Harry Potter and the Ladybug Girl

 Harry Potter and Ladybug Girl ready to go to school.

Alex and his friend Lily, who dressed up as Hermione at the school parade.

Alex working on his pumpkin math on Halloween Day.

Jules at her Halloween Parade.  It started to rain right before her parade, so they did it in the classroom.

 Jumping around during the parade.

No feet on the ground!

Out trick or treating.

Halloween was fun!  Alex was Harry Potter, as he has been reading the Harry Potter books and really thinks Harry Potter is pretty cool.  Jules was a Ladybug, loosely based on the Ladybug Girl books.  Both of them had parades at school.  Alex's parade managed to happen right before the rain came and Jules' parade was moved indoors due to the rain.  The rain subsided by evening and we all went out around the neighborhood trick or treating.  There is a very flat street, just down the hill from our house which is very popular for trick or treating, so we went to that street and then went around to some of our direct neighbors.  The kids were happy to get out and walk around in the dark and collect their candy.  

SpiderGirl and Obi Wan Kenobi

Julia and Alex chose SpiderGirl and Obi Wan Kenobi as their costumes of choice this year.  Previously, Julia wanted to be a ladybug girl, but then within the two weeks leading up to Halloween she decided she wanted to be Spiderman.  I thought I would add a tutu, since she loves tutus and it is probably appropriate for her to be SpiderGirl, as much as she loves spiders!  Alex is obsessed with Star Wars as of late and he chose Obi Wan Kenobi as his character whom he wanted to be.  Both were easy costumes to make, probably the easiest of all of the Halloweens and they will wear them again and again, so definitely a win-win.

We went trick or treating to a few neighborhood houses, like we normally do and they had alot of fun.  Julia would run up to the door without hesitation and loudly say trick or treat and thank you.  Alex, was still his shy self for most of the run.  He would get the words out, just not as boldly as Julia.  They had a fun time, as it is always enjoyable to walk around at night and see all of the other costumed kids out too.  They were quite excited about their candy haul and have been having a piece each day to stretch it out.  Hope you had a Happy Halloween!

Halloween Parade at LP

Young Obi Wan watching the parade

Some of Obi Wans classmates waiting for their turn in the parade

 More classmates

 About half of Obi Wan's class

On Halloween, Julia and I went to the Halloween Parade at Alex's school.  It was quite a well attended event, with lots of parents and grandparents there to watch each grade parade around the playground in their costumes.  I never remember Halloween being such a big deal when we were younger, but it certainly seems to be quite an event here.

Pumpkins at McCelland Dairy Farm

On Sunday, we drove up to Sonoma County and visited McClelland Dairy Farm on the way back home.  They had pumpkins on the vine, so Alex and Julia enjoyed checking out all of the choices and picking a special one each.  They also had a viewing area for the dairy cows, who were being milked at the time, which the kiddos enjoyed.  Add in a hay maze and a giant sandbox filled with wheat kernels and you have two happy kiddos.  To top it off, we had some hot chocolate and a pumpkin milkshake as a treat.

Halloween 2012

 The super happy fireman!

 Hello Kitty (pre-whiskers) and the Fireman ready to roll

 Hello Kitty showing us the pumpkin

 Blurry pic, but too cute to not include.

 Kitty spies an airplane

Fireman and Hello Kitty at the market

Ready to go trick or treating

Who knew that a used $5 thrift store raincoat could be transformed into one of the most loved costumes ever.

The kiddos had alot of fun on Halloween.  The costumes were used on multiple occasions and Alex especially got into his role as firefighter.  He had the full gear, including jacket, oxygen tanks, boots, hat, special pants and a radio which he made from Legos.  Julia enjoyed going around the neighborhood too, seeing all kinds of people in costume and quite readily accepting the candy which was given out.  Add in the glowstick swords which Barbara down the street gave out to the neighbor kids and they had quite a night!

Care Bear Class Halloween Party

Pumpkin Carving

Julia was very curious to see what was going on.

Alex worked hard to get all of the seeds out.

Grandpa got in on the carving too

More seeds

She was not excited about putting her hands in the pumpkin at first, but once she got started, she was all for it!

The finished products.  Alex's creation, Grandpa's creation and Julia's happy pumpkin

Trick or Treat!

 Trick or treating in the neighborhood

Checking out the jack-o-lanterns

Okay, I promise, this is the last Halloween post for this year.  There were just so many Halloween events, I couldn't leave any out.  Last night we went out trick or treating around the neighborhood, which was a new concept for Alex.  In our old neighborhood there really wasn't much in the way of trick or treating.  In our new neighborhood there is alot of action, especially down the hill from us.  We took Alex and Julia out and stopped at quite a few neighbors' homes.   We had not met some of the neighbors so it was also a good chance to get out and meet people.  Alex was very good about saying "trick or treat" and "thank you", something which we had practiced before we left.  He said it nice and loud and explained his costume if asked, which is a big step for him, as he is often pretty shy.  He was really excited yesterday afternoon, when he was realizing what Halloween entails.  He said to me, "isn't Halloween EXCITING, Mommy?"  As for the candy, it is up on a high shelf and no mention has been made of it.  We told him he can have one piece a day, so we'll see if he mentions it today.  Hope that you all had a fun Halloween!

The Pteranodon and the Butterfly

 Smiley like the jack-o-lanterns

 Hi!

Chilin' 

 Little Miss Butterfly

 My cuties

 Julia was intrigued with the ribbon

 Fly

 Trying out the wings

Alex painting the pteranodon head

When I asked Alex what he wanted to be for Halloween, he originally said that he could be a bee and Mei Mei could be a flower, but then he decided that he really wanted to be a pteranodon like the ones on Dinosaur Train (a kid's show on PBS).  He stuck with the pteranodon idea and helped me to papier mache a head over his bike helmet and then did a nice job painting it as well.  We took a little field trip on BART to the fabric store (since Julia's not a car fan and the fabric store is not nearby), and we found some cool shiny reptile type fabric for the wings.  He's been able to wear the costume quite a few times in the past week or so and has really enjoyed being Don the Pteranodon.  Someone asked what a pteranodon was the other day and I said "it's like a flying dinosaur".  I was then corrected by Alex who said that it was not a flying dinosaur, it was actually a flying reptile.  He is technically correct, as that is what one of his dinosaur books does say.  There is some distinction between dinosaurs and other reptiles, the details of which I am at present unclear on.  Anyway, he takes his dinosaurs and reptiles very seriously.  

We ended up deciding that Julia could be a butterfly, so we bought some felt and found a pattern on Martha Stewart for some butterfly wings.  This was after I unsuccessfully tried to bend wire to make wings and then didn't like how some cardboard painted wings were turning out.  I made a few changes on adding embellishments, changed up the colors and added ribbon instead of elastic for the attachment.  We added antennae to one of her little hats and she was ready to go!  She seemed completely unaware that she was dressed up, other than the fact that she loved to chew on the ribbon.