Boo...

The end of October every year is a favorite time for our family. We have a birthday on either side of Halloween and the most fun Halloween neighborhood ever (seriously, it's a large circle, people drive here from all over to do their trick or treating, and it is truly festive). 

For a family that almost wanted to opt out of the holiday that celebrates darkness and death, we have learned that it is the one time a year that neighbors and many others come to our door. It's an opportunity to welcome them, make over them and show as much love as we can to each of them as they stop by for candy.

Over the years, we have opened our home to our church lifegroup families and other friends on Halloween night (it becomes sortof a party/home-base for these families - a place to eat, pee, and come back to to sort out the candy and dig in). We have pizza, take pictures, and all the dads take the younger ones around the neighborhood. Many years the dads are even dressed up. Our costumes are made up of mostly things we have or make - occasionally we will purchase a wig or mask. The teens even get into it and some years we have had a large group of them. This year they all met here then walked over to a party of youth group friends in a nearby neighborhood.

I prefer to be the candy distributor and usually have some other moms with me. We sit out on the front step with our pumpkin and greet all who walk by and come up for treats. It is truly one of my favorite nights.

Mulan and Dorothy (they were rockin' the long hair!)

Finn from Adventure Time (she made her costume)

In case you're wondering, Ben is "Jim" from The Office (yes, my 11 year old watches The Office - it's hard with teens around, please don't judge...).  Jack is Slender Man - he is a current popular video game. His costume was actually so awesome and his 6'3" height carried it off well - he was scary. Have I mentioned he's only 13??

Part of the gang of kids - oh and my husband...yes, that's him on the end. He wore a recycled costume from last year's EnderMan costume (from Mind Craft). A close up is below - it was incredibly creepy. My pick for the greatest costume was Mary Poppins. She had all the details down and looked fantastic!

Drew and his girlfriend Zoe playing "Cowboys and Indians."  They make a pretty good looking couple don't they?  Drew turned 18 a couple of days before...more on that later...

Sorry for the blurry closeup. John used two itouches to sit behind the eye openings. Each itouch had an app of crazy eyeballs that moved all around. There were lots of choices of eyeballs (real and drawn and cartoon) but these were by far the creepiest. They were extreme closeups of real eyes and veiny and moving around in all directions. Think Marty Feldman...Kids loved it or were afraid. Several tripped just trying to see him and figure it out. By the end of the night one of the other dads just sat on the front porch with this mask on. The expressions on the little kids' faces as they approached our porch was hilarious! 

This picture (or one just like it) caused an Facebook sensation. Ben had all the details and body moves and expressions of Jim from The Office. He even let his hair grow out to look like Jim. Aside from being a bit embarrassed that my young son would be able to so have a character down from a show we didn't let my oldest son see til he was 16 is a bit "awky" (as my daughter says). Cudos to you Ben tho' for looking the part and cracking us all up.

This picture was actually taken the day after Halloween. I realized that we didn't get enough pictures that showed how creepy Jack looked in this costume. We did an afternoon photo session the day after Halloween out in the woods behind our house. I wouldn't want to run into him in the woods...

We were nervous this year that Halloween wouldn't happen. Hurricane Sandy had just slammed into my beloved NJ shore and we had expected to have bad weather as well. In the end it was fine for us here (not so much in NJ - I plan to write about my feelings on that soon) - just a bit chilly.

Fun was had by all as usual. By 9pm it was all over and all had gone home. Only my little pumpkin (I only make happy ones) was still out and glowing. Boo...