Halloween 2009

Wow. I had no intention of taking a 6+ month hiatus from blogging, but of course that's just how it worked out. I have every intention of doing some retroactive blogging (or at least pictures!) at some point, but for now, here's Halloween 2009...

Kyle and I are pretty impressed with ourselves for making it a cool time for our kids, and here's why:

(1) For months I've been dreaming up family costume ideas, and had tossed around ideas like Little Bo Peep and her sheep before Kyle finally decided he and Jack had to survive Halloween with a small shred of dignity and masculinity and agreed to Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Since Karys had really never heard the story, I had to plan very precisely the timing of ordering her the book so that she would have time to get into it without burning out. Lucky for us, she has wanted to read the book every night for the last month AND hear the story while laying in bed, and even asked for it again last night, after all the festivities were over (why does this surprise me? This is the kid who sang/requested "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" from last November through at least April... the girl is dedicated);

(2) The weekend before Halloween we went to the South Texas Corn Maize (a cool find by Emily, who had to miss out..boo) with Ma-Maw, Pa-Paw, Grandma Lisa, and Uncle Jono. We went on a hayride, ate overpriced fair food, petted/smelled goats, and did not get the least bit lost in the corn maze;

(3) Friday morning the kids had trick-or-treating with their school friends at the local hospital (Hey what'd you get kids? M&M's, candy corn, swine flu...just kidding! They didn't go IN the hospital this year, thank goodness). We were Goldilocks' props (three bears) and Grandma Cheesehead came along as we accompanied Karys on her quest of collecting 47 lbs. of sugar before 9:30am;

(4) Friday evening we ordered pizza and made jack-o-lantern cookies, Daddy carved us a very adorable pumpkin while Karys and I painted ours ("Hey Mom and Dad! Did you know if you mix all the paint together it makes brown?" You can guess how her pumpkin looked by the time she was done...). I toasted the pumpkin seeds and even convinced Karys to try a few after I assured her I had removed all the guts (guts which, by the way, should not go down the garbage disposal. This was not at all obvious to me, but Kyle thinks it should have been. Oops.). Since he'd fallen asleep during our Friday evening festivities, Jack got to paint his in the bathtub the next morning and tried to eat the paint only 9 or 10 times;

(5) The Sims clan came over for trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and we had a blast. We loaded the little guys (Ethan and Jack) in the wagon and Zayne and Karys had a great time running from door to door, mumbling trick-or-treat and acting generally insane, as if we had allowed them to eat all 47 lbs of their candy already (We didn't! Really!). Highlight of the evening for the grownups was probably the nice lady serving pumpkin martinis to the adults. They tasted nothing like pumpkin and, in fact, burned the esophagus quite badly going down, but it was a nice surprise nonetheless. The "big" kids took turns sprinting and falling down in the grass on our way back to the house (one casualty--Goldilocks lost a couple of bears from her costume but Optimus Prime was able to save one!);

(6) After trick-or-treating we headed to the Fall Festival at B&E's church, and it was SO cool. The big kids jumped in the bouncy castle and slid down the bouncy slides to their heart's content, they rode ponies and a miniature ferris wheel (which Z figured out how to rock back and forth, of course!), and collected even MORE candy even though we were practically begging the candy people to go away; and

(7) We had an "after-party" at our house where put the little guys in cozy PJs, ate good food, and watched the UT game while occasionally (only every 30 seconds or so) encouraging Zayne and Karys to bounce off the walls in Karys' room instead of the living room.

All in all--very fun, very Halloweeny. More updates to come--promise!