Halloween and Thanksgiving, all in a weekend

On Halloween weekend this year, our house was invaded by a Jedi and a  princess.  Here are Eli and Talia heading off to school for their Halloween parade.

After school, we hit the Main Library downtown to make some seriously cool concoctions.

Any Halloween celebration that gives away more books than candy is a winner in my view.

Brooklyn didn't make the library Halloween party because she was having a Halloween celebration of her own with the West High ELPers (7th and 8th grade.)  My mom messed up the other day and called them lepers instead.  Tee hee!  Brooklyn also got to go to Pumpkin Nights at the fairgrounds for mutual.

That's Pumpkin carving taken to a whole new level.

Annika had a little Halloween parade at her school too.  For this occasion she picked out this really odd little wizard dress that I got at Kid2Kid for a buck.

Later that night, Annika decided to be a cat for the real deal trick-or-treating.

We met up with friends to invade the neighborhood en masse.

Ruby came in her ruby red slippers, flanked by an older princess with shorter hair.  (Talia had switched to Hermione.)

Hey Dorothy, we're twinners!  I loved how Ruby took my hand as we went from door to door asking for candy: two, because she wanted one to share with Annie.  So sweet!

Crunching all the leaves was the very best part.

Back at home, we decided that Annie wasn't a cat after all.

She was actually Max from Where the Wild Things Are.  Fits perfectly!

Our little Max waited adorably by the door, jumping up each time the trick-or-treaters came.  When our own treats started to run low, she explained that it was okay because she could give away hers.  Aw!

It wouldn't be Halloween without chili and yummy cinnamon rolls (courtesy of Aunt Brianna.)  One more round of trick-or-treating across the street in Federal Heights for the big kids (they got full-sized candy bars!), a quick warm by the fire, and then it was off to bed.  What a fun day.

But wait!  We can't forget Halloween Phase 1, celebrated in Hyde Park with Grandma Susie and Grandpa Charles.  These pumpkin-launching trebuchets were pretty awesome.

Ruby snuggles in grandma's lap while we enjoy the action.

For the second year in a row, the weather was absolutely perfect for outdoor pumpkin carving.

Annie got some help making the cutest little owl.

Eli's hard at work designing a jack-o-lantern face to match his own.

Great job with your cat, Talia!


And Brooklyn?  Well, she made pumpkin pi.

Our final creations.

With the entire family gathered from California and Chicago, we headed to Lions Park for some family photos.

Posing so many people is never an easy task.  Well-done, Jason!

And a fun one on the slide.

Saturday we celebrated Halloween, but on Sunday we celebrated an early Thanksgiving since Charles and Susie would be in New Zealand for our actual turkey day.  Lucky kiwis!  Naturally, the day began with meat pie.

Here's Jason modelling an appropriate cranberry to pie ratio.  If you can see the pie, you've apparently done it wrong.

Susie gave Annika and Ruby some cute sticker books where you add stickers to make faces.

Looks like Annie got a bit mixed up and put all Grandma's piano stickers on her own face.

Most importantly, the Thanksgiving spread.

It was a decadent meal worth repeating, which is exactly what I hope to do tomorrow.  Happy Thanksgiving, all!