ghouls, ghosts, and ugly dolls...

It is officially Halloween and one of my favorite holidays. This may be due to having a birthday in October and my love for anything with sugar in it but I've always been fond of Halloween.
As anyone who knows me personally or has followed my blog in the past, we tend to theme our Halloween costume's around what Ethan picks out as a family. Our first year we were the characters from Twilight, the second year we were super hero's. Last year we dressed as let's all go to the lobby, and this year Ethan wanted to be his favorite ugly doll Ox.
Unfortunately for me, this one you could not pick up at the store so I had to use my sewing magic to make Ethan's costume from scratch, and for Jeff and I, I sewed our hats and some of the props that went along with it.
I guess it made me a little more confident with the sewing machine and I can string a bobbin pretty dang good if I do say so myself.
Trick-or-treating was good to Ethan this year though. He made a haul, at least enough to get him through another year.

let's all go to the lobby...

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Halloween. I know that our family did and Ethan got a TON of candy. I am sure he is thinking about how to put a lock on it to keep his parents away from it as I write this.

To continue the Halloween tradition we also did another group costume this year. Well, it turned into one when Ethan wanted to be red licorice which then turned into Red Vines since I had to make the costume from scratch.

I bring you 'let's all go to the lobby'...

happy halloween...

 

 

From our family to yours we hope you all had a safe halloween. Don't worry, we have your back (except lazy batman).

happy halloween...

It was a busy time at the Kalles household this Halloween. We ended up carving our pumpkins with our neighbors and Ethan was a little scared of the pumpkin innards but loved cutting the pumpkin. He was not the greatest cutter, plus our safety knife broke so I ended up doing most of the work.

Ethan's daycare also had a Halloween parade where the kids got to go and trick-or-treat around the nearby office park. Everyone was parading in their costumes and it was a site to be seen.

We also ventured out and trick-or-treated around our house and visited a nearby house that always has the best decorations for every holiday and Halloween was no exception.

And we actually grew our own pumpkin in our garden this year as well. As you can see below, we will not be winning any prizes for the biggest pumpkin.

ghosts, goblins, and witches...

My apologies for the long delay between blog posts but we have been pretty busy in the Kalles household recently. I did manage to get my Halloween decorations up on October 1st (minus the scary ghost that makes noises which is hiding in the garage.) After going through many of costume catalogs and I mean many, Ethan settled on being a jack-o-latern. That was what he was on his first Halloween and had recently seen a picture of him as a baby in it so he immediately wanted to be one again. I will be sure to post pictures at a later date!

Disneyland

It has always been a dream of mine to go to Disneyland during Halloween time. Something about the decorations, the Haunted Mansion all decorated up in Nightmare Before Christmas, and of course because it is my favorite holiday. We were originally going to wait until Ethan was a little older before we went but when our friends invited us to go with we couldn't resist.

We had such a fantastic trip and it was a great age to take Ethan. He absolutely loved Disneyland and he loved the rides especially, and of course Mickey Mouse. We went on the majority of the rides at both parks with his favorites being the Buzz Lightyear ride at Disneyland followed by the Toy Story ride at California Adventure. Can you see a theme? Ethan even rode the roller coaster the Matterhorn that was a little scary. Not because of the ride but because of the monster noises in it.

We ended up spending the extra money to stay at the Grand Californian Hotel and boy was it worth it. I loved having our own entrance into the park and they even upgraded our room to the Park view. Ethan is already asking to go back.

Here are a few of the pictures that we took. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

Ethan had a great Halloween and now has a cookie jar full of candy. I think it will take him another year to go through it since he doesn't seem to like it but I guess that is a good thing. On Halloween-eve my work has a Halloween fair of sorts where they decorate the inside of our building and employees hand out candy. They also had several booths where kids could play games and enter to win prizes.

Then today we had our final swim lesson until next year followed by a trip to Bellevue Square to go trick-or-treating. I have never seen the mall that crowded before but it was fun to see all of the costumes. We made it to several stores before they ran out of candy because of all of the kids there. Afterwards we came back home and I took Ethan to a few of the houses in our neighborhood before we made it back in time to hand out candy at our house. We've already had 6 trick-or-treaters so far which is pretty good since its only 7. Hopefully some more come because we have a lot more to hand out.

As a reminder, remember to set your clocks back tonight for daylight savings time.

(trick-or-treating at Bellevue Square Mall)

(Ethan's pumpkin)

(Mom and Courtney and Jeff's pumpkins they graciously left us)

(Decorated entry way at work)

(Ethan's ghost he made at one of the booths at my work event)

October Monthly Happenings for Kids in Washington State

(Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

Happy October!


Since we are quickly approaching my favorite holiday Halloween I wanted to post some fun things that are happening during the month of October that you can do if you have children, and even if you don't.


Pumpkin Patches and Corn Mazes


Here are a few that I highly recommend if you live in the Seattle area.


Stocker Farms (Snohomish, Washington) - Each Halloween since Ethan was born we have visited this farm with our good friends Courtney and Jeff. They have a great selection of "you pick" pumpkins and a corn maze. I recommend if you go later in the month to make sure to pack your rain boots since the fields to tend to get a little muddy. Plus, when you are done picking out your pumpkin you can hop on over to the town of Snohomish for some festive Halloween shopping and yummy food.


Remlinger Farms (Carnation, Washington) - This is a great place to go if you have little kids. On the farm they have an amusement ride area for little kids, hay rides, and u-pick pumpkins. They even have a flash light corn maze and bonfire event. Check their website for hours and days that they are open.


Trick-or-treating


University Village (Seattle, Washington) - Trick-or-treating from 4 to 6 PM for kids 11 and under.


Pumpkin Prowl Woodland Park Zoo (Seattle Washington) - This event is happening October 23rd, 24th, and 25th at the Woodland Park Zoo. I recommend if you attend this event to pre-purchase tickets at Bartel's before the event. This is a great time to explore the zoo dressed up in your favorite Halloween costume and get treats to boot.


Crossroads Mall (Bellevue, Washington) - Trick-or-treating at the mall from 5 to 8 PM.