Monday, November 3, 2008

five parties-- five pounds of sugar?

Halloween night marked the end of what had been a week full of Halloween celebrations.  We started off with Patrick's annual office Halloween party on October 24th where all the kids dress up and trick or treat amongst the cubes.  If we had NO other parties to go to, the girls would have been completely satisfied.  They got enough candy there to feed a small country.  Good thing there were still three to go, right?

The next night was our church party that Patrick and I were also fortunate enough to be in charge of.  It was your classic trunk or treat where you collect candy from everyone's trunks in the church parking lot, with a couple games thrown in for fun and a professional photographer taking pictures of all the families in front of a very festive backdrop.  And the stash grew.

Last Wednesday and Friday were Kendall and Berkeley's school parties.  I think the schools were trying to take pity on us parents and mostly sent the kids home with little Halloween trinkets like pencils, rings, and erasers.  Thank you!

And then, the culmination of the week of candy grubbing-- Halloween night.  My little brother Mitchell had been in Atlanta working the last two weeks and was able to drive up to visit us for the weekend.  We all went out trick or treating (minus Patrick who stayed behind to man the door at our house) and after a few houses, the girls were already complaining that their buckets were too heavy to carry! (There are just a few kids on our street, so everyone dumps handfuls into their buckets!)

Thankfully, my girls are really good sports about limiting their candy intake.  They agreed to just two of their favorite candies per event as long as we saved the rest to build our gingerbread house in about a month!

Here we are on Halloween night.  Kendall was a sorceress, Berkeley was Raggedy Ann, and Emery was the cutest little caterpillar I've ever seen!  And me?  Well, I was just too lazy to come up with anything this year. . .

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The girls were very excited about our Halloween dinner before we hit the road.  We had witches' fingers (baked fries), breaded pigs' brains (veggie nuggets), and green broomsticks (asparagus), with dragon's blood (ketchup) for dipping and a glass of spit (water) to wash it all down.  They loved saying, "Ewwwww, gross!  I'm eating some fingers!  Nasty!"

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And here's Mitchell and my girls before he had to drive back to Atlanta:

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12 comments:

Corrine said...

love kendall's shirt, and the caterpillar is just plain darling.

JoEllen said...

Does it really say "keep McKinnons weird" on her shirt??
Great idea saving the bulk of the sugar for the gingerbread houses. I feel like the candy gestapo, maybe this will help!

Stephanie@Soggy Runner Girl said...

I do not remember this much candy in years past! Mike won't let me throw any of it away, maybe I can convince him to stash it away for a later day. Cute kiddos and costumes!

jessie said...

The girls look so great in their costumes! I agree that Emery is the cutest caterpillar ever! Her smile is just adorable! (And I love Kendall's shirt, too! I might have to steal and suggest that idea for our next family reunion shirt :)

Great idea to save candy for gingerbread houses! I ended up letting the boys go to town (Eddie didn't get much since he rode in the stroller almost the whole time) on their candy for a couple of hours, then put the rest in the bowl to give to trick-or-treaters. (I don't trust my own self-control to have that much sugar laying around...Especially when the baby keeps trying to convince me I need it. ;)

Jennie said...

That was so creative to rename the food. I'll bet it was so fun to watch them eat it.

It's Been a Day! said...

all the girls look great. i love the pic of emery in her carseat. i do like the raggedy ann costume as well. i'm not sure i could eat that food with names like that! thinking about drinking a glass of "spit" would gross me out!! but, that's a very clever idea.

merathon said...

yeah, paige-- i thought the spit sounded nasty too! that one was patrick's idea, but the girls thought it was so great!

jan said...

Great Halloween costumes and ideas. Seeing Emery so grown up just amazes me. So happy we will see all of you soon. love, j

merathon said...

joellen-- one of Austin's slogans is "Keep Austin Weird." My mother-in-law had these shirts made for our family reunion in the exact same font of the Keep Austin Weird t-shirts that are sold in Austin!

The Dahle Family said...

Definitely the cutest caterpillar I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of caterpillars. Just ask Milan and Rachael. And I do need to start a blog.

Morgan said...

i was quite certain my "dirty mexican" costume had won this year's best costume award... but i think your kids's costumes just put me to shame.

Leslie said...

You girls are getting so big! They look precious in their costumes.