I'll begin by saying that we got a really late start on Halloween this year. So late that I didn't even bother getting any of my Halloween decorations out - I left them in the bin and went straight for the Thanksgiving stuff... Matt and I were at a family wedding in Wisconsin the third weekend in October so we didn't procure pumpkins until Friday evening and then we only got one large one to carve - it seemed silly to carve two of them only to have them sit on the porch for less than a week.  

It turned out to be a good thing we didn't get two for carving. The children were very cranky Saturday morning and ended up fighting and being removed from the kitchen. Matt more or less carved the pumpkin solo this year. He's a good sport.

Happy family before the madness.

In our community Trick-or-Treat was held on the 31st. This is not always the case. Our school district decided to have their celebrations on the 31st as well. Having all of this on a Monday was kind of a nightmare, but at least it is over for this year!

Here's a photo of Harper in her school's Halloween parade. The K-3 students dress up and parade around the school while the 4th and 5th grade students, and the parents, provide a captive audience. There are about 600 children in Harper's school so this is a big event.

After the parade, students went back to their classrooms for room parties. In Harper's first grade class each student had one pumpkin-shaped cookie to decorate with a small amount of frosting and a mini box of raisins. They also had water bottles, tube yogurt (which I think is disgusting, but not exactly horrible for them), and bananas. There's been a big push at our elementary school to have healthier snacks and not so much junk at parties - between that and the food allergies we tried to be really conscious about what was served. The kids did get to stir yellow and red food coloring into their white blob of frosting to see it turn orange - a little science thrown into the mix!

For any of you wondering - I made the pumpkin shaped cookies so they'd be allergy safe. I also spoke to the parents bringing in other food for the party and checked all the labels. It was great to have an event where all the food was safe for Harper and no one brought out any surprise candy that she couldn't have (which happened last year). I may have to write more at some point about how we've handled the allergy thing this year because there are lots of pieces to it, but this year we have an awesomely supportive group of families. (We had great support last year too, but the group was less aware as a whole, I'm not sure why.)

*****

Of course after school and after dinner it was begging for candy time!

I think Michael's costume was testosterone infused... Two minutes after he put it on he started to roar and smash stuff - he actually broke the pumpkin bucket he was supposed to collect candy in by slamming it into our kitchen wall. Next year I'm going to make him dress up as a pillow.

Some of you already know what Harper's costume was, but if I haven't told you, want to take a guess? I'll share the answer later this week.

The spooky pumpkin Matt carved while the kids were pouting.

The bottom picture shows Harper and Michael with some of their "safe" candy. We just confiscate the stuff they can't have and trade them something else for it. This year Michael got two cars and Harper got the DVD of a horrible Annie sequel that she loves (I found the DVD for $6 months ago and stashed it away for this very purpose). 

This post has gone on long enough - I'm not a huge fan of Halloween and the allergy stuff does not make that any easier - but the kids were smiling at the end of it so I guess we've done our job!