Halloween 2014

  Usually Halloween festivities around our house take a couple of weeks.   We have our church's  trunk-or-treat the Friday before Halloween, then the kids go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood on Halloween, then sometime in the week after Halloween we finally celebrate Emma's birthday properly.    This year we decided to do things a little differently for a change.   

We still started off the fun with our ward's annual chili/pie cook-off and trunk-or-treating.   We made my sweet potato black bean chili and 4 pies.   Emma made a pumpkin pecan pie, Ellie made a cookies and cream pie with a cookie crust, and I made mango-lime cheesecake pie and my famous apple pie.  

The kitchen was completely thrashed after all the pie baking, chili making, and pumpkin carving...

but I am pleased to say that the apple pie shown above was the grand prize winner,

as was Adam's super scary spider pumpkin (below) in the pumpkin carving contest.  

which means that we are now the proud owners of a spray-painted golden pie plate and a pumpkin carving trophy that we get to store at our house until next year, so it was totally worth it!  

Ellie has been bubbling with excitement for last month for an opportunity  to wear her new Rapunzel costume.  She had debated between going as Rapunzel or Elsa, but in the end opted for the one she thought would be less popular.   She also entered the pumpkin carving contest with this Harry Potter pumpkin she designed and carved completely by herself.   

Abraham Lincoln made a second appearance and Princess Emma was a last minute throw-together costume when her other costume idea (Annie) didn't come together the way she'd hoped.  The dress is Cami's orchestra dress.  

The next week we did our Halloween art project and made these cute little cardboard haunted houses with flickering tea lights in side.  

Then at the last minute, we made a bold decision to forgo trick-or-treating this year. 

 Our whole family has been trying to eat healthier lately and it just seemed silly to go out and bring more candy in the house.   Emma immediately got excited and started planning a small birthday party with a couple of her friends for Halloween night.   

Emma spent most of the day making her own homemade candy to share with her friends so they didn't feel too gypped for not going trick-or-treating.   She made homemade twix bars, homemade peppermint patties, gummy worms, and candy corn.  It was actually pretty amazing to watch how much fun she had baking all day long.  My attention span is too short for that much kitchen time! 

At the party they also made their own caramel apples and Cami did some face-painting. 

Glen was hard to take seriously the rest of the night with that freaky face.

The homemade gummy worms ended up looking super realistic, so the girls had fun tricking Emma's friends into thinking they were eating real worms.  It was quite funny to see their reactions.  

Finally this weekend, Emma got her birthday dinner of choice--

 pumpkin soup, rolls, salad, and smoothie.  

She also got her birthday cake made by Cami. 

Her cake is worth a post in and of itself, so stay tuned later this week for all the sweet details on that bit of deliciousness!