Halloween was FUN! Glad it's over...
I had exuberant plans for Halloween this year, but as life happens: life did happen. I’ve been so busy that I’ve felt like a crazy person for months. This silly festive holiday snuck up on me, and by the end of it all I had my brain in a jar…
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| "Astonishment?...or Denial" |
I had to scale down, skimp, and settle for less than I had hoped; all for my own sanity…but, all in all it turned out fantastic!
I think I had more fun than my kids…and I definitely ate more candy than they did.
I accidentally grew a super fantastic pumpkin patch…and I was so excited that I even squealed (more than once). And I do literally mean it was an accident. I had planted 2 little pumpkin plants in the spring. When we moved I had 4 good sized pumpkins that were starting to ripen. I picked them and set them on the back patio of my new house, to do a little sun bathing. Sadly, it was so scorching hot that my 4 little pumpkins baked and melted. I was devastated. And that’s about the point I realized I couldn’t handle Halloween this year.
Several weeks went by, and when we went to grab our lawn mower and winterize the yard at the old house we found 7 (SEVEN!) large pumpkins! So, so cool!
This time I opted to cut down on the sun bathing, and let them ripen in my kitchen. I have also learned my lesson, in years past, that carving pumpkins is not the most relaxing activity…especially with 4 little kids (and not to mention the smell, the slime, the difficulty, the danger, the rot, the fruit flies...and then you can't bake them for pie).
We have so much more fun decorating them with paint, and this year we simplified to just stickers.
The kids had so much more fun with the stickers because they can do it completely by themselves. They like to be independent (and I like to minimize the mess—works well for all).
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| Tad's |
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| Ati's |
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| Eli's |
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| Moe's |
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| John's |
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| Jen's |
My giant spider sat out in the snow and rain and sun all year, so it wasn’t in the best of conditions. I had completely written off that part of Halloween for this year, and was going to reconstruct it for next year. Well, I guess it is my own Frankenstein. It wouldn’t let me leave it all crippled and forgotten on the side of the house…surprisingly it only took a few minor touch-ups, and it was as good as (almost) new.
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| Franken-Spider |
I gave myself major anxiety by trying to make the kids costumes, and Sunday (October 30) I was up most of the night finishing up. I stopped caring sometime after 1am…and called it “good enough”.
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| Tad: Ash Ketchum, Ati: Vampire Princess, Eli: Ninja, Moe: Skeleton |
6 months ago I paid for my entry into the Halloween Half Marathon. But, with all the craziness I was so not ready to run 13 miles…and I hadn’t had time for a super awesome costume (that was the real reason I didn’t want to run—because I would’ve walked it if I looked super awesome). And so, in my minimizing expectations I opted to not dress up this year. I started the day with my $5 walmart purple t-shirt that says “Happy Halloween”….somehow, as the day went by, and I literally began to feel like my brain was in a jar….I realized that would be a great costume!
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| "Acceptance" |
So…I quickly graduated medical school; became a brain surgeon, and I put my brain in a jar…
The rest of the day was super fun. I was done planning, stressing, and “getting ready”…and, with my brain in my jar, I no longer had to think about it either.
I took the kids trick-or-treating, and for some reason people thought I needed candy too. I didn’t bring my own bucket, so I did as any practical individual would do…I ate all my candy as I went along.
Good times!
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| I don't think that spider is gonna give me candy... |
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| And then I slay the beast! |
Well folks...until next year...Happy Ho-llaween!
