Another successful Halloween on the books! The kids went easy on me this year. Eve decided to be a bear, which consisted of wearing her teddy bear PJs and a hat. It took a tiny bit of work (Etsy browsing) to find a bear hat and she made a paper mask (which she promptly lost) and voila, that was her costume. She actually spent more time dressing her teddy bear, the Princess of Eflica, then making her own costume.

Lex, on the other hand, opted for a complex costume he made himself, with just a little help from me. He worked hard on it and it came out awesome!

“Spray painting is fun!”

Checking out his handy work.

He took a break from the painting to help Eve build fairy houses.

Sibling love. Pure perfection.

The costume is coming along nicely.

Daisy likes the costume.

Daisy cat

He spray painted the boxes, attached pie tins with brass fasteners, decorated with card stock and metallic markers, and added a few pieces of bling with super glue.

With the costumes complete I really wanted to take them out and show them off. I was thinking of my elementary school and the community Halloween party each year. I posted about it on FB and apparently lots of other communities in our area still do such a thing, but not our school. Oh well. Instead we decided to go to our little local mall. Each year they do trick-or-treating. We went once or twice in the past (2009, 2010, 2012), but it’s always packed and not my favorite place to go. This year we needed to buy a birthday present for a party today, so I thought it would be fun to go trick-or-treating and present shopping at the same time. It ended up being a lot of fun!

Have robot, will travel.

A bear and a robot go to the mall.

Trick-or-treating at the mall.

Back home we had the usual over-stimulated Halloween dinner interrupted by trick-or-treaters, then they got back in costumes and headed out! As usual I stayed home to hand out candy and Alan took them out.

My last minute Halloween decorations.

A water bottle, sharpie, and a glow stick. Easy peasy.

Last stop, our house. I let them take three pieces each from the candy bowl!

“Mom, I got six Reese’s for you!” He takes good care of his momma!

The loot! We munched on candy, watched the Simpson’s Halloween episode, then passed out!

A good night was had by all! Happy Halloween.

Today they spent some time sorting and organizing their candy. They traded candy (“How about my Mars bar for your Mars bar?”) and building candy towers. It was really sweet to hear and reminded me of being a kid. Siblings. Sweets. Holidays. Happiness.

Happy Halloween. It was a funny one this year. This may have been my least celebrated holiday yet! I even had to write it, then circle it, on the calendar so I didn’t forget. I thought it would be fun to bake treats for my 5th grade class, but that never happened. I spent my time planning lessons instead. :) Lex and Eve got excited this afternoon, but haven’t really mentioned it much before that. We decorated a bit, carved pumpkins, and picked costumes. They went easy on me this year. Eve saw a Princess Jasmine costume she liked and Lex wanted to be the Lego man again. Easy peasy. I bought Eve’s costume awhile ago, but we didn’t even get them out until this afternoon. Lex was dragging the Lego man out of storage about an hour before trick-or-treating. Like I said, pretty low-key this year. Also, it’s raining. At least it’s not freezing rain! We did the usual thing, Alan took them out while I stayed home. Alan wore his pumpkin shirt, I wore my witch hat, done!

Princess Jasmine and a Lego Man.

Heading out into the rain.

Back home again. They lasted over an hour. I was surprised. They must have done some socializing along the way though because they only made it to two streets… which is really the perfect amount in my opinion.

Candy, candy, candy! (Lex has a stash behind him as well.)

I think they like handing out candy as much as they like getting candy. :)

Bedtime was late, of course. While I was cuddling Eve tonight I asked if she wanted the candy fairy to come and swap her candy for a present. She said no way. I asked if the candy fairy should swap her candy for ten dollars. She said, “My candy is worth at least one hundred dollars!” Funny girl! I asked Lex the same questions later and he also declined, though he estimated his candy to be worth $30. I’ve seen the going price of candy and I think $10 is right on target, especially if you factor in post-holiday sales! :) Then Lex says, “How do you know so much about the candy fair?! Admit it, you just made her up, didn’t you?!?!” I was laughing so hard. So much for calming down at bedtime. Whee… candy!

Happy Halloween!

We had a quiet weekend. Very quiet! I slept late both days (soooo tired!) and Alan got up with the kids, which means lots of screen time. Lex has a pretty serious cough (that I’m going to do some Googling on after this post) and is wiped out from it. He also has a runny nose and fever to go along with it. Saturday afternoon I made lunch and neither of the kids would come to the table. Lex said he was too tired to move and fell asleep on the couch. Eve decided she wanted a nap as well, so she went up to her bed and tucked in. I humored her and prepared the room for sleeping (curtains, fan, music), fully expecting to find her playing five minutes later. Instead, when I went up to check on her I found her fast asleep. She slept for about two hours and Lex slept for a full three hours! It’s probably been over four years since they both napped at the same time! Eve woke up just as Alan was about to watch a show, so she cuddled on the couch to watch TV with him and he fell asleep for a nap! Seriously, it was a quiet house! We had a movie night Saturday night then everyone went to bed at a reasonable time.

Sunday I slept in again and Alan played school with the kids. They had science (Nova episode), math (Khan Academy), and recess (kickball). Then I took over and we carved pumpkins. I’m not very Halloween-y this year (or any other year, really) but we’ve done a few little things in preparation. This afternoon was spent reading, working, and more screen time for everyone.

Lex got his allowance this weekend and we paid up on a few IOUs. He was excited to update his savings chart.

We made a little banner for the mantle.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. You’ll just have to come visit and see it in person. :)

Eve’s jack-o-lantern.

Lex got a little more challenging with his jack-o-lantern.

It was still bright daylight outside, so we tried to find a dark corner to test them. :)

It kind of worked. They looked great on the porch tonight.

Tomorrow starts another busy week, including teaching several lessons, observing other classrooms, swim lessons, and the candy-licous Halloween festivities.

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!!!