After filling up on treats for snack, the kids spent the entire afternoon creating tricks. It started as a whispered plan in the office. A plan to play a trick on me. Then they asked if they could use the cotton balls and when I asked why they said, “Just to play a little trick on you.” They promised it wouldn’t hurt and that they would clean it up (that’s the real trick on me!) so I said sure. They were thrilled. As often happens with games in this house, what started as a simple trick ended up being worked on for hours and blossoming into a full-fledge Haunted Office! The prep work took so long that I didn’t even get to go through it tonight. I agreed to leave it set up for the morning and promised Alan and I would go through it together. Lex wants to set up scary lighting and Eve has plans for sound effects.

Since the element of surprise was already gone, thanks to very loud whispers, I decided to take a sneak peek.

HAUNTED OFFICE (in haunted lettering)
Open door all the way for a surprise!
BOO (with a ghost in the first O)

This is Lex’s trap. When you open the door all the way, guess what happens?!? It took him several tries to get it just right. The door kept bumping the bucket and knocking it down. He was frustrated, but kept trying and finally got it positioned perfectly.

The view from the other side. Pretty tricky, eh? There is an orange note tucked into the bucket, along with cotton balls and scraps of paper confetti. I haven’t peeked at the note, but I’m curious what it says. :)

Eve’s trick. Hers involves you standing still while she pulls the rope. The element of surprise with her was completely lost when she told me all about it at dinner time. :) She also has a series of other “traps” that involve you standing still while she wraps a string around your wrist and captures you.

I will practice my surprised face for the morning. Rosy, the kids don’t read the blog (yet!) so you may want to practice your surprised face too, just in case the office is still haunted when you arrive. :)

This is the treat Eve wanted to school, but I said it would be to much to make 35 of these. Instead I surprised her with them for after school snack. She was excited. Lex was apprehensive and said, “Pudding? What’s pudding?” He wouldn’t even try it! He actually ate barely anything all day… saving room for candy, I suppose!

After school snack.

Then we hopped in the car and went trick-or-treating!

Our first stop on the trick-or-treat path was Gommy and Popcube’s house!

I would have loved to be on the other side of that wall! Imagine a giant yellow head peeking around the corner! :)

Popcube had a fun time with the Lego costume!

We only stayed for a few minutes, just long enough for hugs…

… and candy!

And a few quick laps up and down the driveway. I didn’t discourage that!

Then we did a bit of trick-or-treating at the mall. I told the kids we could go there just in case it rained in the evening. It was packed, as usual, but they kept it together and I didn’t get too crazy!

No good pictures from the mall. Here Eve is excitedly waving at a 6′ Goofy walking around. I had to hold on to Lex the whole time because he can’t see or hear very well with that huge head on!

After we did the lap we hung out for awhile and did some people watching.

Then we picked up a pizza and headed home for dinner. The rain held off and it ended up being a great night for trick-or-treating!

Waiting for trick-or-treaters. I think the kids had as much fun with this part of the evening as they did with the gathering-of-candy part.

Trick-or-treat!

Once again they barely made it off our street, but we all agreed they got plenty of candy!

Some pre-bedtime wrestling with daddy. Sugar them up and then wear them out! :)

Happy Halloween!

As I said to Eve as we snuggled this evening, tomorrow is the first day of November. Do you know what that means? Twelve days until my birthday!!!

Apparently there is a storm coming. A storm of such great enormity they are calling it a mega storm or a “frankenstorm.” A hurricane from the south, a winter storm from the west, a cold front from the north, and high tide on the east. All of New England has declared a state of emergency and the states around us have practically shut down already. Apparently we in the mountains are keeping the faith though!

Anyway, the reason I’m talking about the weather here is that it occurred to me on Friday night that I have put a lot of work into Halloween costumes this year and odds are pretty good Halloween will be washed away in the storm. Darn weather! While normally we are lazy on the weekends, I thought this weekend we should get some Halloween-y activities in, just in case the actual holiday is cancelled. The kids eagerly agreed!

Saturday morning we went to the library where they were doing pumpkin carving and Halloween craft projects. We brought our own pumpkins and had a lot of fun! Eve met a few kids from her class and even a girl from her old school. I made new friends, and Lex made an awesome treat bag that coordinates with his Lego costume.

My rule is they can get any pumpkin they can carry.

This pictures makes it look like they did the work, but in reality about two minutes after I snapped the picture they were both asking me to finish their pumpkins while they skipped over to other projects. Fortunately I had a few other mothers around to chat with while carving. :)

Jack-O-Lanterns!

There were several projects to choose from, but both kids spent all of their time making treat bags. Lex’s has a Lego man on the front and Lego decorations and lettering around the rest of the bag.

Happy kids. :)

I was going to stop at a Cookies for Cancer bake sale (somewhat) on the way home, but we spent so much time at the library that we were all tired and hungry by the end, so we headed straight home for lunch and quiet time. After that we went to Grandma’s to help celebrate her birthday!

Happy Halloween!

Today was a beautiful day so we went to a Halloween party at Billings Farm, an old-timey place with farm animals and old-timey activities. I am generally bored stiff there (shhh… don’t tell) but the kids always have fun! They wore their costumes… for a few minutes!

I had big plans for her wings, but apparently she did too! I let her do it her way and they came out lovely.

Lego Lex and Butterfly Eve

I love how this turned out! It is cumbersome and uncomfortable, but it looks awesome! :) He got lots of compliments.

Guess what we found first thing?! Legos! They had a bunch of orange Legos and instructions to make a pumpkin. We hung out here for a few minutes, but fortunately there were other neat things to distract them and help us move along.

This picture makes me laugh. One of the ribbons on Eve’s wings broke so I was carrying them in one hand and Lex’s Lego head in a bag. :)

Sheep and Legos.

The horse’s fence is broken and Eve thought she would try to lift it back into place. She worked hard getting it up and then, just as she was about to try to put it in the hole, the horse came over and she JUMPED! Dropping the railing and covering about three feet back in an instant.

Lex was feeling brave and gently pet the horse. He decided that if it were his he would name it Midnight. Most of the other animals had names (on their stalls or on tags around their necks).

It wasn’t long before the costumes ended up in a discard pile while the kids moved about more freely.

Making apple cider.

Donuts on a string.

Surrounded by donuts on strings, like a dream for a child. :)

They donned the costumes again for a parade around the green. It was a slow and bumbling event as both kids tend to walk close to one another (and to me) and both kids were rather large and awkward in their cardboard costumes. :)

Lex can’t see very well, or hear very well I suspect.

Snack break! The apple only lasted a few minutes before he was asking for his cracker snack.

Eve looking contemplative while munching on pretzels.

After depositing the costumes in the car and having a quick snack we went back for more fun. Halloween stories read while sitting on hay bales, making pumpkin ice cream, chatting with friends, etc. The kids wanted ice cream but it was nowhere near ready, then then wanted another donut on a string but the lady said no, so I told them it was time to go get some real food. We stopped for pizza on the way home. That counts as “real food,” right?!? Barely.

Someone is getting post cards in the mail this week!

We got home for quiet-time at 3pm. Afterwards we went around the house and “battened down the hatches,” while Alan worked busily all day to finish the mudroom and get my car back in the garage!! (like how I save the best for last?!)

So, depending on what Hurricane Sandy decides to dump on us, you may or may not see more Halloween pictures.