Happy Halloween {2013}

We celebrated the heck out of Halloween this year. 

It started with the kick off of a new Fall tradition in the Larson house: a visit from Magic Jack.

Every day Magic Jack appeared somewhere in our house with a note inside that told us what fun fall-related activity we would be doing. It ranged from simple art projects to playing in the leaves, sipping cider under the stars, making pumpkin pancakes and, of course, trick-or-treating. I loved it! It was a great way to focus my time with the children, making sure we were doing all the fun things we like to do this time of year anyway. 

We never knew exactly where Jack might be hiding. 

Mummy dogs and hot cider under the stars was one night's Magic Jack activity.

I loved how much Lydia enjoyed this incredibly simple art project.

Yay! Fall leaves!

Pumpkin pancakes, courtesy of "The Friend" magazine.

As for the costumes, we were once again able to pull together a family theme. 

Thanks to a lion costume, made by my Aunt Liz 30+ years ago for my brother, Kevin, we crafted "Wizard of Oz"costumes for the rest of us. I was Dorothy and Connor was Toto and Lydia was the lion. 

Originally Derek was going to be the Scarecrow but we just couldn't find the costume pieces we needed. Finally, an 11th hour stroke of genius, along with a surplus of yellow felt in my sewing room, turned Derek into the Yellow Brick Road for the evening.