To Be or What to Be? Preparing for Halloween...

As the boys grow older, the holidays become more and more fun to share with them.  We have had such a ball just trying on costumes for Halloween and playing fun dress up.

For a while the boys were changing what they wanted to be for Halloween every week.  Elijah went from a pirate to a rock star, to a daddy, to a cowboy (which is our current pick).  Joaquin was all over the place.  First, he wanted to be a ghost, then a flashlight, then a car, then a refrigerator, then spiderman, then a pirate (which is our current pick).  I'm glad he didn't go with the fridge, cause that would have been a tough costume to create!

Here are a few pics of our fun times leading up to Halloween:

The boys loved trying on mommy and daddy's old costume wigs.  I was trying to get them to pose, but the fact that Elijah was wearing a sherif cowboy vest and Joaquin was just in his skivvies, there wasn't much I could do to make them look any more awesome. :)

Oh, I forgot to mention that there was a brief moment (in the costume store) that the boys both wanted to be Darth Vader.  Joaquin kept lowering his voice to a breathy tone and saying "Luke, I am your Father." (Since daddy has shown them numerous Star Wars Youtube videos.

So here is our current costume pick!

Believe it or not, that suede sherif vest was my brother John's when he was little.  My mom saved it and Elijah was soooooo excited to get to wear it.  Mommy made the chaps and gun holster and he is wearing my cowboy hat (which sadly enough, fits both our heads)

Joaquin is easy to please.  Give him a hat, a patch and a knife and he's the coolest pirate on the planet!  

This picture was taken before we told him that pirates don't smile for pictures.  They are supposed to look tough. :)

But, man, Elijah knew how to pose!

Here is the second shot with a more serious pirate.

Ready to head to their first Halloween party.

Joaquin's costume didn't last long when he got in the bounce house at the Halloween party.

Elijah was a total ham!

He went into automatic cowboy poses when dad brought out the camera.

They had a blast at the party!

And, of course, the pumpkin preparations!  

Joaquin wouldn't even touch the stuff, but Elijah thought it was freaking hillarous to pull out the slimy pumpkin guts!

Here is our family pumpkin this year.  The boys said they wanted a, and I quote, "Happy Robot Pumpkin", whatever that is.  This is the interpretation daddy came up with and they seemed happy, so I think we can call that one a success.

Here is Elijah's mini pumpkin.  I think he did a pretty good job!  He was soooooo proud of it and wanted to make sure that mommy took a picture of his pumpkin too!

And of course, this is the way I found the boys this morning...both asleep on the playroom floor.  They were so excited that "tomorrow is Halloween" that they couldn't keep in their bedrooms.