Halloween carving

The kids really enjoyed carving a pumpkin this year. Like all their little jobs they do, they took it very seriously and watched Adam very carefully until it was their turn to participate.

First we went outside to pick out our perfect pumpkin. We played at 5 different pumpkin farms in the past month and therefore had quite a few pumpkins to choose from. Charlie grabbed the biggest one down by the strawberry bale and carried it up the stairs to the front door all by himself.

First the carving team talked about what kind of pumpkin they wanted to create. Of course Kate insisted on a "happy pumpkin" while Charlie really wanted a "scary one". Adam was the deciding vote.

I love how Charlie's arm is wrapped around Adam's, so sweet.

After the top was cut off both Kate and Char took turns taking out the guts. Charlie was successful on his first attempt....

Kate on the other hand had a bit of a harder time...

After failing at grabbing the guts, she looked at me for a little support.

Then decided to stand up and give it another try...

And came up with a tiny amount of pumpkin innards...from then on we gave Kate the job of separating pumpkin seeds, and Charlie the job of digging out the pumpkin.

The finished product:

I love this time of year....

As you know dress up is a huge pass time at our house. The kids dress up everyday, so actually choosing one thing to be for the Halloween parade at Los Ninos and the actual night of trick or treating was hard, and there was quite a lot of last minute sharing going on.

First up: Los Ninos Parade. The morning of Kate's nursery school day she was undecided on what to be. She put on her lion costume, no go. We tried her fairy princess super girl outfit, no such luck. It was no surprise to us since getting her dressed any ordinary day is difficult. Finally, Charlie suggested she borrow his batman costume, and her face lit up! She was the most adorable bat girl I have ever seen.

Kate's nursery school class is small and cute. There are 7 kids total and everyone is 3, except Kate. She has been dropping off and picking up Charlie for a full year, and so walks around like she owns the place. All of her teachers got a kick out of her costume....because the other girls were princesses, a cat, and a pumpkin. Kate was the only super hero in the bunch, obviously because she has an older brother.

The tradition at LN is to have a small party (snack time with costumes on) and then walk around the wonderful yard in the halloween parade.

Here are the cuties getting ready!

Batgirl's brother and dad getting ready to cheer her on. (love that adam works so close to our lives that he can steal away for a few minutes for these types of things)

Maybe the helicopter and dragon are intimidated by the strong batgirl in between them?

She took this parade thing very seriously, allowing stoping once to flex her muscles..

So slow that she is getting lapped, but hey when you are on the look out for crime you have to be thorough.

Friday afternoon it was Charlie's turn to have his Halloween parade. The class is 3 times bigger... can you find him?

Like Kate he took his job seriously. The other kids were being silly, falling over, running...Charlie just kept on marching with a straight face.

Charlie and his best buds Ian and Basel. Personally I like the shot of them all in snow white costumes better....

The kids had great fun cheering each other on, and I was so proud of Charlie for thinking to offer Kate his costume and for sharing it. These nursery school parades were part 1 of celebrations.