This Was Halloween

Halloween night in front of our house.

It was another fabulous Arizona Halloween season this year. While I do miss a good Northern California fall -- the vibrant leaves, the morning and evening chills that gradually creep in, the rainstorms, and weather to wear jeans and sweatshirts -- October in Phoenix has its own merits.

Warm days and evenings outside, taking the kids trick-or-treating in flip-flops, and adults sitting out in their driveways to pass out candy -- you can't beat that.

The Halloween season typically begins around the beginning of October, but somehow the 7-year-olds convinced Brett to put out the decorations about a week early this year. Many of the houses on our street have fun blow-ups, orange lights, ghosts and other scary creatures swirling about. This was our fifth Halloween in Arizona and somehow each year we end up with more outdoor crap decorations. But it's always so fun watching Zach and Allie get so excited for the Halloween season.

Zach Sparrow trick-or-treating.

And in early October, the mailbox swells with catalogs from party and costume warehouses, competing for the attention of my two youngest. Pages get tattered and dog-eared, reviewed, marked up, and studied intently until the final decision is made.

This year, drumroll, please ... Allie chose a cute little leopard/cat costume. And my own personal victory was with Zach, who initially wanted one of the gruesome, bloody costumes. Instead he happily chose Jack Sparrow. And it doesn't matter that this was his third time being a pirate (second as Jack Sparrow). He just looks so cute. 

Nick found a mask of some kind, threw it on, grabbed his friend and was out the door before I could even get a picture.

And Blake ordered a gorilla costume which he plans on extending after Halloween: snowboarding, cheering on friends at sporting events, hanging out at Wendy's. Ahh, to be 14 again.

Brett, Allie and Blake in his gorilla costume,

A couple days before Halloween, we spread out some plastic on the driveway, invited our neighbors over and had a big carving party. Nicky attempted an intricate werewolf, but it didn't quite turn out so he ended up carving a full moon.

 

Allie carved a cute cat, Zach a more old-school face, and Brett, as usual, went for the elaborate with a pirate ship.

Nick at work on a pumpkin.

Allie works on her cat jack-o-lantern.

"Backward, turn backward,
O Time, in your flight
make me a child again
just for to-night!"

~Elizabeth Akers Allen