Halloween Goodies

The kids had an ice cream social at school the other day. That's the PC way of saying, we're having a Halloween party, and the kids can dress up.



As you can see, Ben is Darth, Clara is a Princess, Sammy is Tinkerbell ("Kinkerbell), and Thomas is a little red and blue dinosaur.

Sammy made a pretty darn cute Kinkerbell...

The best part for Clara was the hoops in her skirt...no, maybe it was getting her hair done and wearing some of my lip gloss. She's all girl :)

Oooo, tough guy!

Hey there, cut little dino! Hey Grandparents....he took some steps last night! I'll get pictures and video up in the next week :-)

I've noticed more and more conversation about Halloween. We have some friends who don't celebrate it for reasons of faith. What do you think? Is it a conflict for a Christian family to celebrate Halloween?

Ben came home from school the other day and announced, "Mommy, did you know that Halloween is a celebration for Satan?" What?! Who told you that? I already had my shoes on, ready to go chew some school official's rear! Turns out, it was school buddies doing the talking.

"Do you think that's what Halloween is about?", I asked.

"Naw, I think it's just a fun time to dress up and do fun stuff with my family."

Whew! We've taken the position that all things, in Him, are okay for us (within reason, of course). We do eggs at Easter, and a tree at Christmas even though they both have their roots in Pagan religion. And we do pumpkins for Halloween. We talk about how Jesus cleans us out, puts a smile on our face, and lights us from the inside out...just like the jack-o-lanterns we carved. And Thomas and Jesus shared a pumpkin this year...it's carved with a cross...and Sammy sang "Jesus Loves Me" as she added her decorative touches with a marker :-)

Speaking of pumpkins, here are some pictures from our carving event. First, the kids sit and draw a picture of what they want their pumpkins to look like:

Is this too fancy, Mom? Yeah, maybe. We settled for a skull with swords sticking out of it and an eye patch instead!

Of course, we got the annual "Open wide!" shots. There are about 18 pictures of me doing the same thing as a kid.

This shot cracks me up. Clara was totally into scooping out the pumpkin guts. Ben put on a brave face and voice, but his body language totally gave him away:

In the end, everyone was happy with their pumpkins. Sammy's (marker art compliments of her):

Clara's (totally designed by her and carved by Daddy):

And Ben's skull/sword, eye patch masterpiece:

Happy Fall, everyone. Be safe!