Halloween!

We're not super in to Halloween at our house.  Molly was a little annoyed this year that 1) we didn't decorate our house with spider webs and blow-up things and 2) that we weren't giving out actual candy to kids coming to our house (I gave out Oriental Trading whistles).  We had multiple conversations that started with, "Mom, when are we going to buy spider webs at the store to put on the front of our house?" and "Mom, kids are going to be mad at us if we don't give them candy."

Oh well.  We still had a great holiday!  Here is the report:

Molly, who sometimes I think is my sister (no offense, Annie), was all over the pumpkin carving.  She bossed Jack around as to which one was his.  She was telling me about what kind of face she wanted on hers.  She was helpful in spreading out newspaper. Until . . .  we actually opened up the pumpkins and then she ran away, said they stunk, and plugged her nose.  She didn't want anything to do with it.  I actually asked her to come back to the table so I could take this pictures.  At which point, Jack decided to copy cat and plug his nose, too.

This was the final product (with has much detail as a steak knife can give you).  Jack wanted a "sad face" and Molly wanted a "surprised face with square eyes."

Friday morning was a little rough getting to school.  Molly didn't like her costume as much as she did during the trial runs and she was super upset about being able to see her clothes underneath the dress.  Oh well.

Jack was a monkey.  I made the bananas myself.  Aren't you impressed?

Molly was a ghost.  

I was able to get a quick picture of the little kids coming to visit my classroom.  They sang a song and I gave them candy.  Jack cried when they had to leave, but for once, Molly didn't!

After getting home, cleaning up around the house, and eating some requested macaroni for dinner, we readied up again to head out trick-or-treating!  We ended up walking most of the way around the block with our neighbor Joe and his kids Asher and Elijah.  That was great!  Molly had fun and Jack mostly just wanted to go for a ride in the stroller (so he missed a few houses).  They each had one melt down in the trek around the block and when Molly announced she was finished, I was happy to oblige and head back home.  Asher and Elijah told us goodbye and went to do more houses.

Molly had a lot more fun passing out the whistles, anyway.  

After we passed out the whistles for a little bit, we loaded up in the car to head to Grandpa's house.  This Halloween tradition of chili, pizza, and donuts didn't disappoint, thanks to my mom's efforts to put it all together.  

Some of my cousins were there with crazy costumes.  Rubie was "Cleopatra."  Parker and Meranda were "the librarian and her husband."  Rubie was "Max" and her newlywed husband was a giant-headed skeleton in his blue wedding suit.

A few other tidbits about Halloween . . . 

James worked.  He works at the University Neuropsychiatric Hospital.  I don't think you are supposed to use words like "crazy" when describing his job, but he said that Halloween was the craziest day he has ever worked.  Some of the patients were out of control, the visitors strange, and the emergencies within the hospital abundant.  He got swung at, other employees were scratched and hit, several patients even had to be sedated.  I don't think I could do his job at all, but it sounds like the Halloween air made for a very interesting day.

Grandpa's House Was Spooky.  Something was totally trying to weird me out at my Grandpa's house on Halloween night.  I went to the garage to get ice from the freezer.  I've opened and closed that freezer door hundreds of times before.  I got the ice out.  I turned off the light.  Creeeaaaaaak . . .  (ok, it wasn't really a creaking sound, but more like an opening sound and then it thudded against the bumper of the car).  The door totally opened by itself.  I closed it tight, turned off the light, and took the ice inside.  

Next, I went out to the front to help my mom get some things out of the car and as I was telling her about the freezer door, I noticed the lights in the garage were still on.  I distinctly remember turning the lights off.  So, I went back to the garage and turned the lights off.  I had dismissed the freezer door thing, but now the lights were starting to weird me out.  

Finally, I went back to the backyard to throw out some pizza boxes.  I was a little bit leery of what I might find this time.  I very carefully put the pizza boxes in the trash and as I closed the lid, the flood lights came on!  Ahhhhhhhhhhh . . .  I ran the short distance back inside the house and was a little scared.

Ok, so, the flood lights are motion sensor lights and they come on any time you throw something in the trash, but I hadn't thought about that until I was back in the house in a more rational state of mind.   Perhaps it was just Halloween, but for a little while, I was totally spooked!