Halloween: Parties, trick or treating and pumpkins

Yesterday was C's "fall party". They couldn't call it a Halloween party because the one person who doesn't celebrate it might be offended, gag (this is no offense intended to anyone who doesn't celebrate, I don't think that it is fair for a very small minority to take a fun celebration away from the majority). I'm the room parent liason (RPL) so I get to plan all the parties for the class. To do this, I sent home letters asking parents to donate food and supplies, volunteer in the classroom and plan an activity for the class to do. The notes trickled in slowly but eventually I got enough stuff that we could have a party. I never did get a parent to plan activities and none of them could volunteer in the classroom. J's mom is a superstar and basically told me "put me where you need me and I'll be there for the party" We got together and planned some activities that the kids would enjoy. Late last week, I dropped C off at school and was presented with a Walmart sack with a mixed bag of candy and some goodie bags. The parent that signed up for them didn't make them, so I had to assemble them all. When it was all said and done, each kid ended up with about 6 pieces of gross stuff together candy. My mom had some fruit snacks that my kids don't like so I threw those in, which helped fill up the bags some. Yesterday morning when I dropped C off, someone had brought in pencils so I tossed those in the bags as well. The same mom who lamed out on the goodie bags also signed up for our one allowed "sweet treat" (cookies, cupcakes, whatever). Unfortunately, she lamed out on that do and didn't bother to bring them. At the last minute, another mom decided to bring a fruit tray so our party snack ended up being apple slices, grapes, and apple sauce. A mom brought some microwave popcorn, but we had no way to pop it, so it got left. Fortunately, the juice, napkins, and cups came through so at least we had those. We played "bozo buckets" with ToT pumpkins and had the kids draw a farm mural with markers and make stamp animals with the stamp pads. They had a really good time and the mural came out great. :) I intend to be more clear in my future letters to parents about what is expected for party participation. I'll also be sending out reminders ahead of time so hopefully, we'll have all of our stuff.

We went ToTing last night around a friend's neighborhood. Generally, we go up one side, down the other and then head home. The weather was SO nice that we decided to extend the route and go around the block. Both kids got way more than too much candy. Lizzie had so much by the end of the night that she couldn't carry her bag anymore because it was so heavy :) They were both super cute. Lizzie figured out by the second house that if she said "trick or treat" people would give her "shocklot" It took her a couple more houses to figure out "thank you" and one or two more to figure out "Happy halloween" After they gave her the candy, she would look in her bag, get all wide eyed and turn around and yell at my mom, who waited on the sidewalk while I walked up to the houses with them, "I got CANDY!"

They have already decided that what they want to be for next year (him a ninja and her a pirate) so I went to Target today to look for 50% off halloween stuff. I said I wasn't going to buy her a girl pirate costume (or more specifically a "wench" costume because they are trashy) and I wouldn't buy her a Pirates of the Caribbean costume because they are so over done and I saw probably 20 Jack Sparrow's out there. Orginal is better (homemade is best, but I'm lame and don't think my kids should be punished for my lack of creativity). I found him a ninja costume with in like 5 minutes. There were a ton. I also found them both several halloween shirts (her's have a skull and cross bones wearing a crown, one says little devil, and one says princess with a crown. his has a camo skull and cross bones and one says something about "trick or treat, I also accept cash" LOL) and got her some candy corn leggings. I couldn't find any pirate costumes with all the other costumes so we headed over to look at the Xmas stuff. Over there we found several more costumes including the pirates. I looked at the general pirate costumes but then I saw the ultimate pirate costume. I found an "Elizabeth's costume" from POTC. It had long pants and a long sleeve shirt instead of the short sleeves and half pants of the other. It was also a thicker fabric (the general one was a thin polyester). I know, "No POTC because they are over done" but really, for Lizzie the Pirate, could I pass up Elizabeth's costume? No I really could not. I also found an LED pirate ship that was $15. (would you have ever guessed that we have a thing for pirates around here). I heart Target! :)

We did fun pumpkins this year as well. We bought a super hero carving books and a princess carving book. C wanted Wolverine on his pumpkin so I did the best I could on it. When I was punching the pattern, the pumpkin was oozing and it ended up ruining the paper so I couldn't see the pattern anymore. I did the best I could, but a lot of the details were lost in the middle because I couldn't see the paper and there were too many dots. We did Cinderella's castle for Lizzie. It was better because it was less small details. Unfortunately, the turret part broke off when I was trying to take the piece out. You could see the big one, but the little ones all broke :( You couldn't tell once it was done though so it was ok.

I'm pretty disappointed in the pumpkins we got though. We got them 2 weeks ago and didn't carve them until last weekend. I went to put the light in the princess one last night and there was standing liquid in the bottom. It had rotted so much that that is had liqufied in 3 days time!! All the other ones had mold spots and were all sunken in :( I have never had pumpkins go so bad so fast and it was gross (although, when we dumped the goo out the the princess pumpkin, it looked like it was puking and that was funny)