Halloween seemed to start early this year and is just finishing up. We went to several Halloween parties this year...even Cindy and I donned costumes. It's been a fun month of spook.

Last weekend the kids spent the night at Tia Jo's and Uncle Randy's. They spent much of the day at a corn maze that had giant spiders, vultures, and pumpkin launchers. Sarah and Kyle joined them. The kids had a blast and told us a hundred stories.





When Kenzie and I started talking about costume shopping, I told her that she could be anything except a princess. She has been a princess for the last two years, so I thought she should branch out. We went to a vintage costume shop in Issaquah for inspiration. After a while of looking on her own she found me and said, "Mom, I know what I want to be." I said, "okay, anything but a princess." She said, "yes. Not a princess. I want to be a queen."

Ugh.

But rules are rules.

In the end we compromised on an Evil Queen so we could paint her face white and her nails black.

Mason wanted to be a vampire so he could have blood dripping down his face (most of which was worn off by the time this picture was taken). We got some black hair spray and darkened the crowns of both of them...not my brightest idea.



This year they opted to help raise food for the food bank, which is very low on food right now. In conjunction with our church (and friend Josh here), each kid is trying to collect their weight in food. So, Kenzie has about 49 pounds to collect, and Mason about 36. Each house that they visited, Kenzie would wait until the adult offered the candy jar, then would very seriously say, "We are collecting food for the Issaquah Food Bank. Do you have any extra cans of food that you would care to donate?" As you can see, they were quite successful! Toward the end Kenzie decided she didn't want to collect any more candy, and just went straight for the cans. (By the way, if you're interested in helping them collect their weight in food, you can either donate cans or cash. We're planning on shopping for heavy protein-rich foods.)