Our theme for Halloween this year was the circus. Appropriate, no? The week leading up to the big day was a hard one, especially for Kimball. He had a terrible cough that kept him and me up at night, so he was mighty tired and a little cranky. Friday night was our church party, but Adam wasn’t due back from San Francisco until Saturday morning. The idea of keeping up with the four of them in that big gym made me want to cry, so I was going to skip it, but once again, Kim convinced me to be brave, that between me, her and her mom, we could wrangle the seven kids. Even though it was also the annual chili cook-off (I love chili), I fed them before we went. I just didn’t want to be up scrubbing chili out of costumes that night. Kim was right, they had a blast, and we were fine. They basically ran laps around the gym, chasing each other. It was raining, so instead of a trunk-or-treat, we went door to door down the church hallways and the kids got loads of candy. I got them in bed shortly before 10 (usual bed time is between 6:30 and 7:30, depending on the day). It definitely got them pumped for the main event.
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/The Guinn girls were super cute in their 50s costumes. One of them (who shall remain nameless) gagged on a french fry on the way to the party and had an accident. They had to stop and buy a costume at Walgreens, so it was 2 sock hop girls and a pirate wench.
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/It rained on Halloween. After a week of little sleep, and a late night the night before, no one was in a fabulous mood. I got to take two pictures right when we got out of the car.
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/They loved going house to house getting candy. Their version of trick or treat turned into kwittertweet. Our neighborhood has 32 houses, of which only five have kids. Only TWO houses in our neighborhood had lights on, so we crashed two other neighborhoods. We hit about seven houses in one neighborhood and maybe three in another, and they still got loads of candy. We also went to the two in our neighborhood. We’ve got to get some Halloween spirit going next year. I’d rather go to our neighbors than some strangers. Anyway, the kids had a lot of fun, even in the rain.
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/Since I only got two pictures on the actual night, a few days later I staged a photo shoot to properly document the experience.
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/Brinlee was our trapeze flyer (but if you ask her she was a princess). She wore the shirt on Halloween because it was chilly. It was 70 degrees the day I took the pictures, but she insisted on the shirt again. In her mind, it’s part of her costume. Whatever you want.
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/Sawyer was our strong man. The first time I showed him this costume, he wasn’t so sure. Then I told him he would be just like daddy, granddad and grandpa who are also really strong. He added gran and grandma to the list. After that he was all for it.
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/Kimball was our clown. He was not going to wear this costume until I told him grandma made it (she made two when her boys were little. Adam wore one, but it’s missing. This is the other one she made. It’s in perfect condition). He only agreed to wear the collar and hat for pictures. I’m fine with that.
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/Here’s Adam in his clown costume. Wasn’t he adorable? He looks so much like Caisen in this picture.
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/Caisen was our ferocious lion. Isn’t he terrifying?
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/Here’s the whole gang!
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/They were thrilled with their Halloween bags, so we took a picture with those too.
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/The Wednesday before Halloween, the kids made candy bags for their party. Kimball insisted on gluing his pumpkin’s mouth upside down. In the line of 8 happy pumpkins was the cranky pumpkin. I laughed and told Sharon that pretty much reflected his mood at the time. He felt awful, wasn’t sleeping. He refused to wear his costume to the party. My moody little artist was just expressing himself artistically.
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/I was actually dressed as a lion tamer, but no documented proof, sorry.
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