Granted, it’s almost Thanksgiving, Halloween weekend seems like it was only yesterday. The memories are still fresh and lively, the candy and the decorations are still much requested by my kiddies, and the cool, autumn Halloween air is only now beginning to creep in.
Like so many of the holidays, we like to get the good out of them; really squeeze every minute of goodness and stretch them out as long as possible. Birthdays in our home last at least a week. In the case of Halloween, we celebrated for (at minimum) a Halloweekend. All of my three have fallen in love with the “spooky” decorations that our neighbors so proudly hung for all of our enjoyment. Throughout the month of October, we took daily walks to visit the front yards of neighboring houses, adorned with dangling spiders and graveyards full of skeletons, jack-o-lanterns, and mobiles of skulls that shook and moaned when you passed. Gabe had started full-on pleading for some decorations of our own. Grammy helped supply some of spooky décor, but we of course, had to supplement with jack-o-lanterns of the non-plastic variety. The kids each helped pick out a design to carve, and they went straight for the creepiest designs, I might add.
Ariana, Gabriel, & Isabella were all invited to help carve the pumpkins… which they reluctantly agreed to. They were all very enthusiastic about holding the big, orange spheres, and maybe even dipping a hand in, but they were not as fond of the texture of pumpkin guts. :)
Ari peeked in and poked her hand in, oh so curiously and timidly.
And she played while we worked, admiring Bella’s new birthday Tinkerbell tricycle from Grammy and Papa. Only occasionally squabbling over it with her sister… (oh, you caught me, they squabble over it all the time… Gabe included).
Bella was a little more brave. You know, this girl is always daring. She’s the one I’ll have to watch out for in years to come. She even reached in and grabbed some of the goop.
Gabe requested the trowel. But with tools, comes work, which he was happy to do so long as his fingers didn’t have to touch anything. He was a good sport, I must say.
The Taylor three went as Peter Pan, Wendy & Tinkerbell for Halloween this year, because they have been favorites for so long. They cheered and hoorayed when they found out that it was finally time to put on their costumes and go to the church’s Trunk-r-Treat activity. Here, they got their first taste of the good stuff. They somehow remembered that their bags are for candy that were to be given by friends and strangers alike – pretty much any grown up they saw. Ari put her stranger anxiety on the shelf for the weekend, and happily opened up her heart and her treat bag for any who wished, to fill both up with love and goodies.
We paraded around that parking lot, visiting with friends and neighbors, truck to trunk. Each trunk loaded up with decorations, mixing bowls full of treats, and kids in costume. Every time, we slowed down the march to chat and embrace some friends, so relieved to see each other in something other than a stiff suit and church dress, and we tried catching up on each other’s lives. The kids would parade onward in search of more sugary treasures, reminding us that tonight was their night. And it was. :)
The next evening (Saturday), we journeyed over to Freestone Park to meet some friends for the Halloween festival. Gabe didn’t want to dress in full costume, because his real wish was to be a skeleton for Halloween… who knew? Any time someone would ask him if he was supposed to be Peter Pan, his reply was, “No! I’m a skeeelllletonnnn.”
We followed our little ones around, letting them indulge in not-so-everyday things like corndogs for dinner, more candy for dessert, and blow-up slides in between bites.
Come Halloween, the idea of candy and costumes was not even a little old. I could tell that my three were considering adopting this routine as a way of life. In line with our annual tradition, our neighborhood street has a little soiree on Halloween that we like to call the Lantana Fall Festival. And their not kidding either, it is festive – tables of goodies, costumed children parades, apple bobbing, wiener roasting, s’mores and bonfires, children running through the streets festive. And like the other years, our friends, the Edwards and Aunt Marci joined us for the party and trick-or-treating.
Gabe and Lana couldn’t have been any cuter if we had posed them. He held her hand, rode her around on the back of his trike, and even gave her a hug at the end of the night.
Lana: (brings Gabe his sword) “Here’s your sword Gabe.” Gabe: (smiling at Lana) “You’re so SWEET!”
Gabe gives Lana a hug. Lana sees this as her moment, and leans in eyes closed, lips puckered. Gabe’s eyes opened wide, slowly backs away. Lana falls flat at Gabe’s feet. Gabe picks Lana up off the floor and runs out of the room. Ah, love. :)
Ariana was something of a pro at trick-or-treating by the end of the night. She’d hold her bag up and say “eh? ehhhhh?” with a coy little smirk until someone got the picture that by “eh”, she means “trick-or-treat”, and by “trick-or-treat”, she means fill ‘er up buddy! She had no problem eating her candy without our assistance either, as little torn bits of plastic wrapper embedded in chocolate goodness matter little in the grand scheme of things to Ari.
Bella and Kiera did their trick-or-treating with little effort expended in running from house to house, and much more effort spent on opening tiny boxes and wrappers.
Beautiful Aunt Marci is camera shy as usual.
And while we are happy to make Halloween about the kids 99% of the weekend, the other 1% was spent at a grown-up only Halloween party that my college best friend and roommate, Kelly, threw. The cherry atop the sundae as it were.
(I went as Lady Gaga & Jake went as my paparazzi, aka TMZ)
