That's Iron Man (complete with Tony Stark goatee), Hulk (I think I reapplied that green paint like ten times because he kept touching his face, Captain America (that shield was dropped ten times in the first ten minutes of trick-or-treating), Thor (Gabe is super into Norse mythology right now) and Hawkeye (I have since regretted the purchase of that bow and arrow- also he insisted on wearing those sunglasses in the dark).
After a few attempts at a "nice" picture, I let them loose and got these somewhat amazing action shots. I could totally direct superhero movies.
Marc and I got SHIELD shirts because this group of Avengers definitely needs a couple of SHIELD agents looking out for them.
As for the pumpkins, we struggled a bit with those this year. When the Flinders were in town visiting us we went to Papa's Pumpkin Patch only to find that they were out of pumpkins. We then went to Sam's club where we literally scraped the bottom of the barrel to get six pumpkins. I totally forgot to take a "before" picture with each boy and his pumpkin so we settled on a group photo after we carved them. The photo session didn't exactly yield postcard-worthy results.
Carving the pumpkins was interesting. Several of them were a little soft and Gabe's was full of mold. Like the pro mom that I am, I scraped it out and carved that sucker anyway. Here are all of the carved pumpkins lit up. Gabe's really struggled to show up on camera but you can see it in the individual shots that follow.
This one is Kaleb's pumpkin pi. Get it?
Here's Gabe's tribute to the latest Magic the Gathering set, Ixalan, with a symbol that looks like a ship's helm.
This is Elijah's pirate pumpkin. He tried using one of the patterns this year and carved it himself. There were some finer details inside the skull that broke off and I was so proud of him for adjusting the design and rolling with it. Way to go Bug!
David John drew and carved his own pumpkin this year. I love the angry eyebrows.
Benjamin drew a very elaborate design for me to cut out. There is a bomb, a spiky ball with a happy face, many blades of grass, a flock of birds, a sunshine and a giant hand unleashing a tornado. He was in love with the results so I guess I did a good job executing his vision.
I am kind of in love with this little creature that Tobias drew. My favorite thing he said while drawing was, "And now I will give him koala bear ears!"
The pumpkins didn't quite make it in one piece until Halloween night. The boys had a great attitude and just said they looked extra spooky.
Trick-or-treating was chilly, for me- the boys were fine, but a lot of fun. At one point, Benjamin got jostled a bit in the scrum at the door of one of the houses. He came back a little tearful to complain that he bonked his head. Marc said, "Good thing you are Iron Man and hitting your head doesn't hurt!" Benjamin said, "Oh yeah, I am made of iron. Iron doesn't get hurt." Tobias chimed in "I'm Captain America! I'm made of captain!" I was even a very brave mom and let the three older boys go around our neighborhood together without an adult after the two littles got tired. They came back home weighed down with bags of candy and feeling very grown up. And they should. The Avengers would never have their moms with them to go trick-or-treating.
p.s. The boys love this studio C music video about the Avengers. It has all of their characters featured. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OmQ7BnvWDU
