Halloween

 

Happy November! (I can't believe I just typed that.)

Today it SNOWED. The dusty kind that gets all the children running around like chickens furiously looking for their snow pants and mittens and heading outside to retrieve sleds, before abruptly stopping and melting away. But it was cold! And it was WHITE! It was SNOW (though, barely) so it COUNTS! :-)

What a wacky week last week was! The Frankenstorm (fitting.), that ruined the lives in various ways of much of the east coast, sort of peetered out before it reached us and I am blissfully, enthusiastically, incredibly thankful for that fact. Matt and I woke up every hour on the hour, often sitting up in bed at the latest loud BANG! or the rattle of our poor windows (at several points in the night I woke up to our bed literally SHAKING. I kid you not.) but God was gracious and all was well come morning. No damage to the property. No flooding anywhere. No lack of electricity. Nothing. Praise God.

 In the middle of the week, a friend came over and stayed the night- helping us with Jack o' lantern carving and accompanying us on our candy hunt. We chatted, we yarned, we had fun. And of course, Halloween!

What? A christian who celebrates Halloween? Hey, it happens.

Some years I get all fancy with the costume making (because you KNOW, I am not going to pay store prices on costumes! I wouldn't even pay that price for fancy REAL clothes!) and some years I fly by the seat of my pants. This year fell into the latter category. We totally looted the dress up box.

Now, if I were a good photographer, I would have dressed the kids up-oh, about noontime, spent a leisurely while snapping photos of their cutenes and had them trick or treating and back, unwrapping candies and eyeing their loot well before dark.

 But noooooooooooooooo.

Instead, we carved pumpkins. I made chili. We ate chili (over Fritos- a special treat! YuM!) I sewed an eye patch during supper. I spray painted a hook for my sea-faring lad. We lit the pumpkins on the front porch. The children got their duds on- well past dark- and I took a hurried photo (with flash-eek!) of each before frantically scurrying out the door. Here they are, in all their horrible, ghastly, super scary glory. (The photos, not the children.)

 

We had a Judah Bear. (Get it? Judahbear? har har) This was a handmade costume, but not by me. One of those glorious hand-me-down treasures that you get from time to time.)

 

And a rag doll. Why yes, I totally did this twice. And I'll do it again if I ever have another girl! Why not? We have the hat! (That is from one of my homemade costume glory days.)
 

 

And a pirate. Gotta love the chest hairs. We totally made an El Cid beard during homeschool history a couple weeks ago and were going to use that, but last minute, couldn't find it. Bummer. That would have been awesome.

 

And a jockey. I found this helmet at Salvation Army and snatched it up for our horse-owning days, fast approaching. We had had quite a few calls from neighbors hoping we would be showing up ("And what time?" and "What type of candy do your children prefer?"). Can you tell we are the only family on our road with children? ;-) It was a new experience for me, country trick or treating. More a night of house calls and visits, than a simple trick or treat. But it was nice.

 

Pumpkin carving. It works better with your tongue out.

 

Someone takes after his Mama....

 

(That is an AUTUMN wreath on the door, by the way.)

It was a good night.

 

PS. I roasted the Hubbard the next day. And he smiled still!