I am not a fan of Halloween. Actually I’m not a huge fan of really any holiday, other than St. Patrick’s day and Thanksgiving. I’m just not a planner so both Christmas and Halloween stress me out a bit. Obviously Christmas more so than Halloween but still.
The planning for Halloween has the potential to be very stressful by making costume at home, but I took the easy, more expensive way out and bought Halloween costumes. We bought them about two ago, when they were 20% off. Because I kept putting it off, we saved money, but the choices were slim. Ms. Gail knew immediately that she wanted to be a witch. JP was fairly quick to decide on the green ninja costume. HD himmed and hawed for a while before also deciding on the green ninja costume. JP then decided they couldn’t be the same color so he grabbed a red one instead. JP not wearing green?! Seemed a little weird to me!
I sang Ms. Gail to bed the night before - some made up song that went like “Now it is time for bed for tomorrow is Halloween.” Of course I spruced it up a bit and made it sound scary. She loved it and woke up singing in the morning.
For dinner I try to theme it with something Halloween-ish. I used to make Halloweenies, which are basically pigs in a blanket, but they look like mummies instead. One year we had cheeseburgers and I cut the cheese into jack-o-lanterns. Other years it's make your own pizza. Because Ms. Gail had gymnastics right after school, I wasn't going to have a ton of prep time, especially because in the morning I went to quilting, and then right over to my neighbor's house to clean. This year, it was make your own pizza again, but I rolled out the dough into ghost-like shapes for them to decorate with pepperoni, sausage, and cheese.
Once dinner was out of the way, the kids eagerly jumped into their costumes. As always, I asked for a group photo before we left and asked JP to put his ninja mask on for the full effect. It went downhill from there. Instead of putting his mask on, he went to his room, took his costume off, and then sat on the floor and pouted. With a lot of convincing, I was able to talk him into getting it back on so we could get a picture.
That's about the best picture of the three of them. I love when the boys match!
At one of the first houses we went to, Ms. Gail was taken as a hostage by the witches. They have a party every year, and the kids were excited to go trick-or-treating at their house this year, because they had scary decorations outside and knew what to expect. The ladies were tickled when they saw this little witch in training, and were even more delighted when she realized it was her neighbor! Ms. Gail walked past their house at the end of trick-or-treating, and said in the creepiest of voices, "There's that GLORIOUS house again!"
JP really just didn't want to go trick-or-treating. We went around the loop and I was having to push him up to each door and hold up his arm to get candy in his bucket. After a little while he just slunk around until Perry finally took him home and prepared him a cup of hot chocolate. In the mean time, HD and Ms. Gail were hilarious to walk around with. I don't know what it is about Halloween, but my kids are just so funny to listen to. HD declared, "This is the latest I've ever stayed up! It's practically morning!" It was 7:23pm, not even bedtime. At another house that had stairs leading up to it, he came back down and rolled his eyes while casually saying, "Well their dad needs to fix that crookedy stair." We also went to a house where someone was hiding on the front porch so she could jump out and scare people. Both kids decided they weren't going to that house after they watched it happen. We went to that house when the girl was taking a break. She was getting back into position when we were leaving, so HD and Ms. Gail said we had to watch her scare the next people, which she did. Ms. Gail then walked off saying, "Wow. That was so satisfying." Ms. Gail also pointed out that recognized one of her friends from school by her face and her hair. Is there another way? Hahaha!
Upon their arrival home, they immediately dumped out their candy to see what they got. It was so exciting for them!
After their candy had been sorted, both HD and Ms. Gail went back and forth trading candy WITH NO FIGHTING! JP eventually joined in with the few pieces I forced him to get, and the few handfuls his sister gave him from her bucket before he headed home.
Bless her little heart, she gave him more candy when he was sorting through his small pile, because, "I just missed you so much!" She also gave him her Fun Dip because it was the best candy of the all, even after she realized it was the only one she got. Oh my heart! We later found out JP was just really tired....
