Happy Halloween!

We started our Halloween festivities the weekend before with our neighbor's pumpkin carving party. Both boys were in charge of designing and cutting their own pumpkins. Alex carved the one on the left, and Adam did the one of the right. Adam enjoyed it so much that he cut faces into 4 sides of his pumpkin:



For the party, I made owl cupcakes (since I promised Alex I would make them sometime in October). They looked easier than the birthday penguins, but still proved to be time consuming. I did both regular and mini-sized cupcakes. We took the big ones to the pumpkin party:



And the mini ones to Alex's first bookclub meeting:



Several months ago, the boys told me they wanted to be Harry Potter for Halloween. I was not terribly excited about this, as officially licensed and as-seen-in-official-costume-catalog costumes run $30 for the robe, then another $5 for each completely mandatory accessory such as tie, glasses and wand. But then, a few weeks before, they both changed their minds. Adam wanted to be a spy, and Alex a ninja. On a random Target trip, I found a $7 ninja costume, and then on Halloween day, I found a $4 mask and hat for Adam.

So here they are Adam the Hamburglar Zorro Musketeer Spy and Alex the Ninja:



We only trick-or-treated around one big block. Alex started out trick-or-treating for candy and UNICEF, but then decided he had enough candy and only asked for change. I guess getting sick last Halloween left a big impression.

I waited until Halloween to carve my own pumpkins:





We did keep the boys' pumpkins around, but they were a bit mushy and moldy: