Happy Halloween!

There was a lot of Halloween hoopla this year and even though I do my darndest to simplify things, I’m still exhausted.  How do those real Halloween moms do it!  I’m still a do-it-yourself kind of Halloween mom (see here for what I’m taking about).  We don’t buy new stuff, we don’t go whole hog, we just kind of make do with what we have and everyone seems pretty happy with it (or maybe they’re just happy with all that darn candy).   The festivities started last weekend with our Church Halloween party.  Here we are on our way (minus Hazel who had to go early to help set things up).  In case you can’t see it, Peter was the King.  I contemplated dying his hair black but after reading on the internet that it may not come out of fair, thin hair I abandoned the idea.  His hair, after all, is one of my most favorite things in the world.  So, he was a blond Elvis.  And Emmeline was delighted by her green face, the Baddest Witch in the World.  Thanks to my bro Jonah for the awesome white jumpsuit that he found at the DI and sent to us years ago.  And thanks to Aunt Mary Ann for the idea to put gems on it.  And, thanks to Jeff for drawing on the side burns. Charlie was delighted when I suggested that the be a cowboy.  At first that confused me, until he asked me to buy him a rope.  He is obsessed with ropes.  (It’s actually a dog toy from the dollar store).  He played with that thing all night and sure enough, it was a hit with all the boys.  On the way to the party he was coughing (he has had a cough for a while now) and he told us that it was his cowboy cough due to all the dust on the roads. Hurricane Sandy gave us an unexpected day off on Monday and we got to carve pumpkins while it blustered outside.  It was so nice not to have to pack in carving between dinner and bedtime.  Thanks Sandy.You can always tell when Charlie is serious about something, his tongue comes sticking out.  Charlie’s pumpkin has a patch on one eye, lots of warts, some hair and scars and a knife sticking out of it’s head. Em really got the idea this year and was totally into it.  She designed quite a pumpkin for me to carve.  My arms were sore trying to figure out how to get all those teeth to hang there like she drew them.  And then, as soon as I was done she pulled all the teeth out.  Here we all are, trying to pull the same faces as our pumpkins. Emmeline had three different costumes this year (all recycled from Hazel).  Here she is as a black cat.  Peter was actually pretty nervous when she growled at him with her face painted like that.  She’s actually pretty terrified by cats, but after dressing like one for most of the day she told me, “I heart cats mom.”  Hmm, we’ll see. We had a spooky Halloween dinner with witches brew (black bean soup) and all the fixings (which Charlie dubbed as nasty things).  We copied Saren with this dinner idea.  It's savory and hearty and black and orange (with the cheese on top) and it’s got to help offset the impending sugar a little bit, right?I think this is the only picture I got of all of our Halloween kids this year.  I know, blurry and over exposed, but it I think it might best capture how that moment felt. Hazel’s good friend Penelope and her mom, oops, I mean Hermione and Prof. McGonagall came to trick or treat with us.  We love those guys.  They make trick or treating fun, and Penelope is always so polite and fun to be with.  I’m so happy Hazel has her as a friend.

Happy Hauntings to everyone else!  I’m going to bed.