Halloweek

The night is finally over! We had such a long week building up to Halloween and it's still only Wednesday. I guess Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are for candy stuffing and Sunday is the Candy Sabbath. It's not like you, the reader, have forgotten this but Halloween is a night for candy. All the dressing up is fun and all but it's not the main purpose of the night. If it weren't for the candy, nobody would bother dressing up to knock on doors and say, "See my sweet costume?" I know this because I saw a young boy dressed as Professor "Mad-Eye" Moody (from Harry Potter) and his costume consisted of a halved styrofoam ball with an eye drawn on it attached to a string, a stick with another styrofoam ball attached to the end, and gray sweat pants. That's not what you call a "good" costume. That's an excuse to get candy. I guess there is at some point an attitude change where it's fun as an adult to dress up because the cool thing about being grown up is you can buy a ton of candy for a lot less cost and effort as a costume.

So our week started Sunday with Pumpkin carving, which is my favorite activity on Halloween. The three pumpkins shown actually grew in our garden in the back. The two big ones had already been picked weeks before to make room for the builders as they worked on that side of the house. Savannah was upset that we hadn't gotten her a pumpkin to carve so we dug out a flashlight and went searching for any little pumpkins that may have survived a trampling. Lucky enough, there was one such pumpkin close under the eaves. He was resting on top of a water pipe which explains the deformity. But I love deformed pumpkins for making interesting carvings. Savannah help by drawing her design on her little pumpkin for me to make a carving out of it.

On Monday, it rained all day. Brooke made pumpkin seeds.

Tuesday, we headed out to Schuh Farms' Pumpkin Patch like we do every year for pictures and pumpkin hunting. Paige didn't have a pumpkin of her own so we had her pick one out. We dressed the girls in their costumes and had them run around the field looking at pumpkins and generally playing around. Despite the cold and frost, the girls had a fun time like they do every year we go. Luckily we had a dry, sunny morning since the rain does not want to stop this month. We went home with a tall, skinny pumpkin, some farm-fresh apple cider, and two tired girls.

Then came the big day. The morning was pretty regular - make mess, clean up, make mess, clean up, eat breakfast, make mess, clean up, etc. Then NAPTIME! Daddy's favorite time of day! Soon after they woke up, we got dressed, put on makeup, grabbed our flashlights and bags and drove downtown. Every year Sedro-Woolley closes down the main street for a children's parade. Since this was the first year Halloween fell on one of my non-work days, I was excited to participate. Unfortunately for my expectations, it was more of a walking mob than a Shriner-Driving-Small-Cars type of parade. But, again, it's all about the candy. Each storefront handed out treats to all who came. As we walked up and down the street with the crowd, the girls were rewarded with candy, toys, a donut, and a toothbrush from the downtown dentist. Brooke and I are such good parents that the toothbrush was our girls' favorite prize. After freezing their little wings off, we decided to go back home, eat dinner, and wait for mommy to come home before heading back out again.

Trick or Treating with the girls is fun year after year. You never know how they'll react. Savannah loves scary monsters and cartoons, a combination which has manifested itself in a love for all things Scooby-Doo. Paige is a little scaredy cat and frightens easily. So as we are door knocking from house to house, a man in a scary masked opened the door and held out his candy. Savannah took one look at him and turned and ran to hide behind me. Imagine our suprise when sweet, little Paigers walked right up and said "Trick or Treat!" I guess we could have guessed that reaction since Paige's affinity for candy is pretty high as well. The girls got plenty of scares and excitement so we went back home. The best part of the night was watching the girls drool over their piles of candy like pirates and their gold. Savannah looked at every piece and picked out all the candy she didn't like. Then we wrapped up the night with a screening of Monster House and into bed. Now we just have to hide the candy.