Happy Halloween!

Halloween is here, much to the girl's delight.  Eliana has been planning for Halloween since August...First she wanted to dress up as Mulan, then as a black cat with a long tail, and then she finally settled on being a fairy princess.

Karina settled on a little sunflower costume, which she tried out ahead of time to make sure it fit her.

She ended up liking it, so sunflower it was!

 Halloween snuck up on us this year...so pumpkin carving was done at the last minute.  On Monday morning before work, Elvin quickly cut lids into the pumpkins and tore out the guts.

 Gabriel was very excited about the whole thing and wanted to help out.

 On Monday evening, Karina chose the design for her pumpkin--which was a kitty.

 With (A LOT of)  help from Daddy, her pumpkin was all done!

 Then Elvin started on Eliana's pumpkin in the evening after dinner.  Gabriel really wanted to get in on the action.

 It slowed things down a bit, having to carve a pumpkin with an 16 month old on your lap.

 Both Daddy and Eliana worked diligently on the Hello Kitty design.

 Cutting through the pumpkin was hard work!

We were done!  We lit the candle inside just as a test run so that Eliana could see how it lights up from the inside.

 On Halloween night, the girls' little friends came over to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood.  Their mom brought some glow-in-the-dark bracelets, which were a big hit.  Notice that Gabriel is right in the mix.

Then we are off!  Gabriel was dressed as a cowboy, but tore off his hat immediately.  He absolutely hates having anything on his head.

Here is a group picture of all the kids, before getting all sugared up.

We went around to quite a few houses, but the first one we always go to are our next door neighbors who adore our kids.  They gave candy to the kids and then whipped out their camera to take pictures of our kids in costumes.

 Gabriel had a great time, mostly because he likes being outside.

Here is Karina inspecting her loot on the way home.

 And here is Karina strategizing on which candy to eat first...

 All in all, we had a fun and safe Halloween.  Hope yours was good too!