Halloween 2019

Halloween 2015

I present to you:

Maira as Robin

Hudson as a robot

Connor as a volcano.

Oh no, he's going to explode!

Shae as Little Red Riding Hood.

After an encounter with the wolf. 

She did two costumes this year. For school, she made herself this costume as Harley Quinn, a comic book villain.

I was able to watch Maira and Hudson's school parade and take some pictures and videos.

This is Maira's class:

And this is Hudson's:

There were a lot of superheroes so when I saw that one of Maira's friends had dressed up as Batman, I made her pose for a picture with him even though neither of them was too excited ("Mom, you're SO embarrassing!")

This isn't a great photo but poor Hudson had to sit at his desk for about half an hour in his robot costume before the parade started and he was so uncomfortable and awkward but he loved his costume so he was very patient while he waited for the parade to begin.

You may recognize Hudson's robot costume from the past two years when Connor wore it. I just took off the stickers on the front that said "Con-nor" and changed it to "Hud-son". He was so excited to be able to shine the laser pointers at stuff. If you look at the smoke in the photo above, the red lines are his laser pointers.

Our neighbours two doors down go all out with their lawn decorations. We live on a nice cul-de-sac and their enthusiasm for Halloween will be one thing we will miss when we move. We have put our house up for sale because we are buying a house in a different neighbourhood. Still on the west end of Edmonton but just closer to the kids' schools and to the river valley. So some big changes ahead!

Update: We were so lucky to get an offer a week after we put our house up for sale and it was really close to our asking price so this is really happening - we get possession of our new house on December 11th and we have to be out of our old house by January 14th. So yes, we are moving over Christmas. CRAZY. I love so many things about our new house but I will miss our beautiful new quartz countertops and maple floors that we just put in 6 months ago but I will especially miss the memories of raising a family in this house over the past ten years. Maira and Hudson were born in this house and Connor and Shae were one and six when we moved here so they've all grown up so much here. It's really hard to say good-bye.

Halloween 2012

Winter seems to have come early this year which made for some very cold trick or treating last night.

Shae didn't go trick or treating, instead she spent the night sick in bed.  She did have a pretty awesome costume for school: we coloured her hair bright purple and then she pinned in some multi coloured hair extensions and some blue ears, dressed in blue, and she was Rainbow Dash, one of the My Little Ponies.  But she came home sick at lunch and is still feeling pretty miserable, poor thing.

But the rest of the kids were somewhat healthy and so they got to go out trick or treating and were undeterred by the weather.  Except for some (OK, a lot) of whining about all the layers I insisted on adding under their costumes (Connor: "But I can't move my arms anymore!"  Maira: "But I don't want to wear mittens, they're too big!"), they were excited to hit the streets and collect some candy.

Before they could leave, we gathered them for a picture:

Then after a few shots, I said "OK, pick up your bags, time to go trick or treating".  Check out the pure joy on Maira's face:

See what I mean about a wintery Halloween?

Trick or Treat!

Our four jack-o-lanterns (they were even grown in Grandpa's garden!)

Checking out the loot once they got back: 

Howie even got into the spirit and donned his usual Bat costume and tried very hard not to bark TOO much at all the trick or treaters who came to our door.

Halloween 2011

The night before Halloween, Jess set up a photo shoot for the kids so we could take our time taking pictures of them in their costumes (and avoid those winter coat stuffed under the costume type photos!) So, here are some pictures of their costumes for this Halloween.

Hudson:

Hudson was happy to dress up in an old dragon costume that I bought a few years ago so I was glad there was no sewing required for this one. And he really liked being a very fierce fire breathing dragon. There are no sound effects with these photos but you can imagine him hissing and roaring as he poses for the camera, making his very fiercest dragon noises.

Maira:

Maira was such a little poser for this photo shoot, she makes me laugh. She decided right from the start that if we were going to take a picture of her as a mermaid, it was absolutely essential that she be sitting on a rock. So, we used a quilt and a foam chair to make a rock for her to pose on and then she took a seat, made sure her feet were tucked under her tail, and started posing away. Too funny.

Connor:

Connor is fascinated with anything military. So it was very important to him that his costume this year involve weapons and armor of some sort. He settled on a Roman legionnaire as his choice and I gladly turned over the costume construction to Jess on this one. And no, he's not going to be bringing that sword with him when he goes trick-or-treating. That sword is Jess's, he just let Connor hold it for the photos!

Shae:

This is her last year going trick-or-treating, and I only reluctantly let her go this year and only because she didn't get to go out last year since Halloween was on a Sunday. She decided she wanted to be Little Red Riding Hood. She picked a costume pattern that was much more involved than I had expected but I managed to finish it in time and she does make quite a pretty Little Red Riding Hood.