Halloween (finally!)

In my previous post, I talked about how much I love the season's. I love the constant change and variety. I can think of good and bad that comes with each season (mostly good). And, although I love almost everything about fall, there is one particular day that I tend to dread. Halloween. Now, I haven't always felt this way. I mean, as I child, Halloween was right up there with Christmas! I loved the Lincoln School carnival (especially the haunted house), dressing up, and collecting a years worth of candy to be eaten within a week or so. But, as a mother, I can think of several reasons to dislike this holiday. Ironically, a couple of those reasons are the same reasons I LOVED as a child!


#1. Meaning. (or lack thereof) Need I say more?

#2. Candy. I try to keep a limit on the amount of candy my kids get. It doesn't help that nowadays they hold these "Trunk-or-Treats". And, they don't involve just a few neighbors, it's a few neighborhoods! Instead of going house to house, it's car to car. This quadruples the amount of candy that ends up in the bag.

#3. Costumes. I realize that there are some wonderful Mom's out there that really get into this part, and actually enjoy it! They seem to be able to put together or sew any costume that their child imagines up! Not me. Not only am I not creative, but I don't sew, and I try to avoid BUYING a costume just so my child can use it for one day to collect a years' worth of candy! For example, a couple weeks before Halloween Marianne decided she wanted to be a garbage can. I immediately started having a panic attack in my mind. She wanted one of those tin garbage cans like Oscar the Grouch has. She thought I could just go buy one, cut out the bottom, and that would be it. No way! Not me! Impossible! Luckily, the kids change their minds about costumes constantly, so as soon as they mention one I think I can handle, I REALLY encourange that particular one.

#4. Bad timing. Only once every few years is Halloween on a Friday night. (The only night it SHOULD be on!) They should seriously consider changing this. Who wants their kids to load up on candy, stay up late, and then go to school or church first thing the next morning? Not me! And, if it really is a holiday worth celebrating, why don't we get the day off? How about no school for the day of and the day after? We definitely need a recovery period of some kind!!!

#5. Treasures in the carpet. More than once this past week, I have been walking along and suddenly, my foot (or sock) is sticking to the floor. Lo and behold, a Laffy Taffy, or half chewed up Hot Tamale is glued to the floor! Gotta love scrubbing two-day old cemented candy out of the carpet.  

Okay, enough with all the negativity! Despite the things I disike, I DID have some fun this Halloween. The kids seemed to have a great time, and we spent an enjoyable evening with our family. SO, here are some pictures to prove it!

Here is James in his elephant costume. Thank you, Nicole, for letting us borrow it! I had a few costume options for James, and I had a heck of a time just trying to convince him to pick one! We finally talked him into this at the last mintue!

Thomas in his sniper costume that he came up with himself! (Thank you, Thomas!) These next few pictures were taken at the stake Trunk-or-Treat.

My good neighbor saved me on this one. We went to her house to look at costumes, which inspired Marianne to be a witch! This inspired Sarah to also be a witch. (We already had a costume for her.) PERFECT!

William really wanted to be Link (from Zelda). His best friend, (below) Matt, had most of the Link costume, but we had to come up with the hat, sword, and shield. Richard helped with the shield, and my sweet Mother saved me on the hat! I went to her house the night before and she sewed it for me. Thank you Mom! Since I am not familiar with the character, Link, I just went off pictures I could find on the internet. Matt was Link last year, and William was Mario. They switched this year. Cute or what?

Here is Richard passing out candy at the trunk-or-treat. He likes to dress up as Aragorn, mostly so he has an excuse to carry around his sword which is a replica of the sword used in "Lord of the Rings". Maybe he decided to be Legolas too, since he brought his bow and arrows as well!  

We stopped by Richard's parents' house in Rigby after the Trunk-or-Treat.

Then we stopped at my parents for the annual doughnut eating contest, yummy food, and homemade rootbeer. (William's hat didn't quite stay up on his head like it was supposed too. Oops!) 

Thanks, Mom and Dad! It was great fun, as usual.

After my parents house, we went to hang out with Kevin and Melissa. I didn't get any pictures, but we played a game and the kids watched a movie - one of my childhood favorites, "Goonies". Thomas pretty much fell in love with it! Good times! If nothing else, at least Halloween is a good excuse to party and eat good food. (junk food, that is!)