Happy Halloween (an Ode to our Dentist)

Happy Halloween from the Crozier Clan! The past couple weeks have been packed with trips to the pumpkin patch, sewing projects, class parties, orange and black foods and lots of dressing up and pretending we are someone other than ourselves. Mama had a bit of fun this year with themed costumes for the trio. It was never my intent but I must have felt a subconscious need to butter up to the dentist this year. Isla is on the verge of losing her very first tooth and so has developed a tooth fairy obsession. When she announced that she was going to dress up as such for Halloween, I set to work figuring out how we would distinguish her from just any old fairy. Thanks to Pinterest, voila! Costume ideas for the other two were born. 

 

Jack wouldn't even let his tooth costume touch him until 10 seconds before we headed out trick or treating but when I bribed him with candy and getting to ring people's doorbells, he conceded. (Third kid = occasional food bribe. Even for dietitians. Do as I say, not as I do!)

As tradition would have it, it was POURING down rain on Halloween and Graham and his dad were busy working on our front porch so the kids and I drove each other crazy, err, I mean ran errands wearing all sorts of fun clothing combinations from the dress up bin. Which really isn't that abnormal for us except we didn't get as many weird looks since it was Halloween after all and "special" outfits were expected. 

Of course our evening plans included my annual Black and Orange Dinner which is always such a blast to put together. We opted to make it a party with friends and the kids were super excited. After 20 minutes before our guests were slated to arrive, the kids realized WE NEVER CARVED OUR PUMPKINS!!!

Oops. I sort of "forgot" and didn't realize it was so important to the tribe. I was busy getting food ready and the obvious response to their insanely messy request was a big fat no. Except I heard the word "yes" slip from the Mr's mouth. Which is another one of the hundreds of reasons why I married him. He's helping me become a yes parent when NO seems like the logical answer.

 And sure enough, the pumpkins were carved and the mess cleaned up before any of the company arrived. 

 And our kids were so happy.

 I mean, just look at 'em! 

 The rest of our evening was so much fun. The menu included orange carrots, orange peppers, black chips, orange mango salsa, black olives, black raisins, and Cuban Rice Bowls (black rice, orange sweet potatoes, black beans, orange cheddar cheese, "black" meat), roasted orange carrots and golden beets and Orange Basil Mojitos.

 I'm pretty sure the 8 kiddos present only ate chips and candy but the evening was a blast! We closed it out with trick or treating in our awesome neighborhood as the adults attempted the "herding" approach to keep all the kids somewhat "together." The highlight for the 4 two-year-olds was definitely ringing the doorbells and it certainly didn't matter whether the door was open or closed - each on rang that bell anyways. 

Happy Halloweenie 2014

 Better late than never with this post, I guess. We bought a house and it has essentially swallowed all our margins for the time being but I refuse to go completely MIA so here goes...
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 I'm not a huge Halloween person, thanks to my childhood where trick or treating essentially only happened in secret. This would probably explain why we ended up at Value Village two days before the big day, in desperate search for some costumes for the cuties. I made out of there only $21 poorer which was more than I was hoping to spend but, hey, sometimes procrastination makes you poor. Isla chose to be a ballerina again and even found a flowing headpiece to go with her ensemble.

Emma was the cutest bumble bee you will ever see.

And sweet Jack. There are no words for my little hot dog. 

He got a lot of sympathy points from the peanut gallery, since all the pictures I posted are of him crying. Everyone assumed he hated his costume but let me assure you, it wasn't the costume that was making him cry. It was the fact that someone had put him down to take the picture (heaven forbid!!!) It did cramp his crawling style, however....

Word on the street was that our to-be new neighborhood was a jackpot of a treat or treating local, so we nabbed the opportunity to go door to door and meet our future neighbors. The Welchs (one set of future new neighbors!!!) invited us over for a fun dinner of snake calzones before we went in search of candy.

What do you think? A future Mrs. Welch in the making?

The neighborhood did not disappoint. There were SO many people out combing the streets and it made for a really fun evening. The kids had a BLAST as they rang door bells with Emma saying "Happy Trick or Treat!" in her cute little voice. Somehow they got the idea that after each successful transfer of candy, they were to yell "Nailed it!" as they ran off the porch. We must have been quite the sight. :) Such a fun night!

Halloween 2013

 As per tradition, Halloween once again fell on one of Graham's 12 hour work days so I wasn't really planning to do anything with the kids. And I was actually feeling mostly OK with that. But then the Welchs extended an invitation to have me join them at Bothell Country Village (and their offer included help wrangling the girls!) so we decided to go for it. Isla literally decided seconds before we left what she was going to be (a ballerina) though she'd told me before she was going to be a princess. She kept getting the two confused so I guess we'll just say she was a Princess Ballerina! Emma was a bird but we still aren't 100% what species (I think a Toucan?) She loved her costume and said "Tweet Tweet!" as soon as I put it on her. And Jack of course was a Jack-O-Lantern. :) So much cuteness all around! Isla figured out the whole trick or treating thing right away and Emma got the hang of it pretty quickly too though she never did ask to eat any candy (phew!) Isla, on the other hand had one Dum-Dum and was WIRED for two hours straight. Fun times!

Happy Halloween!

Somehow we ended up with a bird theme this year....

 I don't particularly love Halloween as of the country celebrates but I DO love making the day fun by incorporating as much black and orange and humanly possible.

And it's a proven fact that children drink more milk when it is colored orange (just ask Isla).

We had oatmeal with raisins and apricots for breakfast, and an assortment of leftover orange and black foods from a MOPS party I'd thrown the night before for lunch.

 For dinner, I made a butternut squash and mushroom tart that went with our color scheme.

Candles were another exciting part of our meal.

 We attended our church's Harvest Party the Friday before and then laid low on Halloween. I did make the girls at least put on their costumes again for pictures.

Have two cuter birds ever walked this planet? I think not.