our Halloween

Finally getting around to these Halloween pictures... was it really only 8 days ago?  It feels like so much has been happening since then. Anyway... Let's move on to what you really want to see, shall we?

I took the littles to the Pumpkin Patch for playgroup a couple weeks ago.  It was windy and Bolton thought it was great fun to throw the tiny pumpkins, so we didn't stay too long.  But I was able to catch a few cuties while we were there.

We hosted a dinner group the week of Thanksgiving.  We thought a Halloween dinner was in order... so for the grown ups we had ribs...

and for the kids, we had mummy pizzas on english muffins.  It was super easy and fun and delicious.  My kind of dinner party.

Has anyone else noticed that Halloween is like an all week party now a days?  We had trick or treating at Ethan's work on Friday, our ward Trunk or treat on Saturday and then Halloween on Monday.  Luckily, the kids sold us their candy from Friday and Saturday, we used that on Monday to hand out to the kids coming to our house...

The costumes

2011

~Bolton, the Chicken~

I just hand stitched a couple feather boas to a onesie, dyed some old tights to orange and gave up on the idea of a head topper... I didn't need to waste my time, he wasn't going to wear it anyway.  The first time I went to put it on him he ran away and cried and cried, so much that he had feathers stuck to his snotty, tear stained face when we went to Ethan's work.  But he was over it by the next day, thankfully.

~Bryant, Harry Potter~

For a while we were set to have two HPs,  but Jonas gave in to Bryant's pleading to change.  We had an old maroon tie that I glued gold ribbon to, one of our old graduation robes, and to top it all off... black hair spray! He was pretty excited about that.

~Levi, the Bat~

Isn't he cute?  I bought some thermal underwear, cut out a bat wing shape and sewed it to the back of the shirt, attaching some elastic at the ends to go around his wrists.  The hat is just a basic hat with bat ears sewn in the middle seam.

~Jonas, the evolving costume~

First he was going to be Harry Potter, then Bryant talked him into being Voldemort, that was the plan until the day we were dressing up and he decided to just be a kid from Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff (I don't remember who wears blue?).  Then Saturday for the trunk or treat this is what he decided to be, a beat up guy

 

And on Monday, he went with the total zombie look.

Monday, we got a call from a friend telling us that the BX was offering a free kids' meal and movie pass to kids that come dressed in their costumes and enter their costume contest.  I was pretty sick that day, with a head cold/fever... so I was all for not making dinner!  So we headed to the BX.  It pretty much made their day.  These pictures were taken there.

~Eliza, the Princess~

Originally she wanted to be a cat, then a princess cat, and on Friday before going to Ethan's work she told me she just wanted to be a princess.  I told her I wasn't making a dress, but I'd make her a princess hat, so our princess was decked out in a tulle embellished princess hat and a new tutu (sans the cat tail). 

The optical center at the BX went all out for Halloween, they even had a coffin... the zombie you see got inside it and really scared my little ones (it was Ethan's idea, of course).

They had bloody skeletons all around the office too.  Bolton wasn't scared a bit.

Miss Eliza was so funny with her costume on, she would shake her little tush and say things. By Monday evening she had also evolved into a "ballerina princess."  In this pic she's shaking her thing while singing, "I'm a ballerina princess" over and over. :)

Ethan took the kids out trick or treating when we got home from the BX, they loved it!  We've never done much of it in the past, just our street, so this was a big year for us.  I stayed home and passed out candy with my chicken.  It was a really nice day (aside from the illness).  Best Halloween ever even.

And to top it all off, on November 2, I got a call from the BX to tell me that my kids had won!  Levi took first place, Bryant took second, and Eliza took third!  They each won a gift card to the BX... for a total of $50!!!  I didn't tell them who won, though.  We just decided to use that money for them to choose presents for their cousins for Christmas.  They were super excited!

I was just surprised my little chicken didn't win anything.  He made me smile more than any costume I've ever made.

Homecoming

While it was great to get away... it was also great to come home.  We sure love these sweet kids.  We gave them their souvenirs when they were ready for bed (we picked them up around 8:45 pm so it was time for bed).

Can you see the anticipation on their faces with their eyes closed?  I love it.  

 Levi really wanted a treat.  He was sad all he got was a hat.

Jonas, on the other hand, was not sad.

Neither was Eliza.  She's holding the other thing we got for them, Harry Potter UNO because nothing says Boston like Harry Potter UNO. :)  What a funny face she's pulling...

Ah, yes, its good to be home.

The End

So Day 4 is kind of skipped here because a) I was going to meet someone at the (overpriced) aquarium but got lost walking in the rain for over an hour trying to find it, so I headed back to the hotel to change into some dry clothes; b) once I was in the hotel I crocheted and read; c) that evening we went to spend the evening with our dear friends Paul and Cathryn, who happen to live 45 minutes west of Boston... they treated us to a beautiful drive into the country of Massachusetts, a yummy dinner, some fun time with their sweet kids, and some long overdue catching up.  Thanks so much guys! It was so wonderful to see you!  I took two photos of the night, but they are on my phone and since I'm trying to get through this trip quickly... I'll add them later!

On to Day 5!

Ethan finally had some time off from the conference and so we got to do some sightseeing together.  Let the cheesy poses begin!  

I let him choose whatever he wanted to see and so we headed back to "Old Ironsides."  

As luck would have it, though, the top deck was closed due to the weather, so we got to explore the lower levels which I didn't get to do when I was there before.  Fun!  Cannonball.  Can't you just see me on The Price is Right showing cannonballs?  That would be awesome.

The sleeping quarters for the sailors.  Ugh.  No thanks.  I couldn't even stay down there during the tour.  I was ready to get some air!

Boy, it really paid to be an officer, I guess it probably still does.

Ethan, the photographer.

Can you believe those are actual anchors?  You had to have a mighty big ship to hold those things.

When we left The Constitution, we headed to the dry dock to explore...

As I mentioned in the last post, I just read an amazing story (Unbroken... go get it and read it today, seriously) about one man's journey through WWII, and this destroyer was actually used during the war.  I loved exploring it.  Of course, we had to stop for some more cheesy photos.

Remember the steel toe boots from my last post?

When we headed back across the bridge we snapped this photo... one of my favorite of the trip.

We headed back to the Italian district to get more gelato.  So good.  Just for fun, I learned the reason Boston has such a great Italian district is because when they were building the addition to the State House, the architect (or something) didn't trust Americans to work with his fine Italian marble, so he brought in a whole bunch of Italians to do the work.

For dinner we stopped at the Green Dragon Tavern.  If I remember correctly it claims to be the birthplace of the revolution.

After a delicious dinner of Clam Chowder (for me at least) we hit some of the shops.  We stopped by Cheers gift shop to pose for a few more cheesy shots.

It was so fun to be able to hang out together!  We had a delightful time on our last night in Boston.

Saturday morning we got up and decided to go up to Harvard.  It was lovely.  See for yourself.  Sorry I don't have any details on the buildings... we had a very limited amount of time and just walked around snapping pictures of things we thought were lovely.

This is the library, or I guess I should say one of the libraries.

This is a church and a ballet studio.  Its not actually on campus, but just off.  It was just so beautiful.  Ethan commented that he can understand why churches build steeples because you can't help but look up when looking at a church and isn't that the point?

Another church and a beautiful fall shot.

This is a huge, grand, beautiful building.  We did a search for it on my phone with Google goggles (or something like that), but I can't remember what the building is.  Its beautiful, though, that's for sure.

As I said, it was a rushed visit.  We left and then we split up so we could get everything done we needed before leaving Boston... the important things like getting checked out of our hotel and getting our bags... and of course, stopping at Mike's Pastry for some more cannolis.  I picked up the cannoli (a big box of them actually... we took some home as a thank you to our friends for stepping up and taking care of our kids) and Ethan did the hotel stuff.  He also got a picture in the subway... pretty funny, that's the final picture on the camera from Boston.

We had such a wonderful time.  And its a good thing too because I told Ethan we can never go anywhere ever again after the babysitter fiasco.  I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of the highlights of the trip, though I will probably post a few more pictures in the upcoming weeks.  But for now, I will say

The END.