Harried Halloween

What a crazy couple of days! I feel like I'm winded on the side of the pitch after a soccer sprint, trying to catch my breath. This working gig is hard work. Combine the working with a certain little boy who insists on waking up in the middle of the night most nights, it all makes for a very tired Mama. This week has been especially busy, getting ready for month end at work and getting organized for Halloween. There's lots of pictures to share today....so here's the highlights.

Thursday

Super busy day at work and school. Got the kids home for dinner time and then set about carving pumpkins. They were both pretty excited. Bean chose a happy face (or howling from the magazine I was following) and Schmoo chose a scary face. Bean wasn't into helping pull the guts out of the pumpkins, but Schmoo was all over it. She had her hands right down in both pumpkins, pulling out the seeds and such.

I managed a bit of a catnap at bedtime with Bean, falling asleep when I was snuggling him. I needed it as I had a date to meet some other parents down at the local lounge at 9pm. The nap certainly helped revive me as we ended up meeting until after 11pm. This is a group of parents from my church who have decided to try and get together to discuss faith and religion. Sounds deep, I know, but I think we're trying to figure out our own take on what to believe. It was a great first meeting and I think we're going to try and meet fairly regularly.

Friday

A crazy day of Halloween activity. The kids were up early, 5:30am, obviously excited about the day ahead. The morning didn't start off so great. Schmoo had a real struggle deciding how to dress for the day. The kindergarten class was allowed to wear their costumes in the morning and Schmoo immediately challenged me on whether I was SURE she could wear her costume. Then we had a battle about painting her face. First she wanted it painted, then changed her mind, then when I told her she couldn't be upset if she got to school and the other kids had painted faces, she changed her mind again. So with a fully painted dog face, she changed her mind again and we spent the next 1/2 hour managing her tears. We worked to a compromise - if we got to school and no other kids had painted faces, then we would wash it off at school. In the van outside the school she perused the playground and determined that the painted face was okay, but the costume was not. A trying start to the day.

Bean and I dropped her off and headed down to the gym. I was worried that the day would continue on its slippery slope with no room at the gym daycare, but I was pleasantly surprised to find lots of room for Bean. The gym definitely helped. I hadn't been since my soccer night on Monday so was ready to sweat. Bean and I headed home after the gym to get cleaned up and organized for the afternoon's activities. We returned to Schmoo's school and walked down to the bakery for lunch. A couple of Schmoo's friends from school went to the bakery too, so we had a fun little pizza party at the bakery. We walked back up the hill and returned to the school in time for the start of the penny carnival. What a great event. The whole school started in the gym, everyone dressed up and did the Monster Mash. Schmoo was right into it, dancing and singing with the other kids. The next 1.5 hours was spent moving around the classrooms, playing the games. There was a couple different bean bag tosses, a cake walk (where a group moves around a circle of numbers and when the music stops if you're on the right number you win a cake), BINGO, a haunted tunnel (that Schmoo went through about 5 times with the help of the bigger kids and a flashlight) and a popcorn snack. Both kids had a great time.

Next stop, the mall. I needed some groceries so we got those first before getting Bean into his main costume and doing the trick or treating rounds to all the stores. It was super busy and we saw a few different friends along the way. Unfortunately the events of the day were already starting to take a toll on Mama as I could feel a monster headache coming on. We headed home for a break - kids in front of the TV for 1/2 hour and bed for Mama for 1/2 hour. The kids had some supper and then we repainted faces and Papa loaded the kids up to go trick or treating with C & H. Being the last day of the month, I had a date with work....month-end. A rest and a bit of food managed to subdue my headache enough to get me through the evening. I returned home to a table laden with candy, a sleeping Papa and two kids in bed with their face paint still on. It sounds like they had a great trick or treat, despite the rain. Lots of running from house to house. The dads were dressed with their hockey caps on, all with different teams, so it's lucky there wasn't a brawl.

The kids were up early again this morning and we've been busy managing their requests for candy. Like last year, they are mostly content with looking at it and organizing it. We've taken out all the gum and hard candies, leaving the chewies, chocolate and chips behind.