafts (even though it was on the poster). They shut all of the animals out of their shelters so that they couldn't hide. So, we did get to see literally every animal, which rarely happens. The kids had a great time! Their favorite part was petting and feeding the goats.

Scout and Thing 2 walking into the zoo

Thing 2 feeding the goats

Thing 1 feeding the goats

Scout and Thing 1

     

Pumpkins

     So, at about 4pm on Sunday, my cousin and I decided that we wanted to carve pumpkins with the kids. Can you say last minute? So we ran to the one grocery store in our town. They didn't have any. We then had 3 options if we still wanted pumpkins. We could go north east, north west or south. I called the Wal-Mart and H-E-Bs in the towns to the north, neither town had any pumpkins. So, we headed south. As we were driving I called Wal-Mart and H-E-B in 3 more towns. No pumpkins! We kept driving anyway. There is a 4 way stop (the way to get to the 3 other towns I called) where people sit and sell produce. We decided to see if they had pumpkins and if they didn't we were going to keep going and get some sort of Halloween/fall craft at closest Wal-Mart. Luckily, there was one produce vendon at the 4 way stop that had pumpkins. He didn't have many left, be we managed to find 4 good sized pumpkins that were in good shape. We only needed three, but he talked us into buying 4. He was a good salesman. When we got home, the mosquitoes were terrible so we decided to carve pumpkins in the house. I thought that it would be disaster, but it was Scout's idea and he assured me that it would be fine. He was right. We put down a tarp (of course) and no pumpkin guts got on my carpet.

Thing 1 scooping out guts

Thing 2 pushing out the eye
of her pumpkin

Thing 2 cutting out the mouth

Scout and Thing 1 carving her pumpkin

Thing 2's and Thing 1's pumpkins, all lit up

Safe Trick or Treating

     Safe trick or treating, for those of you that don't know, is an event sponsored by the local police department. In our town, local businesses sign up and you can then go by there and trick or treat. Most of the businesses are located downtown (near the police station). You can pick up maps, lists of participating businesses and bags at the police department. However, it was terrible. I was surprised at the number of "adults" that would push pre-schoolers out of the way just so that their child could get 1 piece of free candy. I didn't get many pictures because there were so many people just trying to push you out of the way to get to the next business. However, my soon-to-be step-mother's office was participating so we stopped to snap a quick picture with her. By the times that we got to her, both of the kids had been pushed down and Thing 1 just wanted to go home. It was sad that they were tired of it so soon because it could have been a wonderful experience.

Thing 1, Granny K, and Thing 2

Traditional Trick or Treating

     Traditional trick or treating was a blast. We went to houses of people that we know, but still managed to hit a few dozen houses (yay for church family and fire fighters!). Someone scared Thing 2 by accident, poor kid. A teenager bent over right in Thing 1's face while wearing a scary mask. I said "Yeah, scare her on purpose. That's really nice." I guess he forgot that he was wearing the mask, because he was very sorry.  Other than that, a quote from my cousin-in-law sums it up best. 

"Halloween - the holiday when lazy parenting gurus decide it's safe to show off their skills in public." 

     I didn't get pictures because I had to make sure that people didn't run my kids over, but here is one I snapped when we got home.

Thing 2, Cousin's Kid, Thing 1

Thing 1 - Halloween

     Today, Thing 1 and I decided to have a spur-of-the-moment photo shoot while Thing 2 was napping. Thing 1 has been begging to try on her Halloween costume (again), so I thought that her costume would be perfect for the pictures. She's going to be Belle (from Beauty and the Beast).

Here are a few of the favorites. I hope that you enjoy!

This is just completely her personality.
She's my little Diva.

She kept making silly faces and this is the
smile that I got when I threatened to
send the silly pictures to Allo (my sister).

Thing 1's favorite.
She insist that I add it to the post.

Friday Fun!

Each Friday, my children and I attempt to do something fun.
Today, we made a Halloween craft - 

Hand Print Spiders

What you will need:

White paper (I used scrapbook paper that is more heavy duty than copier paper)

Black paint

Paint brush

Scissors (or safety scissors, if you want your kids to do the cutting)

Tape

Fishing line

How to - 

Step 1: Use the paint brush to put black paint on your child's hand. (You can skip the thumb if you want less mess because you'll cut it off anyway).

Step 2: Press the child's painted hand onto the white paper. (You will need 2 hand prints for each spider)

Step 3: Let the hand prints dry.

Step 4: Cut out the hand prints (or have your child do it). If you printed the thumb, cut it off. Don't stress if there is some white around the edges.

Step 5: Place 2 hand prints face down. Overlap them to your spiders desired size. Tape them together.

Step 6: Bend the fingers where they meet the hands to make the spider's legs.

Step 7: Poke a small hole in the middle of the spider's back. Add fishing line for a hanging-from-the-web effect.

Optional steps - you can embellish your spiders any way you wish. Add eyes or markings (like red paint) to make different types of spiders.