Halloween Antics

Today is Halloween night.  The kids are in bed after a hard night of begging for candy.  We left a bowl of candy on our doorstep for honest children so that both Adam and I could trick-or-treat with the kids.   We spent the better part of an hour barking at Batman to wait for his sister, and trying to help a kitty cat climb stairs while dragging a heavy bag of candy (which she refused to let us carry).

Of course tonight was only the finale of a much anticipated Halloween season.  We've been frequenting the Halloween section at the library all year long (despite my persistent suggestion that we try reading non-seasonal books). At the beginning of the month I took a special trip to the dollar store so the kids could help me pick out decorations.  William and Jadzia helped me put skulls, spiderwebs, pumpkins and gravestones up in the front yard.

Last week we attended the Early Years Center fall fair.  The kids dressed up in costumes and played, danced, ate snacks and did crafts in a loud over-crowded hall. A lot of their friends were there and we discovered that one of William's friends had the same costume as he did (not that a Batman outfit purchased at Walmart is all that original). The event culminated in a parade through the offices of the building where they got a few candies.

On Thursday we went to the mall's "safe trick-or-treat", though I'm not sure what's safe about a thousand toddlers roaming free in a mall that's more crowded than Christmas.  Every year I swear I won't go to the mall trick-or-treat next year but the next year rolls around and I forget my resolve.  The kids didn't even get a good haul this year.  We did get a cute flip book of them bouncing around in their costumes (though we had to wait an hour for it). Actually my favourite part was watching William hold hands with his girl friends. Batman is happiest with a mermaid on one arm and a fairy on the other.

Yesterday we went to a nearby orchard to pick a pumpkin from the field.  We chose two reasonably orange gourds.  The kids drew pictures on construction paper and Adam did his best carving to their specifications. I think they turned out pretty well.

And now it's over.  Tomorrow I must take down the decorations (putting up cobwebs is like toilet-papering your own house). I wonder how much candy I can steal from the kids' haul without them noticing...

Halloween

So after all the excitement leading up to Halloween you'd think I'd bother to write a post about the big day.  Well, here it is.  Complete with two pictures which I stole off my husband's facebook:

I took some photos of them trick-or-treating but they were too dark to really capture the cuteness.  Jadzia worked especially hard, climbing front step after front step in a skirt that went to just above her ankles.  She managed to finangle extra candy out of a few people too.  She just held out her hand and batted those big dark eyelashes, as if she just didn't understand that she could only have one.  Worked every time.

We didn't get to a lot of trick-or-treating in because it was SO COLD.  William not yet at the age that he wants to go candy-begging for hours regardless of the weather.  We hadn't even made it to the corner before he said "How about we just go home and eat our candy?"  Jadzia could have gone on for a few more kilometres I'm sure.

Happy November! (1 week until my birthday!)

Halloween Fun!



The big day is tommorrow, but the kids and I have been getting our Halloween on all week.  Last weekend, we went to pumpkin patch at Frootogo, and picked our own pumpkins.  We rode a tractor to the field and chose two (one for William and the other for Jadzia) gorgeous orange specimins, with wart-like bumps on them.  I can't wait to see them carved. (Though they are on my front step, so they won't be safe if the bike theif comes by again).

On Monday, my friend Columbia hosted a Halloween party.  She decorated her appartment to insane levels, made Halloween snacks (including delicious mummy and owl cupcakes), and lead a dress-the-skeleton craft. William was a skeleton and Jadzia and I wore matching Star Trek outfits.

Thursday was Trick-or-treating night at the Mapleview Mall (see pic above).  William dressed as a skeleton, Jadzia dressed as a nurse, and I dressed as a witch.  This is supposed to be a safe alternative to trick-or-treating for the little ones, but the mall is so crowded that the danger of getting lost/trampled is far greater than the danger faced on my quiet street.  Technically, I suppose there's no cars to run you over in the mall, but there's plenty in the parking lot.  Anyway, we managed to stick together. We also got a nifty flip book that features the kids and I jumping around like goofs for five seconds. We ate dinner in the food court and walked around getting free candy (seriously low on chocolate) until the kids were too exhausted to continue. Jadzia didn't quite get the concept of acquiring goodies to eat later. She asked me to open each candy as she got it, then would put the half-eaten treat in her bag when she got a new one.    When asked what his favourite part was, William said that he enjoyed jumping around on the MAPLEVIEW carpet with his friends, singing the alphabet.  Ah, yes, how festive.

Right now, Jadzia is two-fisting suckers and getting herself and me very sticky.  She has a talent for getting more goo on her than the candy actually contains.  She does the same trick with fun-sized chocolate bars.

William's Halloween Costume

 William wants to be a skeleton for Halloween.  He says you have to be either a skeleton or a pumpkin or a bat.  If those are the choices, I think he made the right one.  Luckily Once Upon a Child had this one for $6.50. 

Come trick-or-treat time, William predicts that the neighbours giving out candy will be so scared of him that they will say "Ahhhh!" As a child I remember wanting to be "something scary" every halloween, but people just said I was cute.  Of course, my offspring are way more intimidating than I was.

Candy, candy, candy, zoo!

In many ways having kids is like reliving my childhood...in bizarro world. After years of donning costumes and shlepping a pillow case of treats around the neighbourhood, it's very strange to be the parent hanging back on the driveway calling out "Say Thank You." (I also was all mommyish and made a pumpkin pie and roasted pumpkin seeds, although the seeds burnt).

Noone stayed to hand out candy, our entire family of four went down the street and back. (Despite the fact that we had two kids with us, my little cowgirl did not earn us double-candy). On the way home, William decided that climbing people's front steps in an over-sized horse costume was not worth the free candy. "How 'bout I just go home and eat some candy. How 'bout that?"

My parents put him to bed that night (we had a stag and doe to go to) but I can only assume that the sugar adversely affected the bedtime process. I'm torn about how to ration his candy. On the one hand he shouldn't have too much at a time, on the other hand he earned it so it doesn't seem fair to keep it from him. On the one hand he will eat nothing but candy to the exclusion of all else, on the other hand if we ration it too much the candy debate will go on forever. And the couch will be sticky. I will definitely have to eat some.

Today, we decided that we should go to the zoo. A sugar rush, followed by a day without a nap. Nice. At least we didn't bring the candy stash (just a few chocolate bars in our picnic lunch). Jadzia loved the zoo. I took her out of the stroller so she could see the animals and she was so happy. She even learned a new trick: pointing! I would point at a lion, or a monkey, or a rhino, and she would look at my finger and laugh, then immitate me by sticking her arm out. I think she liked some of the animals too, the tiger in particular. I enjoyed the giraffe, who was kneeling down bizarrely to eat the grass and the tigers, who we saw being fed (the keeper said that he was feeding them horse meat). On the way home, the kids fell asleep in the car, and the adults wanted to.

After dinner, William asked if we could go trick-or-treating again.

Halloween party at Columbia's

Cuteness alert! Here are all the children who attended yesterday's Halloween Party: Londyn (princess), Leyla (dragon), Aedan (lion), baby Zoe (chicken), William (horse), Zoe (dalmation), and Jadzia (cow girl to go with the horse, get it?).

My friend Columbia went all out for this party. Children are quite happy playing with a few toys and each other, and Moms are even easier to please, wanting only a place to sit and chat while the kids are otherwise occupied. Let me tell you, we had much more than that! There were many varieties of snacks (some provide by other mums), guck and moon sand to play with (you know you probably shouldn't mix those), circle time with a home made halloween pinata, and loot bags to take home. Did I miss something? Ah yes, pumpkin decorating:



When I asked William which party pic to include in my blog post, he insisted I include this one of Leyla, him, and Aedan drinking juice boxes (the juice boxes may have been the highlight of his day). This was near the end of the party when all costumes had been removed. My son even feeling comfortable enough to go pants free.

Leyla incidently has quite the crush on William. She got him to help her take her shoes off, enjoyed playing with the moon sand and guck together (and mixing them gah!), and later pulled off William's horse hood and exclaimed "It's you William! William it's you!" Of course when Leyla was gone, William was content to play with Zoe in the elevator. He's quite the ladies man.

As if hosting this weren't an exhausting enough affair, Columbia is already planning a Christmas Party and a Birthday Party. Just thinking about it makes me want to go have a nap.

Halloween Wedding Made the News!

The wedding my husband and I attended on Halloween night, for our friends Kerri and Kevin, was a media circus! By media circus, I mean there was one photographer there from the local paper. Anyway here's a link to this multimedia thing the photographer did with his photos.

At 0:54 on the counter there's two pics of me volunteering for one-armed Bob, where I'm laughing and holding a rat trap. Also there's some nice audio of Kevin and Kerri talking about why they had a Halloween wedding. Although, like I've said before, if you knew the couple you would need no explanation.

Apparently, there might be something in tommorrow's Post. So all you Burlingtonians keep an eye out.

Halloween 2008

Here is my independent little pachyderm trick-or-treating at the Burlington Mall. We gave up trying to get him to wear his elephant head.



He was quick to catch on to the taking candy from strangers and putting it in your bag custom. Until he remembered that he could eat the candy, then he just wanted to do that.



Unfortunately, this is the only shot I have of William with the elepant hood up. It was taken in the morning at the Early Years Centre and is slightly out of focus. My Mom took a better pic of him when he tried on his costume at Thanksgiving. It's on her blog here.

Congratulations Kevin and Kerri!

While William went off to do real outdoor trick-or-treating with his cousin Hunter and Auntie Robin (and Kevin, Robin's boyfriend), Adam and I donned Star Trek Uniforms and went to Kerri and Kevin's wedding.

Here's the bride looking fabulous in the dress she sewed herself out of black vinyl. Kerri owns her own goth clothing business and is very talented.

And the groom, also in a Kerri creation.

And here's Captain Adam and Lieutenant Me in our uniforms.

Showing some leg, because Original Series uniforms are all about the leg. Can you tell I'm almost 8 months pregnant? You couldn't could you?

As much as they tried to steer away from the tradional wedding, that's pretty much what it was. There was a ceremony, speeches, food, cake, dancing. Aside from the costumes, the decor, and this freak show performer they hired for entertainment, it was just like a regular white wedding.


Here's a shot of One-Armed Bob (who really is missing one arm) getting a note stapled to his tongue. Yes, he really did this. The blood on his cheek is real blood from another note. Among other things, he also put out a blow torch on his tongue, and stuck his good hand in a rat trap (I was the volunteer holding the trap). Ours is not to ask why, only to be entertained.

And the Mother-in-law of the year award goes to...

Eva! Who sewed these fabulous Star Trek Uniforms for us:

Adam is going to be the Captain and I'll be his sexy pregnant lieutenant. I can't wait to wear this to our friends' Halloween wedding (yes, a Halloween wedding, if you knew the couple, this would make perfect sense to you). Maybe I can also wear it when the new movie comes out in May (for extra nerdiness) but I hope I'm not still the same size by then. Eva doesn't quite get my obsession with Star Trek, so I'm not she understands what a fabulously marvelous thing she's done for me. First, I get to have the coolest Halloween costume in the history of time, second, I get to be sexy even though I'm pregnant, and third, STAR TREK RULES. Eva, you are truly awesome!

Adam inherited his mother's creativity and has been using it in the past few months to construct a carbed for William based on the Subaru Rally Car. The bed is currently almost done and is in our family room looking like this:

I have to admit, this thing is super cool. The only problem with the whole project is that our second bedroom aka "the new baby's room" is being used as a workshop and currently looks like this:

And it's time for me to be nesting darn it! Luckily, Adam promises to have the bed done by the weekend, as long as he doesn't have another week of late work nights.

BTW: I hate how blogger's spacing gets all screwed up everytime one adds a picture, and how the program automatically puts the pic on the top of the entry when I clearly want it in the middle!

BBTW: I'm off to take my toddler to the dentist to check on that loose tooth.

William's First Halloween

I went trick-or-treating tonight for the first time in ten years (yes, I trick-or-treated until I was 18) and this time there were no "Aren't you a little old for this?" comments. Sweet! Babies can be quite useful in scoring free candy.

The pictures above were taken at the Ontario Early Years Centre near my house. It was a Halloween party there today. Kind of exactly the same stuff went on as any other day, except all the kids were dressed up. For those of you who can't tell because the disguise is so clever, William is the one dressed as a dinosaur/lizard/Godzilla-thing. His best friend Aedan is the lion.