Eskimos and Skeletons

Halloween this year was a lot of fun. Traditionally speaking, I am not a Halloween fan. Now hear me out. I really like the dressing up (for kids, not me) and I especially love the candy part (for me and the kids,) but I hate the gore, the darkness, and horror part of things. I mean, I don't mind kids dressing up as vampires and all that, but when it gets really demonistic and bloody - no thank you. 

P is only 10 months, so I didn't feel the overwhelming need to buy a costume for him. His costume this year was his $5 glow in the dark skeleton pajamas from Walmart. 

This year our ward did a trunk-or-treat breakfast the Saturday before. I am definitely down with that. :) (Breakfast food is my favorite.) We left him in his skeleton pjs, but it was really cold outside, so I put him in this:

I don't really know what it is. It was a hand-me-down from my sister Necia. I assume it's a snow suit of some sort. It's not slick like actual snow suits, but it is warm. So I decided that if anyone asked what he was, he was an eskimo. Or a marshmallow. Take your pick.

The breakfast was delicious. We did take off the eskimo outfit while we were inside, but then bundled him back up while I stood outside in the parking lot and handed out candy.

Following the trunk-or-treat, we made a stop by Walmart. All the Christmas stuff is out, so we took advantage of the hats and decore for some cheap photo ops.  

Which one do you like best? Santa?

Reindeer?

Or... court jester? (?!?)

Halloween day was pretty low key. Ryan went to work and Pierscen, Dodger and I did our "thing."

We went for a walk around the block and ran into some of Dodger's pals, Maverick, a black lab/pit bull mix (What is with our neighborhood and pit bulls?! Urg... that's another topic for another day) and Max, a puggle (pug/beagle mix).

Pierscen likes to see the dogs, but does NOT appreciate the puppy kisses. Hahaha. I am so glad I caught this shot. EW!!!

Here he is saying, "Knock it off, Maverick."

Max decided to come to the back side of the stroller. I noticed him digging at the mesh but couldn't figure out why. He suddenly dropped down, and turned to run away with Pierscen's sock in his mouth. Sly little guy.

We spent an enjoyable afternoon together. (P hasn't been feeling too great for a couple of days, so I was glad he was willing to put up with me for the day.)

When Ryan got home from work, I assigned him the task of getting P back in his pajamas since we didn't have any "official" pictures of him sporting the skeleton while I worked on dinner.

The little guy was already getting tired, and as mentioned, he wasn't exactly feeling on top of the world, so he wasn't super smiley, but he was still pretty cute. 

Gotta taste the grass. And leaves. And pumpkins. You know, just in case something isn't right. ;)

Our friends Lauriel and Casey came over for dinner and brought their dogs Pepper and Daisy. Dodger was thrilled. He loves those two! Pierscen really likes them too - but unfortunately his body doesn't quite agree. One, or both of the dogs, licked him in their friendly way and P broke out really bad. It's happened before, but not quite this bad. I had to try and pin his hands down because he kept digging at his eye. 

We did our best to wash his hands and his face. He was exhausted by this point and the truth of it was there probably wasn't a better way to get him to stop rubbing his eyes than to put him down for bed. I laid him down, wrapped him up nice and tight, and he was out almost before I made it out of the room. Don't worry. He looked perfect by morning.

 I decided to have fun with dinner. Since I don't do much else for Halloween (like decorate or dress up) I thought it would be fun to do something festive for the dinner. There are so many awesome ideas online. I picked a couple ones I thought would be easy and went for it.

Ham and Cheese Spiders: A little time consuming, but fun. The filling was WAY to rich for me. I would definitely do them again, but I would alter the recipe. 

Snake Bean Dip: I didn't actually this online. There were some cute ideas for bean dip that you turn into a grave yard scene, but I decided this was easier. The big tomato with forked olive is the head and the thin slices of olive on the other end is supposed to be a rattle.

Mummy Dogs: Easy. No different than your regular Dog in a blanket, except in how you wrap it. And spider web dipping sauce. (Ketchup and Mustard)

Baked s'mores: The actually recipe uses ghost Peeps for the top - thus the Halloween theme. However, I couldn't find ghost Peeps anywhere, so I settled for regular marshmallows. Totally yummy. You make a graham cracker crust, then whip up a brownie mix and poor that on top. Bake according to directions, then add the marshmallows. You are supposed to broil it so it toasts it, but I sat down for a minute or so and then Casey said calmly, "Um, you're on fire." He pointed to the oven and sure enough the mallows were a blaze. For a moment I was devastated. I really wanted that dessert! Then, like a light in the darkness I realized, it should just peel off. Think about any time you roast marshmallows while camping. If it catches on fire, you just peel off the outer layer and try again. Sure enough, I was able to pull it off without a problem, add a few extra mallows, turn off the stove, pop it back in, and ta da! Beautiful! (Notice in the pile of burned mess in the first picture behind the dish. Hahaha)

It was really yummy. Highly recommend it.

We didn't know what to expect as far as trick-or-treaters. With more and more parents moving towards trunk-or-treats and controlled environments like the mall and business trick-or-treating, I didn't know how many we would see. This is our first year ever being able to pass out treats anyway.

We had a group of 4 come by, and I, in my Utah Valley mentality, gave them each one piece of candy. I instantly regretted it. I knew there was no way we would go through all the candy we had. But I froze and couldn't bring myself to call them back. I felt horrible about it. Total Halloween Scrooge.

You can imagine, my guilt only escalated when we only had 3-4 other kids show up, and a set of parents with a child younger than Pierscen. Sigh.... I am sorry little kids! I will know better for next year.

The four of us played Snorta (a very fun game which I recently learned is no longer being made - what the what?!) and hung out while the dogs entertained each other for a while. I don't think we even made it to 9. I am such a party pooper, but I need my sleep. By then we were all tired anyway and the dogs were totally warn out.

It was a lot of fun. We should definitely do it again. I think I would like to keep the fun Halloween dinner as a tradition and try new things until we find our favorites. :) Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween too.