We're off to see the Wizard....

Halloween this year was a bit more elaborate than in years past. My younger sister April and her family hadn't been down to see us in our new place yet. Rather than come any random fall weekend, why not do Halloween together? Not long after these plans were made, my older sister Heather realized that would be a boring Halloween if all the cousins were 4 hours away. So they decided to tag along as well.

The next question was costumes. The older kids had their own ideas of what they wanted to be (robot, dinosaur, princess, lion), but then we had a brainstorm of doing The Wizard of Oz.

*We morphed Ben's Robot into the Tin Man,
*Evalyn's Princess to Glinda the Good Witch, and
*Troy's Dinosaur into a Flying Monkey.
*Katy's Lion needed no altering.
*Henry made a cute Scarecrow since he loved the one Daddy made earlier this year.
*Lillie loves shoes of any kind, so Dorothy was a perfect fit. (ha ha, that pun was an accident, really)
*The babies were cute little Munchkins wearing zany outfits

*April was a tall formidable Wicked Witch of the West (sans green, we ran out of time)
*Carlin made a fabulous Wizard of Oz
*Heather and Oswaldo were Auntie Em and Uncle Henry, with a farm apron, buttoned shoes, and overalls.
*Matt's costume was the best, I think. I'll let you guess it from the group shot.
*I was the Wicked Witch of the East (the one who gets smashed, I went for the smashed hat look and wore shoes under my striped stockings so it looked like my shoes were missing) In hindsight, a citizen of Oz might've been better. Or the Yellow Brick Road or something. We were getting a little short on characters at this point.



The week leading up to Halloween was filled with phone calls and measurements for the fleece hats and booties I was making, the dresses Heather was making, and coordinating everyone's costumes (we had a last minute change of Scarecrow, Toto and Flying Monkey). Needless to say things were a little chaotic when Halloween day descended and the appointed time for getting dressed for pictures was running behind schedule. We didn't get to the church Halloween carnival until it was almost over, but we did make it for the Trunk-or-Treat. Although I must say that it was the craziest one I've participated in: crazy kids running around, returning several times to the same cars instead of meandering between cars and parents chatting and everyone admiring each others costumes, etc.

We went back to the house for a group picture, then Trick or Treating in the neighborhood and finally home again. The dads stayed home with the Munchkins (well, all except Carlin who tagged along for the first 3 houses). Henry really got the hang of saying Trick or Treat. He got so into it he even tried opening the door himself before someone came to answer it! The weather was perfect, windless, not too cold and plenty of stars to glance up at. I'm especially grateful for this as I listen to the rain pouring outside now.



After getting the sugar-wired kiddies to bed, we were too tired for board games, but it was too early to call it a night. So we opted for hot cocoa and watching The Illusionist. It was a lot of fun with a little less insanity than the previous group-coordinating effort of matching homemade pajamas last Christmas. Oh my. When will we learn our lesson?!?



Saturday was very laid back. The dads took the older kids up to the fish hatchery on the Klamath River to see the spawning salmon. We sisters chatted while the babies napped. It was lovely. Later that day Heather and Oswaldo left for home. April and I analyzed my closets and brainstormed some storage solutions (she's a whiz at that kind of thing). Sunday afternoon April and Carlin made their exit. It was a lot of crazy fun.


All six cousins lined up with Uncle Oswaldo


Running along the hatchery pools


Stomping in the leaves alongside Bogus Creek