Happy Halloween!

For the final Hoo-Rah of this Hallowtide, the kids dressed as Captain Hook, Tink, and Peter Pan.  Reagan kept calling her brother "pee pee", and it took me a second to get it.  Hey!  That's pretty funny!  Colby kept calling Quinn "Peed 'er Pants".  Also not too shabby.  Trash talk, they've got down.  Kindness and humility?  We're working on those.

Anyhoo... because it had been snowing ALL.DANG.DAY I talked the kids into forgoing that trick-or-treat thing they discovered last year.  Who really wants to go door to door in this weather?  Certainly not their mom.  They agreed to let it go, and head straight for the Chassell Lion's Club Halloween party.  Indoors, where there is heat.  Perfect.

Quinn and Colby won first place for their age category and 2nd overall in the costume contest.  Of course, they have to split the prize money, but they're totally fine with that... given that they share just about everything anyways.  Reagan was heartbroken to not even place in her category.  She looked dang cute as Tinkerbell, and she knew it.  She surmised that the problem was positioning.  There were too many kindergarteners, and the judges couldn't even SEE her way down there at the end of the line.  There may be something to that.  Regardless, it was a good lesson on what the word "fair" actually means, because she kept saying how NOT fair the costume contest was because her brothers won and she didn't. 

School Halloween Parade

 

Monster Cookies

These monster cookies might look remarkably similar to the ones I made last year.  Because they are.  But the KIDS are different, see?  Because Colby's in a new class in a whole new school, and nobody but him has seen them before!  So.... recycled Halloween treats.  BOOYAH.  They're on ice until Friday, but I always take pictures when they're fresh, because who knows what tragedy might befall them between now and then, given the history around this place.

Star Trek Morph

Halloween Event 4 of 6 was reportedly a bust.... a friend had invited Quinn and Colby to a "dance party" at Michigan Tech.  Well, "dance" turned out to be "ballet", as in... a party for all the ballet students.  Which meant little girls.  Of the six and under sort.  Three 10 year old boys were nearly the only males in attendance, and relegated to a corner to toss a balloon around for two hours.  And - horror of horrors - there was no CANDY, and no FOOD.  The prizes for the costume contest turned out to be bracelets with flowers on them.  The boys came  home near tears, wailing that "We can't believe we paid MONEY for that!"  Ahem.  Who paid money for that party???  Let's see whose bank account is down $8. 

First world problems for 10 year olds.  Un-fun Halloween parties. 

On the bright side - Colby looked AWESOME as Mr. Spock!!  But I don't think he'll let me dress him like that again for any of the remaining events, because he was so embarrassed with the "elf ears".  And the "Live Long and Prosper" hand thing-y was just wayyyyyyyy hard to do. 

Almost.  Almost.

 

 Uh-oh.  Losing it.

 

Success!!!  And because he's half human, even Mr. Spock smiles occasionally.

The Great Pumpkin Carve

Youth Mass day today, and both boys participated.  Quinn did the Old Testament reading, Colby the new.  They do such a nice job - the fact that they can get up and pronounce words like "Macedonia" and "Achaia" in front of 200 people at 10 years old never ceases to amaze me.  I am positive that at 10, I could do no such thing.  At 42, I'm not so sure I could do it.  After church, the kids carved pumpkins.  This was awesome for multiple reasons.  #1 - I didn't have to buy the pumpkins.  #2 - because there were so many kids participating, there was lots of peer pressure to carve without Mom's assistance, and (best of all) #3 - the mess was NOT AT MY HOUSE!!!  How awesome is that???? 

Once Reagan got back from her Daddy/Daughter Date, she and I carved her pumpkin. One on one in the great, sunny outdoors.

I have to say - this may have been the first pleasant pumpkin carving day this family has experienced in....oh.... the 10 years I've been a mother.  I have hope that egg-dying at Easter may actually be orderly and enjoyable in 2015.

Daddy Daughter Day

Rob and Reagan played a little hookie on this absolutely gorgeous October day, and went on a flying date to breakfast.  "Sidnaw Eats" apparently serves blueberry pancakes bigger than Reagan's head, and her queasy stomach held off during the bumpy ride home (but the blueberry pancakes DID make a reappearance eventually - just an hour later.)  Rob reveled in the son, the flight, the food, and the quality time with his baby girl.  Blessed, he is.  Blessed, we all are.

The Season of Halloween

Welp, the "Season of Halloween" has officially begun.  On the itinerary this year are six Halloween-themed events.  We DEFINITELY get our money's worth out of our $2 clearance costumes. Each kid has a costume that he/she picked out for him/herself, and one that Stage-Moms-R-Us picked out for the final costume contest.  Quinn raided the costume bin and came up with "An Assasin", which he thinks is the coolest costume he's ever EVER worn.  Ever.  Colby is Scotty from Star Trek for the first few events, morphing into Spock for the school party.  Reagan chose Velma from Scooby Doo.  Which is very un-princess like of her, but dang cute, in a nerdy, quirky kind of way. 

The kids have done Treat Street with Dad for the last several years, as it's always on a Friday while I'm at work.  Things are a tad slow for me on the business front, though, so I was able to make it for the first time this year.  It was fun!  And PACKED.  Wowza.  The sixty-eight degree weather might have had something to do with that.  I honestly didn't know we had that many people in this town.  Who knew? The entire downtown street was filled to the gills with costumed kids and adults.  Fun, but a tad over-stimulating.  I did lose the older two kids for a good 30 minutes in the crush of humanity, and was starting to get worried, but luckily, they figured out to stay put at the end of the line and wait for me.  Thank goodness for the onset of common sense. 

Tonight (event 2 of 6) was the Michigan Tech Safe House, which was surprisingly UN-packed this year.  Maybe because last night had such a huge turn out and people got their fill of candy and costumes.  I don't know, but I'm not about to question the lack of line-waiting.  "Velma" appears to have had a bad case of bed head and droopy socks.  I find it funny that even the hair on her head that's not real ends up a tangled mess.  I don't know what that child does with her head while she's fully awake to make her hair... what it is....but it is quite amazing.  I swear the wig was nice and neat, fully combed out when I originally put it on her head.