Every year, we hurry through dinner on Halloween, then the kids frantically scramble into their costumes as the doorbell starts going bananas with the early crowd of trick-or-treaters. I'm dashing to the door to hand out candy with a camera around my neck, imploring my restless cowboys to hold still for a picture as they duck out the door and into the night.
But THIS year, we had tickets to the
Charlotte Symphony Orchestra's Lollipops children's concert series, so we got the boys in costume on Saturday morning for the Thrills and Chills Halloween Spooktacular concert at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. It was a chance to test out the lipliner "scar" on Lars-as-Harry-Potter's forehead, as well as the orange spray powder for the hair of Anders-as-Ron-Weasley. The concert was lots of fun, and I got my photo ops in afterward before the security guard came and scolded us for taking pictures. Apparently there is no photography allowed in the skywalk between the Bank of America building and the Belk -- who knew?
Bernie and the boys carved their pumpkins outside by the fire pit on Saturday night. Anders drew his face and Bernie carved his pumpkin, but this was the first year that Lars got to do his own carving. He enjoyed it A LOT!
Then on Sunday, after church, all the kids changed into costume and went out "trick-or-treating" in the early afternoon to collect groceries for the local
Loaves and Fishes food pantry, followed by a Halloween party at the youth choir director's home (we love you, Glenda!). I got this group photo of all the kids before they left the church:
It was about 3:30 when we got the kids home from the party, and then we watched
It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on
Hulu...
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| It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, 1966 |
...followed by an old VHS tape of
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Not sure what that had to do with Halloween, but the boys enjoyed the ferocious rabbit with pointy teeth and the Knights Who Say Nih!
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| Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975 |
My husband cooked a delicious dinner of pork loin with sweet potatoes, then donned a purple-and-black witch's wig and black cloak before taking my little wizards trick-or-treating while I stayed behind to pass out candy. All in all, it was a pretty good Halloween.
