Halloween

I am a holiday nut it seems. I've always loved Christmas, the spirit, the fun, the whole month of people being just happier than any time of the year. Your Daddy's always just kind of stood back and laughed at me and my crazy spirit although I think he even kind of gets a kick out of it. But as you kids get older and I do too, Christmas does get stressful with all of the activities, the parties, the gift giving, the spending and so on. We start shopping and Christmas activities the day after Thanksgiving, and by the time Christmas actually rolls around, I'm a wee bit worn out. Thanksgiving, well it's good too, but I really miss my family with a four day holiday that I never get to see my own parents and grandparents. I have great memories from childhood and time when I lived in Missouri close to everyone were we'd all pile into Grandma and Grandpa's 2 bedroom house with all of the cousins aunts and uncles for 3-4 days at a time, and start planning for Christmas.

Now I've clung onto a new spirit, it's Halloween Spirit, and I seem to have it bad, so bad that Grandpa Mark and Grandma Teresa ventured to Florida to witness the madness this year! Halloween's just a fun holiday, at most it lasts a week, and it's not one where people have to get fancy, no one really travels, so we get to hang out, dressed up silly with all of our friends and collect candy. When Payton was a baby, I started the tradition of coordinating a neighborhood party for all of the kids, and each year the party grows a little and runs a bit more smoothly. Last year, or maybe two, we started another tradition of hosting a (mostly) adult pumpkin carving party at our house on Thursday night before Halloween. Last year we also started preschool at the Lamb of God Church, and have added that schools Trunk or Treat to our tradition on Wednesday night with all of our friends from the neighborhood. You might notice the "tradition" list seems to be getting long. Just wait, I'm about to explain to you ladies what torture I've put your little butts through this year. You might want to sit down for this.
This year Grandma and Grandpa decided that they'd like to come down and celebrate with you girls and see what the fuss was all about. About the same time, Payton, you declared that you wanted to be a unicorn. Let me tell you, in all of the World Wide Web there are NO CHILD SIZED unicorn costumes to be had. There are a few baby ones, and some very falic looking horns that can be purchased, but no kid costumes. Super Mommy to the rescue, I put on my thinking cap and made you a costume for the first (probably last) time. At first you were okay with it, but to be honest, by the time Halloween actually rolled around you practically refused to wear your horn and mane. Your first outing with it was to Trunk-or-Treat at the preschool. You were both darling, Payton as a homemade unicorn, and Parker as the cutest little cheerleader ever. The fun thing about living in a small town is that at the events we see pretty much everyone we know, so even the parents have a good time because we get to catch up a little too. That could have something to do with why we lost Parker within the first 10 minutes and Charly 30 minute later, but all's well that ends well, as they say. Anyway, back to the timeline...I started getting excited for MY mom and dad to arrive, and planned our pumpkin carving party for the evening of their arrival, Thursday. I must say, a great time was had by all and once again we ended up with some fantastic jack o lanterns. Each year Collin comes up with a more elaborate sculpture and Bobby with a more gross one.

On Friday we woke up to another full day - day 3 of the insanity. Parker's class was to have a party both Friday and Monday, so as class mom I spent the week stressing about how to get parents to bring all the right stuff since the whole party idea had been sprung on me Monday. Thankfully, when I arrived at school that morning there were goodies galore and all was well. BSPFA decided to have a book reading themed day on Friday as well as a Fall Festival that evening, so that all the kids could show off their "Book Themed" costumes without calling it a Halloween celebration. Another mother and I decided we'd put together some little treats for the class. The treats turned into a full blown party, including book reading by Grandpa and cookie decorating. It turned out to be a fantastic party, probably better than any of us expected, and I'm 100% sure the other teachers were jealous of the event we pulled off and I'm 100% happy we did it!

But, the day wasn't over yet...that evening we loaded back up with the whole family, who hadn't had a good night’s sleep since at least Tuesday night, and headed back to school for Fall Festival in the rain. That event didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped since it was raining everything had to be moved inside and we had two very tired and cranky little girls. We only stayed for a bit, and after 12 or 15 meltdowns decided to call it a day. On Saturday we took a break from the Halloween activities, and headed to Naples for the Stone crab Festival, and boy oh boy was it worth it! We had yummy stone crabs, and had a blast watching Parker rock out in front of the bandstand all by her little self. It wasn't so long ago that Payton would have been right there beside her, but growing up makes a girl more aware of onlookers. I suppose it won't be long before Parker is self conscious too, but for now it was fun to see her just feeling the music.

Sunday was the big event, the 4th(?) Annual Lakes of Estero Halloween Party! Every year I love to put this together, but spend the week previous stressing myself out over it as if the queen herself would be judging my party hosting skills. I must say, this was the best yet. We had some great activites, including a photo station at the front door, an ooey, gooey station and of course cookie decorating and pumpkin decorating.
By the time Halloween finally arrived on Monday evening we were all about done. The weather man kept threatening that rain would arrive, and everyone was nervous. Alas, it held off, and we had sucessful night of candy collecting. Grandma and Grandpa got to witness the madness that is our Halloween tradition. We may have lost a kid or two, had a few scraped knees, maybe a unicorn missing a horn, but overall, it was a blast!