Halloween 2016 Recap

Happy November!!

With today being the first day of November, that means yesterday was HALLOWEEN!!! I'm pretty sure that our kids were almost excited for Halloween as they will be for Christmas. Their energy was effervescent and, at times, insanely loud. (Go figure!)

Pumpkin Report
We started out the festivities on Sunday, when we carved our pumpkins. Eric and Annika methodically laid out the plans for her pumpkin, which Conor and I more "winged it" for his. The kids had a great time "ick'ing" and "ewww'ing" as they scooped out the pumpkin guts. Really, it doesn't get more fun that that, does it??

See the planning going on here??

Costume Report
Annika decided she wanted to be a gum ball machine for Halloween, and I loved the idea. It took a LOT of hot glue sticks and pom pom balls, but turned out really cute and came together rather easily. She was thrilled with the final result.

Then, there was Conor's costume. He decided that he wanted to be a mummy. "Easy!" I thought. Boy, was I ever wrong. His costume turned into a MUCH bigger project than I anticipated. That said, after way more time than I thought, much more swearing than I'm proud to report, and a few "gotta re-engineer this project again" planning sessions, his costume turned out quite well and I was (mostly) happy with the final product.

The kids wore their costumes to school, but found both to be quite warm and opted to change into the play clothes I stuffed into their backpack "just in case". I'm not at all surprised by their wardrobe swaps ... Conor was wearing a sweatsuit plus three yards of muslin and Annika was wearing about 5 pounds of pom pom balls made out of synthetic materials. ... not exactly "breathable" clothing options. Both kids had a marvelous time at their class Halloween parties and even more fun at the Extended Care program's party. Annika was even the one who gave the pinata its deathblow.

Sugar Report
After the stress of Conor's mummy costume, I needed to slow down and take a few deep breaths ... basically, return to my center. So, I opted to decorate some Halloween cookies. It was lovely to sit at our table with my piping bags of orange, white, and black royal icing and just be zen with some cookies. It put a smile on my face. (The glass of wine didn't hurt, either!)

 After dinner, it was time to re-costume our troops and head out for the one night of year we condone begging from our neighbors. Bring on the trick-or-treating!!

Because of how hot (and restrictive) his mummy costume was, Conor opted to wear a hand-me-down karate gi from his big cousin Robert. Annika returned to being a gum ball machine, but with the added bonus of a "Gumballs 25¢" sign attached to her headband. Eric put on some spooky face paint. I found some glow-in-the-dark glasses in our Halloween box, so wore those.

We, by chance, met up with some neighbors who have kids our kiddos know, so we went around the neighborhood as a bit of a pack. The kids had a great time running around with each other and experiencing Halloween as a bigger group. We've gone trick-or-treating with this same group of neighbors before, so it has become a bit of a tradition to wander around together.

Karate boy

Gumball girl

"Look! My candy bag looks like a beard!"

 The only glitch of the night was when Conor didn't see a decorative rock at the corner of someone's lawn and took a bit of a nose dive (chin dive, to be accurate) onto the sidewalk. From the sound of the fall, Eric and I were concerned he'd split open his chin. Fortunately, no major damage ... just a little road rash on his chin accompanied by a scraped palm and finger.

With that, we say goodbye to October (boo!) and hello to November and all its Thanksgiving glory (gobble, gobble!!).