Give a Hoot!

At our house it is just not Halloween without some kind of spooky food activity. Last year we made worms on a bun. Yum-O! This year we enjoyed a tasty little thing we like to call a Hootwich...

Gather up a few english muffins, a bananna, raisins, cheerios, cheese slices and a good scoop of peanut butter and you are ready to go!

Hayden was old enough to look at the example and follow right along. Bailey was more focused on eating her cheerios and didn't quite get that a few were needed to make the browline for our owls. Either way they were tasty and relatively healthy which was a welcome sight amidst all of the treat centered outings!Bailey was a bit distraught when her uber-handsome owl began to slide off of the plate but in the end I think it's safe to say everyone enjoyed their tasty autumn snack - hoot hoot hooray!
(Although I am not sure what to expect from utensil use if some days even finger food is too labor intensive!)

Halloween - Hyatt Style...

Every little guy and gal ought to have a chance to visit a parental unit at their place of business not to mention having a chance to charm the dress socks off of any and all co-workers who may be present. We strategically choose to make an in-costume Halloween appearance each year. This year we are pleased that we managed to do this in a timely fashion. We have been known to come dressed up after Halloween which can be a tad confusing to folks.

Both of the kids know that Daddy goes off to "Hyatt Work" during the week to take care of our family and it was nice to give them another opportunity to see what that is like for their Daddy. Being the typical anklebiters that they are, they find it fascinating that Daddy has an office with lots of paper and even his own computer. It is hardly shocking that Princess Busybee wasted no time finding buttons to push!

Since the computer they generally see is the one in our sitting room and their understanding of that is still in it's early stages both Hayden and Bailey thought it was awesome that Daddy could make his computer show them pictures of themselves. Ahhh, technology is amazing isn't it?
Each Halloween the various departments within the hotel have a chance to carve a Jack-O-Lantern. We had a super time checking out the various entries. Having worked at a hotel during our sojurn in Dallas, I amused myself by guessing which pumpkin was from which department. Truthfully, the thing to do is find the most technical and gadget oriented pumpkin which is most likely the winner due to all of its bells and whistles. This is almost always the pumpkin from Engineering. Let the record show this was the case at the Hyatt this year as well!

Here's closeup of the Engineering masterpiece for 2009...As you can see, Hayden was quite taken with this one!
However it must be said that Sales had an entry that was both topical and sassy...
After making the rounds, we headed out for a quick bite to eat. This entails traversing a skywalk which is always a hit with Hayden. Bailey hadn't been on this one but it did not take long for her to realize what all the fuss was about. Michael and Hayden helped her pick a car to watch go under and then they all raced across to catch a glimpse of it coming out the other side. Isn't it nice to be so fascinated by the details of life? We had a great visit and look forward to visiting Daddy and the supercool skywalk again soon!

Next Halloween Stop...Atria!

As Halloween crept close, the events kept coming! The week of Halloween we went on a late afternoon outing for Atria, an assisted living facility in our area. They organize a trick-or-treating event where residents pass out candy to visiting kids in costume. My understanding is that it is an expansion of doing this for residents with grandchildren in the area. Hayden and Bailey had a wonderful time and it was a fantastic way to trick or treat while spreading some good cheer.

Many of the residents let the kids pick out their own candy. It was both pleasing and frustrating for my crew. I was happy to see that there were so many sweets they had no clue about but I was frustrated at their inability to make a choice based on not being sure what the candy was and therefore which shiny package would be the yummiest! Hayden just kept asking which item was the gooiest and chewiest of all. Teehee!
Residents are able to keep small pets with them and the Mini's were tickled to encounter puppies all over the place. This one dressed like a pumpkin was one of their favorites. Another funny thing was that they realized all of the residents were elderly and began looking for Mimi. After they started wandering the hallway calling out for her I figured I ought to explain things a bit! I let the sugar fiends pick out a few pieces of candy each to devour on the drive home. As you can see, Bailey was quite a sight once we pulled into the garage! Despite the ick factor I took a minute to snap a photo before commencing with the cleanup.

Boo Dell at Yew Dell

One of the first area activities we attended when we moved to the area was Boo Dell. This has been fun little Halloween outing for three years now! It's kind of strange to realize we have been here long enough to attend an annual event three times. A local garden opens it's paths to area organizations & businesses who are then able to pass out literature to the adults and sugar to the kiddo's. So off we went to visit with friends, gather some goodies and get some more mileage out of those precious costumes!
The kids were fairly intrigued by this sculpture. Whoever he is, he got a nice scratch behind the ears from Miss B! After a quick hello to that sturdy bearded fellow it was off to score the sweet treats...

Lucky for us! Brightly colored wax vampire teeth were passed out somewhere along the peaceful garden path! After minimal goading by Daddy, the kids followed suit and soon all of my peeps were snarling creatures. It should be noted that the close-up of Michael actually made the area paper. Pretty snazzy, dontcha think?

After all of the gruesome vampire teeth fun, we managed to settle down for a quick family pic in the barn on our way out. See ya next year BooDell!

The Mini's Go On A Halloween Tour...

On October 19th, the Mini's took their show on the road. We scheduled ourselves a quick trip to visit Ma and Pa and made plans for what is now one of our Halloween traditions. My maternal grandmother is in a nursing home not far from my folks house so a visit to them also allowed us to spread some Halloween cheer with Mimi and the other residents at "Mimi's house" as the kids call it. Papa came to meet us as well which gave us all a chance for a nice visit. It is loads of fun to see the reactions of the residents and staff when the kiddos arrive in costume. Not surprisingly, Hayden and Bailey adore the attention and it is so nice to have a Halloween activity that is not centered around the sugar factor!H and Mimi shared a great Hello hug. No matter what is happening with her health, Mimi can give a wonderful hug. I have joked that not even Alzheimers can shake the "Southern" out of our Mimi. She continues to be the hostess with the brightest smile when a visitor comes her way. H very thoroughly explained all of the relevant and not-so-relevant details regarding his Halloween attire and it's real life existance. They were quite a pair!

After we wrapped up our visit with Mimi, we headed outside to be greeted by some fabulous fall weather. The kids were enchanted by a small fountain out front and stopped to explore a bit. Our little Nemo was very excited to spot some water!

Initially, this oceanic duo was not quite sure where to start. It was not shocking to see that Bailey was the one who figured out to just dive right in!
Pretty soon, it was time to hunt up some lunch for our swimmers. Hayden and BlamPa teamed up to start the stroll on over to our car. Would you believe that when we got to Burger King the broiler was broken? Not a good day for BK. But fortunately that was not the case for us, we had a fun outing and managed to other fish in the sea for lunch.

Boo at the Zoo!

On October 17th I loaded up the minivan with my festive munchkins and we trucked over to the Zoo to meet up with Michael who had just wrapped up a day of soccer. It was a rather chilly (ok, almost frigid) evening and I was ever so grateful that the Mini's had multiple layers and warm costumes to wear on top. It was a little nuts getting there, apparantly everyone else had our gameplan and the cold did not deter them either!

Much of the zoo is roped off and everyone follows a path through themed trick or treating stations. There are costumed characters at these stations and you can stand in line for pictures with these brave folk - happily our crew is not yet concerned about things like photo op's with Tigger or Shrek and we could breeze right through to the treats. There were a few props that captured their attention and we did snap some pics of their discoveries.

Bailey was quite stunned to find Nemo at the Zoo. She wandered off mystified to touch base with her 'fin'icky friend.

Just as Hayden was sure he would not make it up a rather large hill, we were rewarded with a glimpse of the Tyrant Lizard King himself! Hooray for inflatable extinct creatures - Mom and Dad were not in the mood to carry and land sharks around the premises!

Although I feel certain I could not exaggerate how cold we were beginning to feel, Hayden and Bailey were both very sure that we would be better off with periodic breaks to forage through their treat buckets. Truthfully, Michael and I didn't mind much as long as they shared with us!

A Halloween Dress Rehearsal

It was early October and the time had come to begin what can only be accurately termed "All Hallow's Month" for the Marx's. When we first moved to Kentucky, I thought people here must be just nuts about Fall Festivals and Halloween. I have since determined that this is indeed true but is likely true in many places. The difference likely lies in where our family is in life right now. With two mobile little ones Autumn events and trick-or-treating opportunies are sought out and given a sort of priority status on the family calendar. My guess is that would be the case regardless of where we hang our witch hats....

Anyhooo. the time had come to suit up and celebrate all things spooky! This may be the last year we can pull off a theme - the older the kidlets get, the more opinions they seem to acquire! So 2009 was the year of oceanic creatures. Hayden is working his way through a rather intense fascination with Sharks and Bailey has gobs of affection for Nemo. We lucked out and scored a Nemo Costume on Ebay. The search for a Great White Shark cotume was a tad more complicated. Despite utilizing numerous websites and search engines it was looking dicey. Store bought costumes lacked proper attention to detail (C'mon folks - my little dude is insisting on the proper amount of gills and just the right belly!) and celebrated the man-eating aspect of all things shark. Luckily I came across the blog of a crafty Mama who had whipped up a snappy shark costume for her kidlet. This find was combined with an stack of absurdly large butcher paper that I had stashed in the basement after we moved in 'just in case' we ever had a use for such a thing. Actually, I had plans to let the kiddos walk in paint and then run on the paper sometime but one of these days we will generate a new plan for that mess. After piecing the general idea for H's shark together, I turned the mess over to my own crafty Mama who made the masterpiece that you'll see in the scads of halloween photos I shall post soon. Thanks Mom!

SO here's belated sneak peek at the Marx's in their pre-Halloween glory...Enjoy!