Halloween 2013

We had a great Halloween holiday - granted, it was curtailed a bit by Will's bout with pneumonia (no church party, sadly), but what we were well enough to attend was fun. As usual, we carved pumpkins and Spencer decorated our front windows for the enjoyment of our neighbors and trick-or-treaters.

The first photo shows Spencer's pumpkin. Feeling particularly ambitious this year, he decided to freestyle a zombie on his. Below that is mine and Will's. We did ours together - I did the design and Will helped me cut it out. He was delighted with our efforts and requested that we light them up outside to enjoy them in their full jack-o-lantern-iness. So we did, and they were awesome. Unfortunately, we trooped back inside and completely forgot to extinguish the six-inch tall pillar candles inside. So, they burned all night, eventually turning the insides black and making the cut edges look like they'd been outlined with a Sharpie. Whatever. They still were fun and looked fine on the actual Halloween night. Oh, and you can see that a portion of the lid on Will's and my pumpkin was burned away. Gives it some street cred, I think.

Here is a shot of Spencer's window creation. It took a ridiculous amount of time, and yes, being tiny pieces of cut-out paper, it was all thrown away the day after Halloween. That said, it got rave reviews, prompting many to take photos in front of our house, several to ask, "how did you DO that?!!" and one woman to request a new one for Christmas.

I got to take Will trick-or-treating this year. We were out for about an hour and a half, and though he got tired, he wouldn't stop. Fortunately the weather cooperated, and Will was dressed very comfortably for the evening. Here are a few of him:

And last but not least, here are a few photos of our family gathering at Aunt Carolynn's house the day after Halloween. She was great to host us, Aunt Marcie, and Grandma and Grandpa. We had our traditional chili, doughnuts from Fresh Donut and Deli, wassail, and other treats. It was so nice because it gave the younger cousins a chance to see each other without preventing them from trick-or-treating on the holiday. Thanks, Aunt Carolynn!

The one I like to call "sweet baby James..."

The hostess with the mostess...Aunt Carolynn!

Grandma and Grandpa - they should take photos like this more often. It's how I like to think of them.

The usual suspects

Cute baby Joshua, AKA "teddy bear"

Susanna and me in our first attempt at the Moby wrap. She was dressed as a Federation officer (Star Trek, people!), but her costume is of course covered by the wrap.

Anyway, it was great and we had such a nice holiday! Yay!