Halloween Frights or Delights

Well, Halloween has come and gone yet again.. It is fun when your kids choose what they want to dress up as....until they choose something that you don't really "like." I know its a small thing and is only going to get worse as they get older, but for the record I was not too fond of this fairy costume. Kimee put it together all by herself.. She loved the NEON tights and the pink wig hair...and the wings.. So bippity- boppity -boo.. what do you get?... a pink fairy of course. This was costume number one for her neighborhood and friend parties. We compromised and had two costumes, both her ideas, just a little more guided help on the second one.

 Ethan wanted to be "Woody" from Toy Story.

Then costume number two for the "real" party at school and Halloween night. She was Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

 In case you don't know who that is... here is Izzy.

 Ethan was Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Izzy's partner in crime..of course..

In case you don't know "Jake".

DRUM ROLL please....

Our little Hershey's Kiss and Hershey's Hug (with almonds). 

We have other pictures but I can't get them off the camera right now but here they are trick o treating in style in the stroller.  I wanted them to be matching something. I figured I only had a few years in which I can control what they are going to be. Carl wasn't too on board with the idea of "matchey matchey" until he talked to his co-workers who agreed with me (thank you!) that they should match. We got thinking and brainstorming. There are a lot of dynamic duo's out there. I saw this idea of a hug and kiss on the internet but that was it.. We ( I ) decided it would be "fun" to make the costumes since I couldn't find a pattern online.. (c'on, pintrest even let me down). Then I couldn't find "hug" (striped) fabric so we went with the almond hug...(Carl's idea, need we say more.) I had this great pattern in my head and well it didn't turn out quite like I saw it in my head, (most things don't but I always hope this time will be different..) but overall they turned out pretty cute. It is hard to tell exactly how well they turned out since they are in the stroller...  A few main problems I discovered... the twins are not walking so it was hard to get the full effect I was hoping for in the shape as they sat most of the time; they don't hold very still for measurements making sizing nearly impossible; they don't like hats; (hence Bekah's being crooked); Halloween day/night was exceptionally warm so they were "melting" in their costumes....and my kids destroyed my house while I was distracted sewing... but hey Halloween only comes once a year right?

And the AFTERMATH... They had chocolate and tootsie rolls and if I wasn't so upset and them being so cranky/tired, I would have taken a picture of them in the chocolate-coated, drool costumes. I thought for sure the costumes were ruined and it was only part way through the day. Luckily, I made them reversible (fluke...ummm maybe) and we just turned them around for night party.

All stripped down after I got the costumes off. They are starting to look more and more different.(not that there is really any reason they should look alike.. other than brother and sister) Bekah is really expanding the gap. I feel like she weighs more and is longer. She has always been a little bigger from the beginning but the doc's visits always have them close due to their record keeping errors.. (maybe because they record the same measurements for both babies but that is a different story..)

The AFTERMATH for the other kids... A little sugar coma look and they haven't even eaten any yet... It was probably more that they went to bed super late and up super early.  A little out-of-control I know..

Ethan's pile, one for him (the larger one) and one for me...(the smaller one), little does he know my pile will "grow."

This was about half of her total candy.

I thought we would do a little learning activity with the candy before it all "disappeared." We practiced sorting by color, size, brand, chocolate, not chocolate, sticky (that was kimee's idea and I think they are all that.), hard, soft, etc. Then we played which one of these things is not like the other..( ie 2 chocolate bars and 1 sucker..) She put together the combination of the Snickers, Milky Way, and Butterfinger and said to me, which does not belong... I tried color of wrapper, nuts vs no nuts, etc..Nothing. She had me stumped.. She finally said, "Duh Mom, the Butterfinger because it's gross.." (I have to admit I might have influenced her a bit on this opinion as I don't like Butterfinger.) After all the playing, I then said, Kimee you can keep as many as you count.. Talk about motivation. I had no idea she could count to 1000 all by herself...(1055 I think was the total between all the candy we collected and had left over from giving out..).I DID let her keep all she could count BUT I have put a very strict limit on the amount she can eat per day for her sake and my sanity.  This activity wasn't all bad, it did fill a good hour of the morning and WE all learned something...(1000 who knew?!!)