Halloween 2013

Halloween day stressed me out this year!  I don't know if it was because I was alone or because we hadn't ever done Halloween here before, but I was dreading the day.  I'd committed to helping out in Carson's class for the party and wanted to stop in and see Emma's party as well, so Joely and I headed over to the school at 11:30.  Emma's party was just starting and we got there in time for class pictures.

Princess Leia with her entourage.

The class was divided into five groups and sent to different activities.  Emma got to do pumpkin decorating first.  She was so happy!

 

 

I was only in Emma's class for a few minutes before I needed to head over to Carson's.  Mrs. Crittenden asked me to run the Halloween joke matching game.  It was fun to see the kids figure out how the game worked when they were able to match a joke with the answer.  Before long it was time for the parade to start.  Because of the weather, they held the parade inside and had all the parents line up in the middle of the hallway.  The parade went up one side of us and then back down on the other side, which was nice because I got two chances to see the kids.

Getting ready for the parade.

Having fun at the big kid parties.

Lining up with friends (Kaleb, Angel, Carson, Nik, Anastasia, MacKenna)

Emma was so cute.  She was smiling so big, but didn't want to stop for a picture.

Off she goes.

Carson finishing up the parade.  He wasn't allowed to wear the mask at school, which was nice so I could see his handsome face.

 

Once we got back in Mrs. Crittenden's room, she asked for a class picture. 

Crazy kiddos!

 The kids came home from school with me, since the parties ended when school did.  We stopped at Valley Market and True Value to find tea lights and matches for our jack-o-lanterns, and then headed home.  We had planned on carving pumpkins the Sunday before when Dave was home, but we ended up taking Joely to urgent care in Jackson for a UTI instead.  So carving pumpkins fell to me.  In case you haven't guessed, carving pumpkins is not one of my favorite Halloween activities.  I love to have them carved, I just don't enjoy doing the process when I've got three little kidlets who all need a huge amount of help.  (Plus, a kind neighbor dropped off an extra pumpkin for us, so I had to carve one for myself as well!) Luckily, Carson did most of his on his own this year, and Emma actually scraped out most of her pumpkin.  Plus, we were not going for perfection.  Carson chose to use a scaredy cat template that came with our pumpkin carving kit.  I (stupidly) showed Emma some Hello Kitty templates online, and she decided she wanted one of those.  That's what took up most of my time.  Joely and I were content with simple jack-o-lantern faces.

 

Ewww!

Even Joely got in on the pumpkin cleaning action.

Carson's pumpkin was so big he had to really work to reach the bottom.

 

In the end, we were pretty proud of our pumpkins!

Carson's, mine, Emma's, Joely's

After carving pumpkins it was a mad dash to make and eat dinner (chicken patty sandwiches and fries, because they're fast), get back into costume, and zip on over to Thayne Elementary for the trunk or treat.  It was snowing like crazy and freezing cold, so I didn't even bother putting Joely's costume on.  It all would've been hidden under her coat and hat anyway!  Now that I look back at it I feel kind of bad, but she didn't seem to mind.

 

I wasn't sure what to expect at the trunk or treat (in fact, I wondered if anyone would even be there in the snow storm), but it was packed!  The parking lot was full, so I had to park up the street.  The fire truck and ambulance were there with lights flashing, which really caught the kid's attention.  I had brought candy to hand out, but we parked so far away that I decided to just take the bucket of candy with me and pass it out to kids as we went.  That turned out to be a wise plan.  The snow was so wet and coming down so constantly that we were all drenched in no time at all.  And the candy in the buckets was equally drenched.  It made for a unique Halloween!  We made the rounds and finished at the ambulance, where Valley Market was handing out donuts and hot chocolate.  Yum!  On our walk back to the car I took a picture of the kids.  Check out the snow!

 

When we finished at the trunk or treat, we headed back to Freedom.  We stopped at the Hokanson's, the Luthi's, and the Izatt's before deciding to go back to the condos.  We hit a few of our friends in the condos and then were done.  We were too cold to do any more!

 

Loving the loot!  See that giant wet spot in front of Joely's bucket?  That's all the melted snow that was on top of her candy!

After this we just had showers and then they were off to bed and Halloween was done!