halloween 2011: samuel, jack-o-lanterns, decorations

I found myself saying this to Samuel:

When you get older, you are going to have less pictures than Eva and Maximus and it is your fault because you won't hold still.

He wanted to be a Red Transformer again. Perhaps fond memories of this amazing costume that his dad pulled together with duct tape and cardboard two years ago:

His dad had a lot to live up to.  But pulling together a Transformer motorcycle a couple of hours before (and a half hour in the bathroom during) the party apparently doesn't produce the same great results.  But it was red.  It was a Transformer.  So he seemed pleased.  Just not pleased enough to want to wear it without a little bit of coercion.  Okay, okay, full on threats.  Something like, "Your dad spent all this time making it, you better put it on." or, "You can't go trick or treating in just your regular clothes," or "I am going to take away ALL your candy that you got yesterday if you don't put it on."  Something like that.  It worked.  Look, I got two whole photos out of it.

And maybe someone thought Samuel made it himself.  And they thought that was a lot sweeter than going out and buying it at the store.  Dad just responded, "He, he, ya."  

Jack-O-Lanterns.

This was a milestone year as far as Jack-O-Lanterns go.  What usually happens is that the kids start out all excited.  Scrape out the goo, draw the face, and then take off.  And then Karl spends the next couple of hours carving some insane sculpture.  

But this year.  The kids actually finished their own.  This year Samuel was repulsed by the pumpkin guts so he needed some assistance on that one but other than that they used the little carving knives (that I love.  I have said it before, but if you haven't converted, please spend the $1.25 and get the gimmicky-looking knives made for pumpkin carving.  They work a bajillion times better than a knife.  Especially for kids). 

In true Samuel fashion, he was done in a flash and was off looking for lights and finding a dark room to check out his work.

Eva took her time creating an island-esque beauty.

And here is Maximus, with his hair all ready to wow the judges, holding his pumpkin and just being content.

Karl's is on the right, Eva's in the middle and Samuel's is on the left.  The hibiscus and the cannibalistic pumpkin won prizes.  The judges didn't know they were from the same family or I am sure they wouldn't have chosen both.  We were kind of prize hoggers that night.

A couple days later, Karl sat down and carved the tiki-o-lantern.  It was a sculpture.  I am kicking myself that I didn't get a close up photo of it.  I know if I did something like that, and I remembered to, I would take a bajillion photos of it.

Some jack-o-lantern friends came for a visit, sat on the railing together, posed for a few photos, and talked story for a while.  Samuel cracks me up.

The decorations:

My sorry attempt at wheatgrass hasn't been doing much as far as making me healthy, but at least it looks cute holding the little pumpkins.

Eva made this Halloween fence with kitties.  This was post Maxzilla attack but it still held up.

I pinned up some string, covered it with web, and hung it with the Halloween photo ornaments I made a couple of years ago.  It was fun to look at the kids at all the of the Halloweens of the past.  Samuel made the giant spider.  He is the one that wanted the decorations.  He tricked me.  He gets me to do it, he makes something that takes him .2 seconds, and then  he takes off and I am stuck with the project.

A couple of years ago I made some Christmas ornaments that I saw on this blog and loved the technique.  I turned the ornaments into hearts for Valentines and for this season, I whipped up some pumpkins.  

I really got into the Halloween spirit this year. 
Next up: Eva and our spooky halloween meals.