Winnie and Miriam pulling out pumpkin guts while Seth dances to the Family Halloween station on Pandora.
Rebekah delighting in the squishiness.
Analee carefully extracting seeds and pulp.
Family pictures next to the completed pumpkins. Rebekah freehanded a silly face. Winnie chose the ominous eye from A Series of Unfortunate Events. Miriam chose a silhouette of Count Olaf from the same series. Analee used a pattern to create her spooky ghost.
Silly faces.
Pumpkins a-glowing.
The next day I took Winnie to the public library to participate in the Halloween parade.
A little ballerina with her Elmo bucket.
I helped Miriam's class with their Halloween party, and then everyone came home and prepared for trick-or-treating.
Seth the farmer, Andrea as Katniss, Rebekah as Indiana Jones, Analee as Marion Ravenwood, Miriam as Count Olaf and Winnie the ballerina.
Even though Analee had to explain to everyone who she was dressed up as ("I'm Marion." "Marion who?" "Marion from Indiana Jones.") and people kept mistaking Rebekah for a cowboy ("Howdy!" "I'm not a cowboy! I'm Indiana Jones!"), they had a fun time with their partner costumes.
When Miriam declared she wanted to go as Count Olaf, I despaired. How could we transform a beautiful 7-year-old girl into a devious old man? Despite our limitations, I think we did well. Analee drew the eye "tattoo" on Miriam's ankle.
And bless this child for choosing something easy and generic.
We left a bowl of candy out on the front porch so I could go with the girls (something I haven't done since we only had one kid), and the older two canvassed the neighborhood and then went trick-or-treating with friends while Seth and I took the younger two around. We had to put on layers and layers of clothes (Winnie was wearing three pairs of tights), but we managed to stay warm and have a good time.