Halloween 2008

I love Halloween. I wouldn't dare be blasphemous and say it was my favorite holiday but it is definitely up there. I like it because it happens during the fall and fall is DEFINITELY my favorite time of year. I like it because it involves lots of candy...delicious, sweet candy...especially all those variations of Reese's Peanut Butter anything and Butterfingers. I like it because we dress up in costumes and get to live out a tiny little piece of our imaginations right there where everyone can see it. I like it because it doesn't involve much effort on my part but I do get huge satisfaction from watching all the festivities unfold. I don't have to buy gifts, I don't have to send cards, I'm not cold or driving through snow, and it doesn't involve the same songs being played over and over again on the radio for 2 months. Don't get me wrong...I'm no Christmas Grinch...I just really appreciate the shallow, on the surface, bizarre, fun nature of Halloween!

So let the festivities begin.

Each of the kids had picked their costumes by the beginning of October. But of course there were lots of variations along the way. JC and MC both had to chose "historical figures that lived before 1950" for their school "World History Assembly". (While I adore our charter school, we are a little nerdy sometimes. Can't we just dress up in Ninja outfits and eat candy for an hour??) JC chose to be King Tut and MC chose to be Blackbeard the Pirate (who is a very real and very fascinating person incidentally!).

For those of you who may not know my husband, he is truly one astounding and gifted man. He is responsible for the fabulous facial hair that MC is wearing and the glitzy headdress on King Tut. Really...I would be TOAST without this man! As part of the school assembly, our family was asked to decorate some pumpkins for the occasion. Since I'm not a big fan of the whole carving with the slime stuff, we opted for a slight variation. Each child got to design and construct a pumpkin. I thought they all turned out to be an interesting psychological study into our children's psyches!

JC's was a random assortment of things, MC's was a vampire, and HB's was a pink princess. The cowboy, Darth Vader and Pirate were just sort of afterthoughts...

So after the World History Assembly came the Preschool Pals Halloween Party. I was in charge this last week and so we had a school party the way you are supposed to...there were costumes, candy, chaotic games, and lots of crafts. MC went as speed racer and HB surprised me with a ballerina outfit.

After a fabulous ward Halloween carnival Thursday night and some serious trick or treating at Dad's work Friday afternoon, we were ready for the real games to begin. JC was Indiana Jones...and he looked fantastic! He even did his own "scruffy" beard with my brown eye liner pencil.

MC stayed with his original plan and went as Speed Racer. Thank you to Mo and Papa for providing a birthday present that has had lots and lots of fun use this month! HB decided to be Tinker Bell sans the wings which she claimed poked her too much. She wouldn't let me touch her hair so I had to bite my tongue and be happy with yesterday's braids. Darling husband agreed to take them out and they came home a couple of hours later staggering under the weight of those goody bags. True to nature, each handled their loot a different way.

JC unwrapped everything and dumped it in a bowl...he called it his "candy mix". MC laid everything out on the floor and carefully organized it into piles and HB just dug right in on the kitchen floor.

So when all was said and done, it was fabulous. We ate chili, we drank bloody punch, and we devoured enough candy to make us all really hyper and then crash into bed an hour later. What holiday could possibly beat that??? Only 364 more days until we can do it again!