On our weekly trip to the grocery, which falls on a Sunday after Mass, the shelves were empty. Hardly any water or bread left. Wow! It only made it inconvenient for me since I needed to get 24 mini water bottles for the Halloween party at my kids' school. None were to be found, darn.
The rain started coming Sunday, the wind picked up on Monday morning, and Sandy made her appearance early evening Monday. We slept in our basement in case of trees falling on our house. The kids had so much fun down there! The kids had no school for Monday and Tuesday. I did all the laundry in case the power went out, but that never happened. We stayed warm and comfortable through it all.
Joe took some of the kids for a little walk in the wind and rain to see what it was all about. Monday night when the kids went to sleep and at the peak of the storm, Joe and I sat on our porch with some drinks and snacks to watch Frankenstorm pass by. Lots of wind, but that was about it for us - Thank you God.
With all the hype of Sandy, I sort of got distracted and forgot about Halloween. The kids had school on Wednesday and everything sort of rolled from there. We always carve pumpkins the day before Halloween. It was nice to have the time to do it during the storm.
Anne decided to try a level two pattern to carve into her pumpkin. Some where in the middle of carving she says, "I'm pretty good at carving pumpkins!"
Bernadette was just poking around and decided TV was a better option.
Eddie stuck around and dug out all the seeds and goop.
Patrick decided he wanted to carve his own pumpkin this year. He wanted a simple pumpkin face with triangles and a few teeth and a smile. "Nothing fancy, Mom." He did a fantastic job until the squirrel distorted the pumpkin's left eye later that day. Gotta watch out for those hungry squirrels!
Tommy got excited about carving this year. He picked out a simple pattern to use for his pumpkin. Once he started he seemed to have a hard time. His pattern fell off the pumpkin and then he decided to just do a simple face instead of the pattern. And then, he broke two of the carving knives. What was going on? Then with a sigh, he just decided to take a break! Hmph. It turns out, after I finished carving two pumpkins, I went to finish off his. His pumpkin was like a piece of wood! I had to get my steak knives out! That poor guy was struggling with one tough pumpkin. No wonder he was discouraged and gave up. I also broke another carving knife, but got the job done.
The next day, was such a whirl wind of chaos in the morning. I obviously wasn't getting ready the night before. I prefer to save the details for the morning of. I work well under pressure! Since I am waddling around, 34 weeks pregnant, I didn't volunteer to do much this year when it came to physically going to a school event, but signed up for the things I could do at home and send in with the kids. I baked 24 cupcakes and decorated them. I finished up Tommy's homemade costume while watching Conan the Destroyer with my hubby!
The next morning, I waddled around frantically getting costumes into bags with all their accessories. Getting Halloween party items to the right kids. Making 4 lunches and making sure they made it into their backpacks. Got them fed and ready to go. Before I left, I screamed a litany of items out and made sure they had them all - "Yes, Mom - got it!" Ok, let's go.
Sure enough, someone forgot the huge bag of popcorn at home. Ughh....Still had to make up for the 24 mini bottled waters that I couldn't get because of the storm. So, after a quick trip to the local grocery, got the bottled waters (all stocked up again, yeh!), dropped off Eddie and went home to get the popcorn and made it back in time to drop off every body's party stuff! It certainly felt like a frantic morning, but it all turned out just fine.
Halloween was my day off, so I dropped Bernadette off at my mother-in-law's house and enjoyed an nice quiet breakfast at Panera's.
I did some shopping and then headed home to rest for an hour. I went to Eddie's preschool to watch his Halloween parade. It was his first one ever, so I told the older kids I might not make it to theirs. School parades are a lot of fun! I loved them as a kid and as a mom it's even better!
I asked Eddie what he wanted to be this Halloween and he immediately said, with no hesitation, a skeleton. So, there is my little skeleton between the ninja and the cowgirl in pink! He looks like a depressed skeleton because the mask was hanging low. If you looked closely, his mouth is where his left eye is! LOL! I was assuming he had a big smile under there! I gave my skeleton a big kiss, took a few pictures of him parading and then rushed off to see if I could catch my older three kids' parade.
I made it in time to see their last rotation around the school.
I had told the kids that I didn't want to buy any costumes this year. Try to be creative. I ended up buying just one costume - Eddie's skeleton. Anne decided to go as a St. John's cheerleader. I couldn't find any small costumes that were red, but had to make do with some athletic SJC gear we found at the school. It worked out and she was cute and proud! Go SJC!!
Tommy decided he wanted to be Steve from Mindcraft. You either know Steve really well or you have no idea who or what Steve is. Mindcraft is a really popular computer game kids play. My kids play it every day. Steve is a pixilated boy who goes into these worlds you can create with your imagination. His costume was rather easy to make. I found a box, found a website with a file that helps you print out what you need to paste onto the box and there you have it. It was really creative and original - way to go Tommy. Daddy and Mommy did all the work and research for this, however.
Patrick wanted to be a Zombie. He could actually wear anything and add some make-up to his face to make him look like a zombie would. I spent $2 for the make-up. He ended up going as an alligator to school so parents didn't have to mess with putting make-up on. He was an alligator last year.
This is right before trick-or-treating.
This year, perhaps because of the lingering clouds from Sandy, it was way dark at 6 pm! I couldn't get any good pictures of my kids. The ones at school were better. Oh well. Once we started getting dressed for trick-or-treating, Bernadette seemed to get excited too. She seemed a bit oblivious up to now. She was all smiles the rest of the night.
She seemed to start remembering what was coming up next. Bernadette's costume was one of Anne's old costumes.
There's my crew! Grabbed my stroller just in case I had someone who got tired, lit my pumpkins and left out a bucket of candy for our trick-o-treaters!
Our pumpkins turned out well:
I also love carving pumpkins. I chose a level three pattern - I'm on the far left, the kitten and jack-o-lantern. I also carved the SJC pumpkin - a bit too wide, but that's ok. Anne's pumpkin is on the right. She did it all by herself with absolutely no help. She did a great job!
Tommy's hard-as-wood pumpkin is on the left. Patrick's squirrel-eaten pumpkin on the right.
We usually just go around the block and the kids get tired, but this year they were able to go a little further! Bernadette was having so much fun! I took all five out by myself and it was actually easy this year because I put Anne in charge of watching Bernadette go up and down the steps and making sure she said her thank yous. Bernadette got the hang of it and was overly gracious, "Thank you! Thank you SOOO much! Happy Halloween!" She was in the spirit of it all!
All of a sudden, they all pooped out at once and the stroller came in handy and I brought my kids home. They were all allowed three pieces each and then it was time for bed.
It seems, the pixie sticks were the favorite candy this year.
My little guy, you could just tell he is beginning to get sick. He did fine, but he is currently home with the bug that has gotten to everyone. Hopefully, it'll be gentle on this sweet boy.
As I'm writing this, I'm eating some of the candy I don't think Bernadette will like. I don't think she'll miss it! I'm still hungry - I'm always hungry.
Halloween night was actually perfect weather! Chilly, but not too cold and the streets were full of bustling children excited about trick-or-treating.
I had a good time and waddling up and down the streets wasn't so bad at all.
Some bonus pictures:
Pumpkin goop! So much of it!
Wanted to put some SJC spirit out there since the big rivalry game against Gonzaga is this weekend! Go SJC!!
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