Pumpkins, Costumes, and Candy!

We started the "Trunk or Treating" marathon last night. Emma seems like a real pro. I think she may have done this before in another life (do they do trick or treating in heaven?). Anyway, she carried her pumpkin around even after it was dragging on the ground from being so heavy with candy. She refused to let anyone help her with the load. What a trooper! Trunk or treating is particularly popular around here. In fact, it seems that most kids never do the door to door, at least down in our neck of the woods. The wards have all
started up trunk or treat traditions, in which the kids can collect candy from the back of everyone's decorated vans in a safe contained area. We've enjoyed it and you get a lot of candy without a whole lot of walking! What a bonus. Candy, without exercise. My favorite. So, last night we went trunk or treating in Ben's family's ward and tonight we went out to a friend's ward. We were all dressed up in a theme with Ben's family. Emma was Tinkerbell, I was Tiger Lily, Ben was a Lost Boy, Emily was Wendy, Ben Lee was a pirate, Adam was Peter Pan, Carol was Smee, and Clyde was Captain Hook. We were quite a sight. I never did get a great picture of all of us together, but I've included some scattered photos, so you can get an idea as to what some of us looked like. I hope to get some better pictures on Halloween night, particularly of Emily and Ben Lee because I never did get a decent shot of them in their costumes. Anyway, the trunk or treat we went to tonight in our friend's ward was particularly popular. There was a ton of cars and some great decor. We were laughing at the fact that 95 percent of the cars in the lot were vans. I fear we will be falling into this same mold soon enough. (Gasp!) We ate dinner at Ryan and Taya's home just before going out for our candy exhibition. Taya made a gormet meal of homemade bread and stew and other great goodies. It was wonderful! Below is a picture we tried to take of all the kids on the couch; it was tricky to get everyone to look at the camera.

Before and after our outing with our friends, Ben and I successfully completed carving our Halloween pumpkins. Ben had the clever idea to make a Pumpkin Man. He got three large pumpkins and stacked them on top of each other. We carved the top one with a great silly face. Currently he is out on our closed-in porch, instead of at our front door, so pumpkin smashers won't mutilate his body. I think this is my favorite Jack-O-Lantern we've ever done. Pumpkin Man makes me laugh... a simple face, but full of personality.