A Sweet Day

What a nice day we had! While I don't like the history behind Halloween, and the evil that can still surround it, I'm grateful we live in an area where it's mostly a time for kids to have some fun. And we had a lot of fun today.

Day started off slow...we slept in! Woo hoo! Ok, well, Brandy and I did, the kids didn't, but they aren't the ones who like sleeping in. *smile*

I had thought about going to "the city" to Michaels, they had a fun event for kids today, and then doing some shopping before all the rest. Brandy thought about it and decided, if it was ok, he'd rather stay home and feel like he accomplished something.

Cuz really. What he wants to be accomplishing is being in the field. Getting the crops in.

Most years I look for him to be done by Halloween. It's a relief that finally he's home. Finally he's not working 90 hour weeks that started sometime in September and I'm finished single parenting. Most of the years that we've had kids, he could trick or treat with us cuz the harvest was complete.

This year its barely begun.

But praise the Lord, the 10 day forecast is a good one. Please Lord, let them get things accomplished.

So, anyway, I understood why he wanted to feel like he'd accomplished something, and I didn't mind staying home.

The sweetness started when our sweet neighbor stopped by with pumpkin decorated cupcakes. She's such a dear!

And then, I was actually CREATIVE today! Can you believe it? Seriously, that's not usually me. I saw this idea in a magazine and went with it. I made trick or treat bags for the kids. I bought plain cloth bags and some transfer paper. Looked up past years costume pictures, printed them out and ironed them on the bags. Those pumpkin things always drove me crazy. And where was I going to store 6 of them?

Oh, yes, sidebar...six, not seven. Shianne informed me she was too old (at eleven) to trick or treat. How did that happen?!? The kids loved the bags. Of course, Svanna, Gabe and Summer didn't have pics on theirs yet, but they're ok with knowing I'll put them on for next year.

So they donned their costumes and we were off!

"Sweet" Dorothy and Toto, who wanted nothing more than to be home, as Dorothy should... The fierce dragon, whose head kept going over his eyes...

The amazing motorcycle racer...

The enthusiastic army dude...

and of course, the beautiful cheerleaders...

We drove back towards our old house mid-afternoon to see the Grandparents, who love to spoil them and see them in their costumes. Lots of fun.

Then we were off to do some actual trick or treating in our neighborhood, walking down the street. I wanted to do this this year cuz this is new for us, not being "town folk" before. And we live in such a nice neighborhood. Even though the weather has been awful here, today it was beautiful!! Didn't have to hide those cute costumes under winter coats and hats. It was fun saying "hi" to neighbors, some whose kids I know but I haven't met.

The kids adored it. Svanna thought it was just the best, and kept saying over and over how much she loved it. Ok, well, not all the kids adored it. Summer had a hard time. We had to wake her up from her nap, which is not something the Queen Summer is appreciative of. Not a happy camper. Then, after she got into the swing of things, we stopped at home for a quick minute (a quick pee) and she fell in the garage and hit her head and arm, landing under the pick-up. Not cool. Then later she fell on someone's sidewalk with a crash. Ouch. A Dora bandaid from one of Svanna's friends mom helped, but still, she was no longer in the mood. At quite a few houses after that she stayed in the van with me and a "I don't like Halloween." Although she did admit to liking the candy.

Second sidebar: So the last few weeks with H1N1 I've been really limiting the kids sugar intake. Now we have the equivalent of a candy store in our home. Nice. My bum will appreciate that as well!

It was also fun to have trick or treaters come to our house for the first time (aside from a few friends who braved the country in the past). After we were home the kids loved running to the door when the bell rang.

The funniest story of the day. Just today Gabe was noticing that not only was his Mom's face white, but so were her arms, legs, etc. It was quite the revelation for him. I had Sierra and Svanna put on tan dance tights to try to keep their legs warm in their cheerleader costumes. After Svanna puts hers on, Gabe comes in, sees her and says,

"Svanna, you legs turn white?!?"

We all died laughing and it was definitely the story of the evening.

A great quote
I enjoyed from a friends Facebook post today:

Happy Halloween...in my opinion, his holiday is most similar to the cross of Jesus. Gruesome images lead to us gettng something sweet that we don't deserve. Sounds like grace to me. --Ryan Detzel