Halloween 2013
Halloween was in danger of being postponed this year due to the looming threat of bad weather. As soon as the skies darkened and the rain clouds formed, everyone was in a tizzy, saying things like, "We should move trick-or-treating to another day!" and "Halloween is going to be ruined for the kids!"
PUH-LEASE. If you think for one minute my parents ever fretted over whether something as trivial as candy-gathering was going to be anything less than pleasant and easy for me...you don't know my parents. Or any other parent from the dark ages of the 80's where disappointment was pretty much the name of the childhood game. I'm sure our pioneer forefathers (and anyone in a present-day 3rd world country), would pretty much bust a gut if they heard that people in America were considering postponing a nominal holiday because it would be slightly uncomfortable for their children to collect FREE, non-essential, non-nutritive food.
Rant over.
This year Halloween felt a little different than in years past. Two of my kids have officially aged out of the holiday, so that very fact took a little bit of the giddy anticipation out of things. Also, this year Kellan and Eliza insisted on costumes that were store-bought, not homemade, so while I was a tiny bit disappointed, I have to be honest and say that it was a bit of a relief to be availed of all of the last-minute drama and frantic piecing together of parts.
We bought pumpkins during our trip to the pumpkin patch, but due to the cost, we convinced our kids to get smaller ones, promising that we'd hit the grocery store later for more sizable - but cheaper - ones. Who knew that every grocery store would be sold out of big pumpkins a week before Halloween?? Thankfully, Eliza had talked us into one giant pumpkin at the patch, so at least we had one!
Weston actually joined us for this activity, which we crammed in the night before Halloween between dinner and carpooling to various activities. Eliza was at gymnastics until 8:30, so we were up until 10:00 carving these things....which we then never took pictures of and never even lit up on Halloween night. Fail.
Larissa had her Halloween party the Tuesday before Halloween. She had picked out her cheerleader costume almost 2 months earlier when we spotted it at the Goodwill, and I was super-relieved that she still found it awesome when the actual holiday came.
I love this age for dressing up and I don't know what I'm going to do when this stage is all over. The kids in Larissa's class were so excited to show off their costumes and they were all so committed to really living the part. Adorable.
Kellan's party was the actual day of Halloween which was kind of hectic because in between carving pumpkins I also had to get his costume labeled and bagged up for school and "treats" ready for his party. Here's a tip for anyone with a Walgreen's in their 'hood. If you are ever stuck in that interminably long wait for prescriptions, cruise the bargain aisle of the store. That's where I found these awesome mustache pencils for 25 cents each (regularly $1.50). They were a BIG hit. When I walked into Kellan's classroom of 26 kids (16 of whom are boys!), it was the predicted swirl of chaos that only sugar can bring. Kellan was dressed as "Knuckles", a character from the "Sonic the Hedgehog" video game. The weird blue bird in the picture is Kellan's (and apparently every other boy's) crush, Ava. Kellan wanted a picture just with her, but his buddies insisted on muscling in.
That evening, it was indeed cold and rainy, but it was not going to deter this group of goofballs from getting as much candy from strangers as they could!
Eliza was Alice in Wonderland - her friends were a baby, a thief, and a weird purple morph thing??
Since we live on a cul-de-sac off a fairly busy road and we are basically the only family with school-aged children, our neighbors get special treats just for our kids and we take our heavy-duty trick-or-treating to a bigger neighborhood nearby where the houses are closer together. To facilitate this endeavor (and minimize our exposure to the elements), we rigged up this side show!!
Needless to say we were the talk of the streets.
At the end of the night, everyone came home to copious dozens of pounds of candy - apparently people are especially generous when the weather is terrible and there's a reduction in number of trick-or-treaters. Paleo challenge be damned - I raided those kids' bags for every 100 Grand bar and Milk Duds box I could find!
Oddly, no one wanted dibs on this:
PUH-LEASE. If you think for one minute my parents ever fretted over whether something as trivial as candy-gathering was going to be anything less than pleasant and easy for me...you don't know my parents. Or any other parent from the dark ages of the 80's where disappointment was pretty much the name of the childhood game. I'm sure our pioneer forefathers (and anyone in a present-day 3rd world country), would pretty much bust a gut if they heard that people in America were considering postponing a nominal holiday because it would be slightly uncomfortable for their children to collect FREE, non-essential, non-nutritive food.
Rant over.
This year Halloween felt a little different than in years past. Two of my kids have officially aged out of the holiday, so that very fact took a little bit of the giddy anticipation out of things. Also, this year Kellan and Eliza insisted on costumes that were store-bought, not homemade, so while I was a tiny bit disappointed, I have to be honest and say that it was a bit of a relief to be availed of all of the last-minute drama and frantic piecing together of parts.
We bought pumpkins during our trip to the pumpkin patch, but due to the cost, we convinced our kids to get smaller ones, promising that we'd hit the grocery store later for more sizable - but cheaper - ones. Who knew that every grocery store would be sold out of big pumpkins a week before Halloween?? Thankfully, Eliza had talked us into one giant pumpkin at the patch, so at least we had one!
Weston actually joined us for this activity, which we crammed in the night before Halloween between dinner and carpooling to various activities. Eliza was at gymnastics until 8:30, so we were up until 10:00 carving these things....which we then never took pictures of and never even lit up on Halloween night. Fail.
Larissa had her Halloween party the Tuesday before Halloween. She had picked out her cheerleader costume almost 2 months earlier when we spotted it at the Goodwill, and I was super-relieved that she still found it awesome when the actual holiday came.
I love this age for dressing up and I don't know what I'm going to do when this stage is all over. The kids in Larissa's class were so excited to show off their costumes and they were all so committed to really living the part. Adorable.
Kellan's party was the actual day of Halloween which was kind of hectic because in between carving pumpkins I also had to get his costume labeled and bagged up for school and "treats" ready for his party. Here's a tip for anyone with a Walgreen's in their 'hood. If you are ever stuck in that interminably long wait for prescriptions, cruise the bargain aisle of the store. That's where I found these awesome mustache pencils for 25 cents each (regularly $1.50). They were a BIG hit. When I walked into Kellan's classroom of 26 kids (16 of whom are boys!), it was the predicted swirl of chaos that only sugar can bring. Kellan was dressed as "Knuckles", a character from the "Sonic the Hedgehog" video game. The weird blue bird in the picture is Kellan's (and apparently every other boy's) crush, Ava. Kellan wanted a picture just with her, but his buddies insisted on muscling in.
That evening, it was indeed cold and rainy, but it was not going to deter this group of goofballs from getting as much candy from strangers as they could!
Eliza was Alice in Wonderland - her friends were a baby, a thief, and a weird purple morph thing??
Since we live on a cul-de-sac off a fairly busy road and we are basically the only family with school-aged children, our neighbors get special treats just for our kids and we take our heavy-duty trick-or-treating to a bigger neighborhood nearby where the houses are closer together. To facilitate this endeavor (and minimize our exposure to the elements), we rigged up this side show!!
Needless to say we were the talk of the streets.
At the end of the night, everyone came home to copious dozens of pounds of candy - apparently people are especially generous when the weather is terrible and there's a reduction in number of trick-or-treaters. Paleo challenge be damned - I raided those kids' bags for every 100 Grand bar and Milk Duds box I could find!
Oddly, no one wanted dibs on this: