Friday, November 4, 2011

NaBloPoMo 4/30: Halloween (part 3)

The third and final installment of our Halloween weekend! On Saturday evening we headed to my Dad's house where we would spend the rest of the weekend. My Dad and stepmom were having their annual Halloween party and pumpkin carving contest that evening.

The kids had fun painting pumpkins while the grownups carved.

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I had a plan for a pumpkin, but ended up not doing it. I was just too tired by that point! Maybe next time...

I ended up playing downstairs with the kids towards the end of the party, and then I put on a Halloween movie for them, and they eventually all fell asleep snuggled up in blankets on the couch. I went to lay down with Carter around 10:30, and the next thing I knew it was 1:00 am! I really was tired.

The next day we played outside in the morning and then went to my sister's company Halloween party in the afternoon. Carter had fun playing with his cousins, and he and Emma ended up playing together quite a lot. Donna said that Aidan (who is 5) was bummed when he realized Carter was not only the same age as his little sister, but acts a lot like her -- especially in the ways that annoy him. LOL! In a few years, it won't matter, but it's kind of funny now!

Carter and Emma had lots of fun rolling down this hill. I love these pictures of them! I have no idea what they were talking about.

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We then went to see the end of my sister Nicci's horse show, though Carter was far more interested in digging in the dirt and climbing on tractors than watching the horses. He fell asleep on the way back to Dad's house and that was it -- he was down for the night! I had the unexpected pleasure of an evening to hang out with Dad, Barbara, and Nicci.

The next morning Mom came to take us to the airport, and that was the end of our weekend. Our flights went fairly well, and we got home basically just in time to get ready for trick-or-treating. Carter and I ended up going trick-or-treating with a group of neighborhood kids, and he had fun, though he was really dragging by the end! Despite his 14 hours of sleep the night before, he was exhausted!

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After trick-or-treating, we headed back to the house to help Doug with our own trick-or-treaters. This year I decided to set up the popcorn machine in the driveway and hand out popcorn in addition to candy. I bought a bunch of the packets movie theaters use (they're premeasured and super easy), and this turned out to be a huge hit. I wasn't sure how people would feel about accepting popcorn in little paper bags, but maybe the fact that we were popping it right in front of them made a difference. Kids were actually walking around the candy bowl to get to the popcorn!

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I put Carter's PJs on and he hung out in the driveway with us and helped hand out popcorn. I had a boombox playing Halloween songs, and he danced around and generally had a blast.

I think I'll definitely do the popcorn again next year. I'm hoping I might be able to get some of my neighbors to do something cool too. We'll see!

And that was Halloween. We had a ton of candy leftover; I even left it on the porch overnight, but no one took it, to my surprise. I took it to school and gave it to my students to get it out of the house. Carter has been enjoying having his own bag of candy to eat. Every now and then he'll say, "It's chocolate time!" He's been very generous with his candy and happily shares it with me and Doug.

I'll be glad when the candy is gone, because chocolate is a temptation I really can't resist!

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