Halloween party at the Smith house

Halloween is such a fun holiday. We all enjoyed getting dressed up and eating lots and lots of candy.

We had an unusually warm Halloween this year. We enjoyed dinner before trick-or-treating.

Morgan and Maddie

Clare the mermaid and princess Delphina

Gabriel- the ghost with the two black eyes

Jeremy and Aubrey

Laurie, Louis the skunk and Kevin the safari guide

Mandy the Gypsy

Princess Claudia

Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and our little monkey

Yippee, lets go trick-or-treating...

Mandy, Kevin, Aubrey, Laurie and her little sleeping skunk and Elvis

Laurie and the Clark boys

my mom and dad (who get along pretty darn well for a cat and a dog)

The kids digging into their loot

mom and I

Ethan wearing grandma's cat ears

cheese...

Evie's preschool party

We celebrated Evie's Halloween party at her preschool which was also a going away party for her teacher, Miss Shannon. After conflicts with the new school director Miss Shannon sadly resigned. We will look for a new school for Evie when we get back from Taiwan. Miss Shannon was an excellent teacher and we also feel it it time for us to move on...

The kids enjoyed lots of fun activities. Here they are decorating their own cookies. Needless to say Evie nor Ethan ate lunch today.

Ethan joined the kids to decorate a cookie

Evie, fishing for a doughnut with Miss Shannon

Ethan and Joel decorating a trick-or-treat bag. The kids trick-or-treated in the school office after the party

Evie turning into a mummy

Joel turning Ethan into a mummy

Our little mummy, Evie

Song time with Miss Shannon

Halloween Hurrah at the Children's museum

We met the Clark's and the Tabors at the Children's Museum for Halloween Hurrah. The kids have fun dressing up and playing and of course 'trick-or-treating'

Clare and Evie

Evie, Gabriel and Delphina

Most of the gang; Clare, Anderson, Gabriel, Delphina, Claudia, Evie

Ethan scored lots of treats. He would just stand there until they put more treats in his bag. He is wearing Evie's costume from last year...it brings back cute memories of Evie.

The girls gave Ethan a handful of candy and then another handful as he stood there looking cute...then...

...he just decided to help himself

Cheese

Clare

Ethan and Delphina

Ethan chilling with Clare

Adorable little Louis is starting to set up all by himself

Joel and Evie

Ethan loved banging around on the piano. He did stop playing to say "cheese" for me though

Boo at the Zoo

Halloween is a fantastic holiday. It feels like we celebrate it all week long with so many activities for the kids. We are at Boo at the Zoo and as we walked up Joel spotted someone trying to ding the bell to win a McDonalds gift certificate. I think what caught his eye was that the person could barely move the weight. Joel of course dings the bell on the first try...

Okay, it's way more awkward and harder than I thought it would be. It's my first time trying something like this and it was hard to put muscle into the swing not knowing if I was going to line up the hammer with where I was supposed to hit or if I was going to miss and hit the ground.

I guess I'm not making much progress with my form. I got three tries and won a free coke...(and already redeemed it).

We met up with the Tabor girls. The kids were really well behaved tonight. Everyone stayed together and didn't run ahead, which made the night so much more relaxing.

Claudia a little dinosaur

Evie as Rapunzel. She watched the movie this summer when we were in Colorado and was hooked. We have played Rapunzel countless times.

Me and my little monkey

Evie was all smiles when she saw Glenda, the good witch in the Wizard of Oz. Besides Dorothy, she is her favorite character.

Ethan has the trick-or-treating thing down. He also figured out that he's cute and the longer he stands there the more candy he will get.

Delphina, Evie, Ethan, Joel and Claudia

Evie got pretty excited every time she heard "Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair" she heard "you need a haircut" quite a few times also.