Bouncing Off The Walls... Literally

Did you know a town can reschedule Halloween? Well, they can! They can, that is, if a freak October blizzard takes down half the town's trees and power lines and leaves it all piled in the roads while the residents move to hotels because they have no heat or electricity.

All that to say, we finally had our Halloween tonight, a week later! While I was originally annoyed that this whole thing was dragged out a whole extra week and tempted to just forget about trick-or-treating, I am glad we went. My boys just loved it and had such a great time!

Mitchell was an astronaut, Ben was Optimus Prime, and Jack was a kitty cat. He calls his costume his "kitty soup!" I assume he means "suit..."

We met up with Ben's best friend, Jake, and hit the streets. The big boys all stuck together and hit a record number of houses, running into a friend or teacher every other person or so. It was so much fun to actually run into so many familiar faces!

I brought the stroller to push Jack around in, hoping I could give him a lollipop or two and he'd just sit still and happy. Well, he was definitely happy with the candy, but it did not keep him in the stroller! He kept launching himself out of the stroller while it was still moving, tripping on his tail, rolling to a stop, then jumping up and running up to more adoring fans overjoyed to give him more "nummy treats."

Sometimes, a treat wasn't quite enough. More than once, I had to run up a sidewalk to retrieve my too-friendly toddler from someone's living room couch. He also kept trying to steal Halloween decorations: skeleton bones and skulls in the yard were his decoration of choice.

All the boys did great though. Jack was a handful keeping track of, but it was a fun atmosphere and was totally worth the effort of going.

But now, a couple hours later, Jack is literally bouncing off the furniture. He has been wrestling with a blanket on the couch for an entire movie. Occasionally, he bangs his head against the back of the couch a few times before covering himself back up with the blanket and kicking me repeatedly. Then he rolls off the couch, screams in laughter, climbs back up, and cannon balls into my lap. He is so wound up! I have never seen sugar effect any of my kids like this! It's incredible!

What a fun day. A day to pig out on candy, dress up silly, walk around laughing with all your friends, watch movies till late, and bash your head repeatedly against the couch.

Squirrel Food

Carving pumpkins is one of the highlights of the year for my older two boys. They love Halloween in general, but this is one area mom and dad participate with them and we all work on it together. It's just a fun time for us all outside in the cool fall afternoon.

This year, when I was talking to my neighbor about carving our pumpkins, he warned me not to leave them outside or the squirrels would get them. When he said they'd "get them," I assumed he meant they'd engage in squirrel-like activities, like picking and scratching at them. As I wanted the pumpkins to decorate my giant front steps, I decided not to heed his warning.

We all spent a fun evening carving our pumpkins. Everyone was delighted with theirs and the boys had already named them and adopted them into the family. We lit them up and enjoyed them for the evening, then just left them out on the back patio where we had worked on them.

The next morning, Ben took one look out the window and said, "Oh, Mitchell! Something terrible has happened! Your pumpkin fell off the table and is all splatted and he has no face!" Mitchell got a look of pure misery on his face as he surveyed the damage: those were some seriously strong and intelligent squirrels! They must be a super breed out here because they destroyed our pumpkins! They somehow took the tops off all the pumpkins and even took the tea lights out! Most were missing pieces of their faces here and there, but Mitchell's came out the worst. They knocked it off the table completely. The front, face part was just a big, gaping hole where there was once eyes and a mouth.

Next time my neighbor, who has lived here his whole life, gives me some advice pertaining to the area, I will listen. Although, I still can't believe squirrels could do that. I mean, come on... taking the tops off and taking the lights out? Pushing a heavy pumpkin off a table? I suspect it was something with a bit more bulk and more experience scavaging: raccoons...

Well, I spent all morning fixing our new family members and if you don't look too closely, you can't even see the dozens of toothpicks holding their fragile faces together! Looking back now, I think it may have actually be easier to just start over again...

I did remember to take a quick picture of them before their assault though, so at least we can remember them in their prime.

Happy Halloween!

I'll Come In When I'm Ready, Mom!

Matt and I were talking together about why this Halloween has been such a big deal for our big boys, when it never has been in the past.  Last year, in fact, we just ignored it altogether and they never even noticed!

We agreed that there are many reasons contributing to their excitement over this somewhat made-up holiday.  First, their school made a big deal and had a lot of activities and crafts and projects pertaining to it.  Second, they just LOVED the decorations all over the neighborhood, which were constant reminders of the holiday.  We regularly had to take "Halloween walks" over the last month, to see and re-see all the scary and silly decorations that our neighbors have gone a bit crazy with.  Thirdly, I think spooky and scary and silly are all things that just make sense to these two boys at the moment.  Fourthly, (and I think this is the main one), they are just finally at an age where a holiday actually means something.  They know it is coming, they are able to count down the days until it arrives, there are activities leading up to it, and, in this case, there are costumes to be worn and played with.  Not even for Christmases past have they had this much excitement leading up to the actual day.  I think they are just at that magic age where this sort of thing is simply perfect!

The magic culminated tonight as we suited up, met up with some friends from the neighborhood, and hit the sidewalks for some trick-or-treating.  What a great neighborhood we live in for kids.  Everyone was out participating, whether giving or receiving candy, and hardly any house was "closed" to the kids.  It only took a few blocks for the dark to settle and their bags to be full to overflowing and we headed home.

But for Mitchell, the best part was still to come!  He just LOVED manning the candy bowl here at home.  He sat out on the front doorstep with his strobe flashlight, a voice-distorting megaphone, and a giant bowl of candy, calling one and all to him for some Halloween treats!  Ben and Mitchell did it together at first, but Ben kept hearing the call of his candy upstairs, and decided he'd rather keep an eye on his own candy (and organize, sort, and stack it like Scrooge with his piles of gold) than keep sitting in the cold, supplying the stragglers with treats.

Mitchell was just in his element though and flagged trick-or-treaters down with style, shining his flashlight in their eyes, handing out giant handfuls of candy to each person, trying to convince adults to partake, laughing a crazy laugh into the megaphone, and dancing around holding himself as he refused to take a bathroom break.  I wonder how many parents got a kick out of the potty dance as Matt and I did.  We finally had to give Mitchell the dentist a five-minute warning for coming inside, and he turned around and said, "I'm not ready yet!  I'll come when I'm ready, mom!"  We stuck to our five-minute time limit, but he managed to get rid of most of that candy for us!

So it has been a fun fall season for us, thanks in part to our friends' and neighbors' decorative efforts, and Halloween came and went and left us all with belly aches.  Tonight was a blast for the kids, but I am so glad it is finally over!  Now I can take down the spider webs in their room, I can stop trying to "save" Mitchell's costume from certain destruction, and we can get on with preparations for more real and meaningful holidays.