Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Trick or treating was really sweet. Beautiful night, too. Very calm weather and clear skies. It went from 6 to 8pm, and we did both the walk around and a bit of the drive around, too. The kids got lots of candy. Henry and Emily stopped by their old kindergarten teachers house, who gave them "tons".

Maggie did pretty good... she was real excited to trick or treat and was very happy and totally psyched to be finally doing it (Henry too, for that matter!) She would get spooked by kids dressed up as dark characters or ghoulish monsters. But she would also work through that fear and work her way up to the front step or whatever to ask for her candy. Eventually she was needing to be carried and telling us she was "so, so sleepy" So we dropped her and Jeff off at the house and then Bob and I took Henry and Emily for a ride around the neighborhood, waiting in the car for them while they did their thing. It was nice and relaxing, all in all.

Last year, I remember trick or treating as being very hectic. We went to Amherst village, which was a total madhouse. I guess the folks in that town get like 800 kids over the course of the two hour window. 800! Lucky for those folks, I hear there is a candy donation program that helps support that population. The houses around the square that Henry's school sits at get about 300 on Halloween night. We got two young teenage boys as we were pulling in for the night. That's all.

I will tell you that I bought a giant bag of halloween candy and donated it to a family at Henry's school that lives on the square! I also ended up buying a bag of chocolate kisses in case we got any trick or treaters. Henry scoffed when I told him I had been planning on giving out granola bars. He informed me that nobody gives out granola bars on Halloween, nobody good anyway. So I had to.



Maggie enjoyed some time at the school playground. Our timing got all wonky and we ended up missing the costume parade, but we did have a few minutes to horse around in the schoolyard. Her costume looked so pretty and glittery in the sunlight (thanks Marcia!) and she loved to wear it! her wings already have little snags and holes in them, so I need to get at that with some clear nail polish, nip that in the bud.


Just returned from picking up Henry at school. Here he is in his official Halloween costume. At the last minute, henry had an eleventh hour inspiration to go with more color, and felt that the flame fabric we found at JoAnn's really spoke to his inner ninja.

So we scrapped his original all black, pleather tunic that his aunt Marcia whipped up for him when my sisters were visiting earlier this month. I felt bad about ditching it, but the shoulders needed to be seriously reworked, and I figured that as long as I wasn't breaking Marcia's most important rule about dressing kids for halloween*, she would understand.


* all children clad in Halloween costumes made by Marcia must carry an plastic orange pumpkin candy bucket. no exceptions.

Today is Halloween. Happy Halloween! Henry was up and out of bed, no problem, this morning. Very excited and off to school in a hurry! Apparently they will have a halloween party and then the entire school will troop out and parade through the neighborhood, down to main street and then back again. with a party mixed in somewhere. Maggie and I will meet up with him somewhere on the parade route. gotta love a small town!

Later tonight, our friend Bob and his daughter Emily will be joining us for trick or treating around the square of houses that border the elementary school. I'm handing out chocolate chip granola bars to any trick or treaters that catch us at home tonight. not too cool of a hand out, but who cares. I picked up a case of something like 60 granola bars at costco last week, so we have plenty! Henry likes them in his lunch, and maggie enjoys the occasional "ola bar!"

Just made my first pot of tea for the day. I use Yogi Tea, green chai. first I boil the water, then I pour it into an insulated coffee server. steep steep steep. one splenda per cup, two or three pots per day, one tea bag per day. good to the last drop. YUM!


Here's a picture of me and the kids from our vacation at the Cape this year...

Maggie is chattering and chattering right now! too cute. "uh oh mom. uh oh. I gotta see it. don't worry mom, don't worry, I promise. I be right back." now she's gone into the living room.

gol dang this cough of mine! very ticklish, only slightly productive. every few minutes. bleh.


Okedoke, we'll see how far I care to take this. this will be a short post, onaccounta I wanna go to bed soon. a couple pics of the dogs, maybe one or two of the children, and then more tomorrow.