Halloween/Dia de los Muertos

Baby's first costume! 

In our co-op this year I get to teach middle school Spanish 1. Since we had class on Halloween this year, I had them present on a deceased loved one and decorate an ofrenda for Dia de los Muertos. They also decorated sugar skulls. Despite a couple of the faces below, I think they really enjoyed it!

And then it was time for the official Halloween costumes!

Percy Jackson wields his pen... 

...which transforms into a sword! 

Catherine was SO excited to be Ponyo with chicken feet.

She was not impressed with the general public's lack of knowledge when it comes to Ponyo. 

Aaron was a skeleton zombie who refused to wear his zombie head trick-or-treating: 

And Elise was in her glory as Daniel Tiger: 

She was putting on quite the show for me--growling ferociously and baring her claws.

Can't say I've ever seen Daniel Tiger be quite so aggressive... 

A calavera, because what else can you be when teaching a Spanish class on Halloween? 

Catherine's sugar skull: 

Seth's turn: 

Elise was a very diligent decorator: 

I missed Aaron's ten second decorating event, but here are the finished products: 

Because Elise was sick with (yet another) fever, we skipped out on dinner at the Knoxes but still joined them for trick-or-treating. Seth & Gabe headed out together, Jon took the girls and Aaron, and I went and fetched Aaron when he was done WAY earlier than the girls were. Catherine outlasted even Seth & Gabe!

We enjoyed a lovely evening sitting by the fire pit on the driveway with Knoxes and Uhligs, chatting and drinking wassail made by Anna (I had no idea it was so delicious!). We also were quite amused when Gabe & Seth came home much earlier than we expected, claiming their feet were tired. Ten minutes later they were all out in the cul-de-sac chasing each other with various weapons for the next thirty minutes. My favorite part was Gabe confessing that he was avoiding Brie because she was "an excellent swordsman" who took him down several times. We couldn't have asked for a better Halloween night!