Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

 Once Halloween rolls around, its a non-stop roller coaster of family gatherings, good food and memory making.  Next up... Thanksgiving.  We were fortunate to have Oma & Opa visit us over this holiday.  Thanksgiving was held a John's brother's house making for a lively extended family gathering.  Jackie's yummy witty turkey's put smiles on everyone's faces.

 Turkey toe place cards.

As the meal was at the Hartman home, we were dismissed from laboring in the kitchen for hours... darn!  Our contributions were in the form of deserts with Oma's pumpkin pie and Izzy's apple pie made with a cookie crust.  She so fun to have in the kitchen with her unique flare of tastes.

 The quintessential family photo before the meal.

 After meal was filled with games and play.  One is never too old for Matchbox cars.

 A lively game of 7s.

 Micah took on Daniel in a heated game of air hockey.  Victoria took her typical spot of being the cheerleader.

 This may have convinced Opa to move the Ping-Pong table into the basement of the house.  Who knew Oma had a hidden Ping-Pong talent!

 Opa learned a new pool game... 9 ball.  I liked how it kept the game equal even when pool skills were vastly different.

Scrabble is a favorite game at the Hartman house.

A tradition in the Bures home is putting up the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving.  Everything went up so quickly given the extra hands available.

 The following day we took in a play... Potted Potter.  All seven books played in 70 minutes by 2 actors.  It was reminiscent of The Complete Works of Shakespeare.  Knowing the story line of the books may have helped but fun nonetheless.

 One final gathering after church to a local Hibachi restaurant.  The men were great sports in catching flying zucchini.

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Happy Halloween!

 The morning of Halloween... Izzy woke up so excited saying "Happy Halloween!".  The anticipation for trick-or-treating is overwhelming.  This year the kid's school decided to not allow costumes citing the main reason is for inclusion of everyone who doesn't celebrate this holiday.  But that didn't stop us nor many others from finding a way to show our Halloween spirit!

 We started talking about our costumes in September.  This year Victoria wanted to be a unicorn.  I thought it only fitting that we acquiesced to this request as we dressed up in superheroes/villains last year when Micah wanted to be Batman.  The challenge was finding a theme that incorporated a unicorn.  In the recesses of my mind the 1986 movie Legend popped up.  We therefore rented it so everyone knew the story.  Then it was up to each of us to decide which character they wanted to be.

 Though there were a few challenges in finishing details that didn't go right, we pulled off a pretty good version of Legend.  John was the Lord of Darkness (one of my favorite Tim Curry characters), I was Oona (fairy), Izzy was Black Lily and Micah was Jack.  I learned how to scale maille to create his armor.  This is definitely a keep sake article.

 Micah and our neighbor, Fox.  These two love hanging out together whenever they have a chance.

 Not sure who this guy is but appreciated the time taken to create this costume.

 A+ for creativity

 While trick-or-treating we ran into Micah & Victoria's old LCSH classmates, Jace.

 Trick-or-treating is always fun on Brook Street.  The street is blocked to prevent cars from driving which is great for safety.  But the houses really get into the Halloween spirit.  This then leads to exciting costumes.  This is certainly a people watching opportunity.

Orange & Black Party

 Though we weren't planning on throwing a Halloween party this year, the kids talked us into having a "small gathering".  Rather than having a costume party (we couldn't have had one as only 1 costume was finished by then), we decided to celebrate in the colors of the holiday.  Regardless of no costumes, the Halloween spirit was presents on many levels.

 Izzy helped me create this gruesome cake.  She is my fondant roller and did one heck of a job in keeping uniformity.  This is the 2nd time we have made this cake together.  She wants to enter a decorated cake for the fair next year.  This may be it!

 John's creative take on healthy food options.

 Bubbly poison drink choice are always a hit for young and old.  We enjoyed seeing distinct bubbling patterns for the different ingredients.

Several activities were available for guests.  One was decorating miniature pumpkins.

This was one of my favorites.  We only saw this after all the guests had left.

 Halloween inspired bingo.  I think the younger guests ate more candy corn than using them as markers.

 The hit of the night was a twist on the proverbial bobbing for apples.  Guests were asked to eat hanging donuts without the use of their hands.   Various heats were held basked on age to keep things as fair as possible.

 There was even an adult heat which did not take much convincing for participants.

 No everyone figured out how to use their shoulder and/or upper arm to stabilize the donut.  Those that did were more often the winner.

 I noticed towards the end of the night that I had not seen Victoria in many of these activities.  Why?  She was doing what she does best... socializing with her girl friends.  All I see in this picture is these girls fast forwarded 10 years!

 Micah was stoked to have two of his favorite friends attend; Gavin & Mark.  We saw a much more engaging Micah compared to years past.

 Our final activity was creating toilet paper mummies.  Guests were asked to pair up and see who could wrap their partner the fastest.

John was saddened that Bonnie and him didn't win this contest.