Fillmore Spooky

I have always loved Halloween.  What's not to love?  Dress-up, spookiness, tricks, treats, treats, and more treats!  And the best part is my kids are getting old enough to truly appreciate the holiday and get into the holiday spirit!

 All month long, Tanner has been spending his spare time making Halloween decorations to hang all around the house.  This is only a fraction of the decorations he has made.  And, the best part is since we are not technically selling or showing the house right now, I can leave them up and not even worry that we have kid decoration overload!  I love his creativity.

We have also been attending some pretty posh Halloween parties and coming home with crafts like these adorable spiders. 

Ashlyn decided that for her Family Home Evening activity she wanted us all to make one of these spooky spider webs and after making six of them, they made a very impressive little family of spiders.

And  thank Heaven for my new found hobby called Pinterest... it is an unlimited source for Halloween snacks, activities, and crafts like these adorable skeletons.  Look closely and you will see that the bones spell out "Ian" in cursive!

And "Tanner"

And "Ashlyn"

Call me mean, but the "Charlotte" skeleton was just a little too long and elaborate to make its debut, and she didn't really seem to care, she was having such a fun time sabotaging everyone else's craft projects.

And of course, pumpkin carving is a huge tradition in this household.  Our daddy can scoop out pumpkin guts in less than one minute... we timed him, which makes pumpkin carving lots of fun!  This year the kids designed AND carved their own pumpkins!  It was awesome.  This is Tanner's jack-o-lantern.  I find it fascinating that he always gives his jack-o-lanterns ears.

Ashlyn's happy jack-o-lantern

Ian drew the face and Zac helped him cut it out, which was quite a feat!  Ian insisted on drawing some hair and other facial features to make the jack-o-lantern complete.

Since Tanner finished his so quickly, he offered to carve Charlotte's for her, complete with ears.  I liked the hats that the kids added to the jack-o-lanterns this year.  They are so creative.

And now... drum roll please.... the following jack-o-lanterns are up for your consideration in the annual Zac vs. Lori pumpkin carving contest.  The rules are: The jack-o-lantern has to come out of your own head and cannot be copied from anything seen or heard of before.  And absolutely no patterns!... no small feat!

Lori's creation... I had to use Zac's drill to pre-drill some holes and then threaded a large needle to create this exquisite string art masterpiece complete with Artic Circle flashlight spiders (which by the way create quite an ambiance when flashing at night on the doorstep).  Can I get a woot, woot?

And Zac's creative contribution... more of a pumpkin "sculpture" if you will, rather than a jack-o-lantern.  He created a rendition of the Grand Tetons and a little Lego man fishing on a pumpkin boat.  The lake was complete with Swedish fish and small plastic animals and trees dotted the landscape.  Zac would like you to note, since you can't see it the realistically frustrated look on the Lego fisherman's face.

The night we carved the pumpkins, we took them to a ward pumpkin carving contest.  To judge the entries, each jack-o-lantern had a bowl placed in front of it.  Each person in the ward was given three pieces of candy and were told to put it in the bowl of the jack-o-lantern they liked best. Needless to say, we cleaned up on candy!  So much that it wouldn't even all fit in a large bowl and not just the cheap candy either... actual brand name candy bars!  Now... one of us (Zac or me) actually was declared the "winner" of the ward contest, but I'm not going to tell you who... I want to hear your votes!

Now onto the costumes.  This year we have an adorable black cat.  Ashlyn was so in love with her costume that she has been prancing around the house for weeks in it.

Next up, we have a very tricky Tanner who it appears is being abducted by an alien.  His costume was complicated to make, hard to wear, and more money than I would have spent on a store bought costume.  But he loves it, so it is worth it (read... never, ever will I put that much time, energy, and money to make such a cumbersome costume again!)

And our little Ian Spider Man, who has been working on shooting webs out of his fingers for weeks.  This boy is very into super heroes and is LOVING having his own Spider Man costume.  He has been a riot of laughs in this thing.

And our little Bug-a-Boo, Charlotte is a lady bug this year, which is so fitting because we are always calling her our little "bug".  She is so adorable in this costume, I just want to pinch her little cheeks!

And we just had to include a picture of our awesome cousin Garrett who made a very impressive viking in this striking costume made by his mother.  We had a lot of fun this year scoping out our cousins' costumes at Grandma Julie's annual Halloween party.

Cousin party, ward party and trunk or treat, class parties and parade, PTO carnival, Halloween recital, and Fillmore cousin spook house all down... just trick-or-treating left to go...

What a great holiday!