Thursday, November 01, 2007

The Day After

It’s here, Nablopomo, and thank goodness I’ve got material. It’s an easy-peasy one because last night was Halloween, so what’s a mom to do but post pictures of her cute kids and scary self?

The anticipation...

The Princess and the Scream...

Who's that witch...

Ian ended up bringing the princess home after about 20 minutes, as she’d had enough of wearing her party cone and itchy velour gown – and she really wanted to dig into her candy.

I could not believe how many kids came by – last year we had maybe 70 tops. This year, I thought I had plenty of candy so was giving them out in the handfuls. But within the hour I was rationing. Which I hate to do, but kids were coming up fast and furiously – where were all these kids coming from? And why were they all so HUGE, as in much bigger than me even?! We must have had closer to 200 this year. I remember feeling that I was way too old to be trick-or-treating at about 12. Once I became old enough to be a babysitter, I felt a bit odd taking candy from neighbours. But the bigger kids were all dressed up too, and looked like they were having an amazing time, so I wasn't really a Halloween grinch.

I got some comments about our decorations though. One kid said it was the best house he'd seen so far...obviously he'd just started. One lady even asked if she could take a photo of her kids in front of our decorated porch. I suspect it was the great job the kids did with the stickers. I guess the extra effort I made to carve the last two pumpkins was well worth it. And the faux cobwebs spread amongst our bushes, dying mums and still surviving summer impatients (don’t know what’s going on with our containers this year ?!) ended up being quite appreciated by the masses.

This was my version of Scream... it ended up looking more like Jack was just politely laughing at my bad joke.

Check out the way the pumpkins are turned... it took me a whole box of matches to get them lit and I had to face them away from the wind so they would stay lit. Maybe I should have lit them BEFORE going outside - Duh-OPE!

The evening certainly wasn’t without its hiccups. After Ian left with the kids to meet up with the rest of the trick or treat posse, I decided to light up the pumpkins with the tealights that I had to go to Walmart for at the last minute. How long do you think it took me to find a MATCH? I used to keep them in the top shelf in my kitchen cupboards – my old kitchen cupboards, the ones that were ripped out in August!!! I could not for the life of me remember where I had hidden them during the reno. Finally, I found them buried in the depths of my dining room cabinet. I know you’re supposed to put them in a child-safe place; I should have stored them in the liquor cabinet as we’re ALWAYS in there lately.

And after we had given out our last candy bar, we turned off all the lights, blew out the candles in the Jacks, but left the dimmer lights on for L boy as he was still out with his buddies. My parents had dropped by to see the kids, and were settling down for tea with us. The doorbell rang, so Ian went to get it.

He opened up the door, and I could hear him apologizing to a lady, telling her that we were totally out of treats. We had just given out our last one, there wasn’t any more in the house. The lady said, “Oh that’s all right, I just have my child in a wheelchair, that’s why I’m at the door. You guys are very busy at this end of the street, I live at the top and we always have tons of candy left – we should have brought some down to you.”

Ackkkkk! Ian felt like such a heel. I was trying to think fast on my feet, maybe that silly witch hat, surprisingly hot, had fried my brain, but we had literally nothing, as I had already combed our cupboards for granola bars, fruit snacks etc… anything to keep up. Grrrrrr.

Anyway, L came home about a half hour later with a great pile of treats. Which the girlie tried to raid ever so discreetly, but was caught every time. Her big brother did give in and gave her about four extra chocolate bars of his own volition.

He really DOES love her!

10 comments:

Heidi said...

Congrats on your first Nabloblabla post. You all look very cute and frightening of course! I agree on the gimme, I have no idea what to write tomorrow..

Cherry said...

YAY! Pictures!

What? Little G didn't crash? What a good Liam for giving his little sis some chocolates since she only went out for a a little bit. My brother would've told me to try harder next year!

We've ran out of candy our first year in this house and we've never done so again. We learned what nasty teenagers can do, so I made sure that wouldn't happen this year. Alas, I wasn't home for the giving out of candy fun, and Hubsy thought he would return any unopened candy (he's cheap like that), so he rationed from the start. The sad thing is that he didn't give out the not as good candy first!! so we are stuck with the cheap stuff I bought to fill our our bowl, and none of the yummy chocolates were left when I got home. boo hoo!

Happy Day 1!

Family Adventure said...

First of all, Karen...you are doing the NaBlo...month. You need to be RATIONING this information. You had enough here for, what, 2-3 posts AT LEAST.

Nevertheless, it sounded like you had a really great time. And I'm sure your house rocked! Your street and Morag's street are excellent Halloween streets (which is why we always end up there :)). I can't wait to see it myself next year.

Oh, and the costumes - ADORABLE. Especially little Ms. G.

Heidi

PS: Thanks SO MUCH for your sweet comment today - that really meant a lot! :)

hellomelissa said...

never even got around to carving pumpkins this year and you have a brigade! i'm a bad bad mommy.

Anonymous said...

Karen--congrats on your journey into Nablopomo (sp?). October gave you a great warm up and I'm sure you'll have a great Nov., too.

It was nice to see how the rest of your day went, since I saw you for the first part of the day. I'm so proud of G wearing her costume for even 20 min. Abby didn't go out AT ALL!

I don't remember if you were a fan of Everybody Loves Raymond, but you reminded me of the first episode I ever caught. It was the Hallowe'en one where the ILs were giving out candy, ran out and scrounged cupboards for something to give out. They found colourful square plastic 'treats' to give out: condoms.

Kellan said...

Your kids are too cute and so were you in that witch costume (I should have definitely been a witch!). I loved that pumpkin and all the pictures. I love Halloween because the kids love it - but I'm relieved it's over - I'm tired! Have a great day, Karen - see ya.

Badness Jones said...

Man! I wish the princess had wanted to go home, but it was the husband who bugged out after 20 minutes, leaving me to continue on with the girl and her entourage. Loved seeing the photos!

thirtysomething said...

Whoa. He shared with his sister? Can you lend him to me for a sec? My boys HID their candy so the sisters wouldn't get into it! All in good fun...sounds like you guys had a heck of a night!

Sweet and Salty said...

Awesome little kiddos in their costumes!!! I did a pumpkin for the first time this year and it was fun. I love your pumpkin!!!

Heidi said...

That's darn cute. IT's probably the weather - is it warm enough to stroll in the neighborhood? The easier the weather, the father those candy-sucking costume-wearing machines go.........

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