Halloweeny

halloween at our house was long with several days of partying, and way too much loot! the second day of parties began with the kids having their school shin-digs, and then coming home and heading off to the tae kwon do party. this was great fun, with games and stunts performed by some of the instructors. there was a halloween costume contest and caleb won for the 3 and 4 year olds. although i feel like we cheated a bit because they thought he was the "bow-tied dinosaur" (what is that?) and it is plain to see that he is pablo! he won a tae kwon do gourd for his prize, i was just glad it wasn't a bag of candy!

here's all the kids after the tkd party and full day at school, as we are heading to go beg for treats from the neighbors. they are all frazzled, with bits of costumes left at various location and and some dinner and other food adding to the loveliness. we barely got this shot, everyone was so whiny and tired, i don't even know how we made it walking around the few blocks that we went to. ciela ended up staying out extra long with some neighbors from across the street who have kids her age. she had a great time, and no one complained about needing anymore candy. in fact, caleb asked many times to go home before we finally did, and even stopped trick-or-treating for about 1 block. haven on the hand got better at each house, and near the end would baby sign for "more" when she got up to the door, and stopped fussing and gave up the binky entirely! it was a lot more fun than i thought it would be this year. haven is ready for anything now!

the best close up of haven we ended up with . she was a blue octopus, and so cute. the first party we went to she wouldn't wear the hood, so i put her hair into 8 little bear-ears (buns), so so cute! by the 3rd time in the costume she loved the whole thing and kept the hood on all the time. we never got good shots of ciela or toran, but bayla was hannah montana with a wig she seriously regretted begging for. and toran was a fighter pilot, a pretty cool costume i found for $7 after glenn realized his homemade optimus prime wasn't rain weather friendly (though if you know the gman you know it would've been totally sweet! with big chunks of boxes painted with decals for the choppy body parts, way better than the 2-D version from the store) and so i had to make a costume run!

thankfully caleb was willing to be pablo again this year. this boy has the most creative costume ideas and i really wish i would act on them sooner. last year he wanted to be a red apple, and i contemplated how to make one and even searched the internet for costumes but i was not willing to pay the crazy prices, so i convinced him that pablo would be even better. this year he wanted to be a stool! i really had no idea what to do, and didn't even try looking for ready-made ones, i just frequently encouraged pablo again, and again. sometimes caleb does listen.