Just the Five of Us

Happy Halloween!

Rite of Passage

We deemed Jake old enough to accompany us to my high school friend's Halloween party this year--for a half hour, anyway. He really wanted to see the decorations--they are hard core--and it was nice to spend some time with him.

Doug's the M&M, I'm the oil spill, and Jake is Eminem.

He loved the massacre scene in the bathroom, the zombie eating a girl in the yard, and getting to have some party food and a soda.

Trick or Treat

M&Ms

Seven years ago, Jake dressed as an M&M for Halloween. Last week, it was Owen's turn. In some photos, they look like twins. Here, I'm amazed how different they look. Owen's looks are changing again, and I think he's looking less like Jake. At the same time, I look at these photos, think about the face that they are seven years apart, and I wonder where the time went.

 

Owen almost didn't go trick or treating . . . until a few hours before, he refused to put his costume on. Eventually, I forced it on him, gave him a piece of candy, and he was good to go.

Detailed Halloween wrap coming . . .

Trick or Treat

First, we decorated. Jake and I had gone to the Halloween store on Thursday where we waited in a crazy line to buy overpriced Halloween stuff after Jake had walked around for half a hour gleefully looking at gory Halloween decor and begging me to buy him a spear or dagger or something "scary and dangerous." We put up the cobwebs and arranged the pumpkins we had carved, adding the "vomit" to the little ghost. We got many compliments on our pumpkins, and Doug was even man enough to admit I did them all.

Then we had dinner. I made Cheesy Mummy Dogs (a hit) and a veggie skeleton to offset the candy that would be consumed. I have never seen the kids tear into veggies the way they did last night. They ate the whole skeleton and then made faces with leftover veggies and ate them too. In fact, they asked for more veggies instead of more hotdogs. Miraculous, really.

We had such a blast. There were only a couple houses that scared Emma so much she didn't even go up for candy, but the rest was fine. Owen went to a couple houses, having no idea what was going on but that people were giving him candy and we weren't opening it fast enough. When we came back so Doug could hand out candy and I could take the kids out for the first leg, I put him in the stroller since he didn't need anymore candy. He was given a lollipop, which he tried for almost ten minutes to unwrap and spent the next half hour happily sucking on it. We had close to 130 kids . . . we gave out 120 bags of pretzels with candy, and we had more kids than pretzels. I wouldn't be surprised if we had close to 140 kids. People were obviously driving into our neighborhood to trick or treat . . . we saw the cars--and in some cases, school vans. I didn't mind--though I was a bit worried I'd run out of candy!

The kids did almost the whole neighborhood and saw the fire truck. Owen made it the entire time, though in the stroller, and I greatly enjoyed my forty minutes of peace and quiet to myself as I handed out candy from time to time.

Before we left, I was able to get one of the best photos of all three kids ever.

Jake collected candy in his bag. Owen, in his fist. He had no use for his little pumpkin, but he liked to take candy by hand. He'd walk around with it, pausing every once and a while to push up his skunk head, look at us, and grunt for us to open it.

The kids got a TON of candy. It's all on top of the fridge, and so far, no one has asked for any today. I'm interested to see if they remember it's up there . . . in the past, they tend to forget about it after a day or two.

Today, it's a class party for Emma, a school parade for Jake, and a lot of candy nibbling from the parents. And hopefully a nap.

Dirt

Was going through my photos and found this from a month ago. I made Dirt for Jake's Halloween party at school . . . it was VERY good.

Happy Halloween

Not very exciting today--the kids trick or treated last week, so we didn't really do much. Had some fun doing ghost hunts with foam ghosts, but that's about it.

Stayed home today. Was going to go down to a nursery for a hay maze and hayride, but we're all pretty tired and have been running non-stop, so we had a "quiet" day at home. Have decided we have to have at least one day where we don't go anywhere. Emma disagrees and kept asking when we were going to do something fun (though she entertained herself with drawing pictures to mail to her friends and setting up a campsite in the living room . . . complete with fire made of torn newspapers and plastic utensils from her kitchen).

• Cleaned the kitchen. Really cleaned it. And kept it that way.
  
• Three loads of laundry. Two hung. One dried and folded.
• Vacuumed and did some tidying in the basement.
• Took a walk (that had to end halfway through because Owen started crying and wouldn't stop).
• Put kids laundry away (I'm a softie).
• Cleaned the playroom.
• Nursed the baby four times.
• Fed children breakfast, lunch, and two snacks.
• Called for take out for dinner.
• Weeded for an hour.
• Mailed the last of Jake's party invites.
• Dealt with email.
• Got all of Owen's blog posts into one document to get ready for printing.
• Uploaded Owen's monthly photo pages for printing . . . I'm current to month 10. My goal is to have month 11 done and printed with my client's order this weekend so his album will be ready for his party.
• Played three games of Memory with Emma. Actually won one!
• Read books to Emma and Owen.
• Listened as Owen looked at me and said, "Mama! Mama! Mama! Mama! Mama! Mama!"
• Watched him take half a step from the table to me.

All in all a fairly productive day.

Jake celebrated Halloween by sitting down with the Toys R Us catalog and writing his Christmas list.

And Emma drew The Krusty Krab from her LEGO kit.

Trick or Treat

For whatever reason, our township does trick or treat the Thursday before Halloween. Last nigtht was the big night, and the kids had a blast.

It was also Emma's Halloween party at school. As the sort of room mom, I planned the party and organized the snacks, but two other moms stayed to help since we're not allowed to bring little siblings. This worked out fine because Owen ended up taking a one and a half hour nap and I, who had a million things to do, watched Transformers.

Anyway.

When the kids got home, they had snack and I nursed Owen and before we know it, it was five o'clock. Emma and I mananged to put cobwebs on the bushes and play for a bit while waiting for Jake's bus. I wanted to take photos of Owen discovering our pumpkin (which came from the grocery store since we've been too busy to actually go to a pumpkin patch).

He had other ideas.

Like crawling across the yard after the trash cans. Over and over and over.

And crawling on the sidewalk.

And  tearing apart discovering the flowers. He then played with the tires on the car, getting his cute little hands all dirty.

And headed back to the flowers.

Finally he noticed the pumpkin.

And after watching Emma sit on the pumpkin, he decided he wanted to climb up on it too.

While Jake and Emma had dinner, Doug carved the pumpkin. Neither Jake nor Emma wanted much to do with pumpkins their first Halloweens.

Owen, on the other hand . . .

REALLY enjoyed the pumpkin. Like kept trying to eat it because he eats non stop lately.

He was not keen on Doug taking the seeds out of his mouth.

Stinker.

"Helping" daddy.

This picture is so cute it makes my head want to explode.

Then it was time to trick or treat.

Obligatory shot of the kids. Emma as Cinderella, Owen as dragon, and Jake as Darth Vader (just like last year). I REALLY wanted Jake to be a knight so we had a theme, but he refused. Punk.

I love that tail.

Ready for treats.

Totally staged photo. Owen spent an hour out with Doug and the kids before we switched, but he only went to doors and got treats (8 in all!) from the neighbors.

Totally clueless and having a blast. Very tolerant of the costume . . . and the hat, which surprised me.

Our neighboor, so the kids are allowed inside. Owen, of course, didn't want to be left out.


Most. Candy. Ever. We stopped counting at 105. PER CHILD. Yikes. Buckets were decorated by Emma. She kindly let Jake use one after he whined that she would get more candy because she had a bigger container than he was going to use. We had a little chat about expressing opinion without the nasal whine (Jake did admit that people probably wouldn't give her more candy just because she had a bigger bucket), and Emma ended up letting him borrow hers.

A good night. The kids were spoiled by the woman who lives behind us . . . she gave them each an 8 pack of peanut butter cups. And our neighboors who work for Hershey were handing out bags of the mini cups. Doug is in heaven. We handed out Skittles, Starburst, and Fruit by the Foot. I didn't want to buy chocolate because I'd eat it, so I was proud of my restraint (though I have dipped into their stash, which is now living out in the shed especially after I weighed in this week and was up two pounds. . . at least I know it wasn't from candy). The only downfall was having four kids take half our candy when we were out with the kids . . . across the street and after Doug told them to take one. No parents with them so they went crazy. We had to supplement with our own stash of fruit roll-ups and eventually put the candy in the house until we were ready to split up with the kids. Jake was thrilled to run into Angelo from school, so they trick or treated together. Emma was very brave and on the lookout all night for scary masks and only saw a couple.

This suit was worn by Jake seven years ago. It came with tights, but the blanket sleeper worked better for warmth and funky stripes.

Cutest. Dragon. Ever. (well, and Jake, too).

220 Treats

in the house.

Well, minus the ones we've eaten. MUST. GET. CANDY. OUT. OF. THE. HOUSE. The kids have pretty much forgotten it--I've stored it on top of the fridge. Doug doesn't pay much attention either. I have no willpower, so I'm enjoying myself and Owen's on a sugar rush. Tomorrow, the candy moves to the shed.

Trick or Treat was last night. We took the kids out for about an hour, brought them home for a potty and treat break, and then Doug took them out for another half hour. There were a TON of kids out and about last night--the bowl we left out was empty when we returned and I used up the spare bags when I handed it out. The fire truck came around, a local company had a flat bed going around and throwing candy at the kids, and there were houses last night that were super generous. They also got glow necklaces from the police, which were a big hit.

So Jake ended up with 105 treats and Emma 115. They each also got a toy and a little tub of Playdoh--the look of joy on Emma's face when she saw that was the best part of the night. Surrounded by candy and the Playdoh got her attention the most. We let the kids eat a bit last night, and somehow Emma snuck in more candy than we thought--every time we looked at her, she was unwrapping something.

We didn't get the kids to bed until almost nine, so they were tired today. Jake was okay, but Emma was cranky and wild all day--the hellion of her playgroup Halloween party this morning. Earned a couple time outs for yelling at me and generally had a rough day. But she was a trooper through Jake's class party and even took a short nap before dinner. Got some fun shots . . .

Darth. LOVE this costume. Always wanted to be Darth when I was younger, so I splurged and spent 20.00 on his costume. A far cry from the rectangular boxes and plastic suits I wore as a kid.

Look at him. Menacing.

Skunk. So many little girls this year were princesses and fairies. Not Emma. 10.00 at Once Upon a Child, new with tags. I had to get it, even though she was originally going to be a bee. The eyes and nose on the head slay me . . . they're the best part. Emma receives LOTS of compliments on her costume. Her favorite part? Turning around and sticking her butt toward Jake and spraying him with a "ssssss" sound. But she was a bit concerned--made sure on the way to her preschool party that she didn't smell.

The pumpkin. Bought at the last minute for 6.00 and heaved into the car by moi. A sight, I'm sure. Doug carved it this year.

The candy. Some of it anyway. Spent waaaayyy too much money on candy, but I find that it's getting more and more expensive. The pregnant me cannot get enough Twix. I'm trying to be strong, but seriously--they leave no bad aftertaste or yuckiness in my mouth. Yummy.

Ready for action. The first year we didn't use pumpkins--Aunt Missy gave them these cool buckets. Emma still likes to take the candy herself and put it into the bucket, and both kids did a fairly decent job remembering to say thank you.

Love how Jake's cape is billowing here. I used to tie towels around my neck and pretend I was Darth with my cape billowing. I swear I would wear this costume if it fit.

We did get a religious tract from one house and Jake was totally confused. But, not for long--there was candy to be had. And while it looks like, my car keys were not part of his loot.

"How many pieces of candy have you eaten anyway?"

"Um, two?"

And the festivities are not over yet! Home for Trick or Treating at Boo at the Zoo and a party for Doug and I. The kids are complaining fiercely about the unfairness of a no-kids party. Yeah. Because the three days of non-stop parties and activities just hasn't been enough.

Happy Halloween!

Went to an adults only Halloween party at my high school friend's house on Saturday. . . she and her husband do Halloween like you wouldn't imagine. Good times hanging out with my two best friends from high school . . . four drinks and one yummy jello shot later I came home to a crying toddler. Great. Then, both kids were up at the crack of dawn--thank you Daylight Savings. Ouch.

Went to a party at Emma's friends' house. Lots of adults. About 12 toddlers, all in costume--woah. Lots of noise, laughing, great food, and tantrums. Tried to get a group shot of all the kids. Even with one of my friends loudly singing "The Wheels on the Bus" it didn't go over quite the way we imagined. Still fun though--and such a difference from our party the night before!

Jake stayed home today--horrid coughs every couple minutes. No other symptoms but this wretched hacking . . . I was so torn about whether or not to send him, but when he didn't object to staying home, I figured he must have felt pretty badly. Ran some errands with the kids this morning, and made him rest most of the day. We did play a marathon hour long game of Monopoly Jr. however, until he admitted, "The banker is tired!"

Jake: Mommy, why does Frankenstein walk like this? (demonstrating the stiff-legged gait)
Mommy: I'm not sure . . . maybe he's stiff.
Jake: Maybe it's because he lost his patellas! (They're learning about the skeleton at school)

Jake: I think we should all have a sleepover in the same bed tonight.
Mommy: Why?
Jake: Becuase it's Halloween night and scary things happen.

Which is why Jake had extra special sweet dreams tonight--I told him to dream that we were playing chess as people with the whole family, and he chose to be the queen ("Because she has all the power!"). Then, he and I came up with a scheme to take our family from rags to riches:

A dinosaur chess set. Battle and domination at its best. Jake helped come up with the pieces:

pawns=ankylosaurus
rook=stegosaurus
knight=velociraptor
bishop=parasaurolophus
king=mamenchisaurus
queen=T-rex

I personally wanted allosaurus for the king, but Jake insisted on mamenchisaurus. Never mind that it would be entirely too long to fit well on a chess board. A board, by the way, which would be made of brown and green squares (for dirt and grass).

We'll remember you when we make our millions ;).