Most people believe that Halloween is one day long - this is a myth. Halloween begins November 1 - this is the day the kids begin plotting what they will dress up as next year and how they will do it differently next year to maximize the candy influx. Then there is a lull in Halloween thoughts (hopefully), as thoughts turn to Christmas - which is now beginning to take over the shelves in the stores where Halloween merchandise had been. Actually Target had an aisle 2 weeks ago that was Halloween on one side, then Christmas on the other - yeee gads! At any rate - Halloween in our house resumed our thoughts at the end of September when A began whining on the way home that she was the only one of all her friends that had not figured out what to be for Halloween. Luckily talking through it - and while shopping we came up with a costume. Then we were able to hold off further thoughts until about 2 weeks ago when we decided to go get pumpkins since T was leaving for DC. We ended up at a small little farm by our house that had the pumpkins already cut, but none the less you could stand amongst the pumpkins for photo opportunity.
We started out going to the bigger farm down the road, but there were too many people with screaming kids and we couldn't even find a place to park. I whined that I really was not a "people person" and I was sure that people would be breathing my air (I was a little grumpy that day)- so we ended up at a small family farm down the road that sold pumpkins and some fruits and vegetables. Simpler and helps out the little farmer instead of the big farmer!!
Then we arrived home and unloaded the pumpkins -
We then carved the pumpkins the next week. A wanted to make hers into a carriage. Similar to Cinderella's but you cannot call it that in front of A as she wants it to be simply a "Carriage". She saw the idea in Hallmark magazine and decided that is what she would do this year for her pumpkin. K likes to do this little Kitty face with it's paws each year. She is really getting quite good at it. This year as we were carving - it seemed like we had turned a corner - neither of the girls really needed much help as they carved out the sections. A wanted me to scoop out the "guts" because she thinks that it is "So Gross!" It made me simultaneously sad and happy as I realized this is yet another little thing that shows how they are growing up and becoming independent. It all passes so fast.
The next Halloween festivity is the class trip to the "The Farm". Literally that is what it is called - The Farm. This is the last year for the trek to The Farm as only K-2 get to go for field trip there. It is fun and the kids have fun running around. There is a hay maze in the barn, a petting zoo, a ride on trailers pulled by a tractor out to the pumpkin field to pick your pumpkin, then a place to have lunch.
Now on to Halloween eve -this involves running around the house making sure everyone has all the parts to their costume, that home work has been done, some kind of nutritious meal served (you know the next day will be full of sugar-so I always try to combat it by a super healthy meal on Halloween eve), and then usually some baking for the class Halloween party. This year it was 24 cupcakes for the kids in K-2 to decorate. I finished the baking and frosting the cupcakes at about 11 pm - which is a record seeing as how I did not start baking until about 8pm and was attempting to watch Survivor while doing the baking.
And then the day is finally here - HALLOWEEN. We of course are late to school - it is raining and this always throws traffic into a conundrum. I pick the girls up from school (it is still raining) and we head south to go stop by the house and fine tune our costumes before heading to Kent Station. As we arrived in Kent, the rain stopped and the sun actually began to break through the clouds. While we are at the house getting ready - I talk A into letting me take one picture with the feather hat - and she agrees.
Story about the feather hat - when Aunt L heard A was going to be pirate - she brought us 3 different style hats for A to choose from. A fell in love with the simplest one - it had gold on it and she did not want to wear the awesome one with the feathers. In pirate speak - AARGH!!! Thanks to Aunt L for transporting the hats on an airplane.
From the house (yes it is still sunny and not raining) we head down to Kent Station to meet up with Auntie T, J, and E. We trick or treated for a bit there while we were waiting for Auntie T.
The girls are running from the movie theater - not because they just stole all the candy, but because the movie theater was handing out movie sized packaged rice krispy treats - the huge ones - they were running to tell me about the loot! Mind you - when I buy the packaged rice krispy treats - they go uneaten.
It was mobbed and the stores were all running out of candy -yes, even the Mac Store had run out of candy! A was quite excited to go to See's to trick or treat - her logic was that they would not run out of candy!!! She was right!
Auntie T and her girls arrived and we went to the stores we had not yet been to. All the while A and J chatting like crazy. They hadn't seen each other in awhile and had alot to catch upon. It was so cute.
We all went back to the house and had some soup and crackers and cheese. The girls played in the playroom for awhile. Then Auntie T and the girls had to go home to get to bed.
But wait that's not all - it was only 7:30, it still wasn't raining, so the girls and I went out for some neighborhood trick or treating - along the way one of the little girls from the neighborhood joined us. We did the entire block. It was a slow night for trick or treaters, so most of the houses were giving out handfuls of candy. The neighborhood trick or treating ended with me deciding to cut through this vacant lot that has this old building on it. It sits by a vacant house on a dirt road. Well needless to say there was something growling in the tall grass by the building as we went by, then it started to growl louder - so I made all 3 girls run down the dirt road to our street. I didn't know I could run that fast. Luckily nothing chased out after us - but it was a bit of a fright - appropriate for Halloween night. We made it home and went through the candy. K sorted her candy (she does this every year - she sorts it by type and puts all the like items together, then counts what she has the most and least of). A just digs into hers and wants "more - Pleeeease".
Exhausted, we did not get up until 9AM on Saturday!!
We hope you all had a Happy and Safe Halloween.
