Hallowe'en madness

One dinosaur and one fairy, as requested

Whew.  Hallowe'en on a Saturday is an experience, to be sure.  It is one long, complicated, emotional, high-stakes party that begins early on Friday, and doesn't quite wind down until Sunday has officially ended.  Clark looked at me on Sunday, in fact, and said "well, we did it", his tone suggesting that we had, perhaps, just successfully completed a multi-day marathon.  I knew exactly what he meant.  

Hallowe'en morning: we found an outdoor piano in Carp

This is not to suggest that we didn't have fun, but rather that everyone actually took advantage of the extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning, which is a Hallowe'en miracle in and of itself.

The highlights were as such:

Friday Morning: The kids get to dress up for school festivities.  Juniper has more than one meltdown because she is not allowed to take her wand, as they do not allow props or masks of any kind at her school.  We had told her this after reading a note earlier in the week.  Not believing us, she asked her teacher the next day.  Her teacher confirmed the unfair, horrifying news.  On Friday morning, she flopped down on the stairs, and wailed: "What is the point of a fairy without a wand?  It just DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!".  After crying bitter tears for awhile, she decided that she would bring the wand with her, and take up the issue with the higher-ups in the office.  We then had to talk her down from that as well.  This all had to happen in time for her to catch the bus at 7:30am.  

Linden LOVED designing his pumpkin face

Linden, meanwhile, decided that before going to school, he should check in on his pumpkin that he had lovingly designed and carved earlier in the week. In so doing, he discovered that the whole thing had been taken over by mould and rot.  He was, without exaggeration, devastated. In order to quell his heartfelt meltdown in time for HIM to get on the bus, we had to promise to squeeze in a bit of time that evening to go find another pumpkin.

Scary dinosaur with some scaly green face paint

Friday afternoon/evening: Juniper has violin lessons on Friday afternoons.  So we multitasked -- while Juniper was at her lesson, Clark and Linden went to pick out a suitable replacement pumpkin from the SuperStore.  Then, when the lesson and errand were successfully completed, we all hurried over to Juniper's school for a Hallowe'en dance party.  In some ways, this was pretty much the last thing I wanted to do in the whole wide world.  Being in a loud, crowded, dark elementary school gym, trying to make sure that some crazy kid din't re-break my foot while simultaneously trying to keep track of Linden, was not my idea of a good time.  BUT, I got see Juniper at a school dance, giggling with her little friends, and tearing up the dance floor.  This is something that I will only be able to imagine when she is in middle school, as I will no longer be invited to such events. Therefore, I DID enjoy myself - the privilege and the novelty of this event were not lost on me.  Poor little Linden, though - as soon as Juniper got there and ran to her classmates, Linden stopped, looked around , and declared "I need a friend!" We made sure Juniper remembered to take him under her wing.

Juniper, Linden and Zack: three happy Hallowe'en-ers!

 Saturday Morning/Afternoon:  The day, of course, began with much exuberance and running around, with shouts of "Happy Hallowe'en!" ringing through the house. We decided to bundle up all this energy, shove it in the car, and head to Carp for some breakfast, and a tour around their last Saturday market of the season. Of course, they were handing out candy at the market, so we had an unanticipated early start to some trick-or-treating.  I trick-or-treated myself to one more beautiful skein of alpaca yarn, with which I am making myself some fingerless mittens.  I'll post pictures of the hat from the previous skein, as well as the mitts when they are done.  It is just the most beautiful, soft, warm luxurious yarn!

After Carp, we headed into town, to FINALLY attend one of Erin's monthly family yoga workshops.  It was a hoot!  I didn't get to do much, but luckily Clark pulled his weight enough for the both of us.

Partnered downward dog. Juniper is, in very un-yoga-like behaviour, spinning in the background

After yoga, we got a very late lunch from a nearby health food store, then high-tailed it home for some last-minute pre-trick-or-treating arrangements. There were some jack-o-lanterns that needed finishing touches, costumes that needed adjustments, supper that needed to be made and eaten, and candy that needed to be put in bowls.

I came out to take a picture of the pumpkin family, and Linden insisted on coming out as well to be in the picture.  This is his serious, contemplative pose.

Here they are, all lit up!  Both kids designed one little and one big.

Saturday evening: Trick-or treating begins!  First, I took the kids around our neighbourhood while Clark held down the fort at our house.

All decked out with make-up rosy cheeks (her request), sparkly shawl and glow-sticks.

 After we hit a sufficient number of houses, we then drove over to Val's house.  Val is the awesome day-care provider who used to look after Linden for a few days a week before he started school in the fall, and now takes both Juniper and Linden after school twice a week.  She takes Hallowe'en VERY seriously.  In fact, she has an entire, large shed in the backyard that is used exclusively to store Hallowe'en decorations.  I have never seen anything like the display she had going when we got there.  An entire garden filled with gravestones and skeletons and creepy dolls and life-sized witches and zombies and all other manner of gruesome decorations; a smoke machine filling the air; crazy lighting, and both she (a skeleton), and her dad (Dr Dead), handing out "bone" cookies and hot chocolate with "bone" marshmallows, and a skull filled with gummy worm brains.  I'm sure people travel from far and wide to come to her house every year.

It was difficult to get good pictures - it was dark, it was crowded, and we literally had to bribe Linden to get close to any of the stuff, as he was a little bit terrified of the whole thing.  But man, was it ever an event!  When we got home, the kids got to sort through their candy to pick out the few things they wanted, and then bundled up the rest for the Hallowe'en fairy.  They were, to put it mildly, exhausted.

Juniper was into it!

Linden... not so much

With skeleton Val and Dr. Dead!

 Sunday:  You think Hallowe'en was over on Saturday?  Not at our house!  Sunday morning is perhaps even more exciting, because the Hallowe'en fairy always comes while they are sleeping the night before. This year she left a whole lot of awesome paints, some paint brushes, some ornaments that can be decorated and hung on the tree this year, and some colouring sheets.  Oh, and two pieces of candy as well, for good measure.  It was a good haul.  Then it was to swimming lessons, and a post-swimming nature walk, as per usual.

Actual quote: "I love discovering.  I'm a discovery guy. This is so beautiful"

Who knows what the fairy does with all of that left-over candy, but I can tell you that this year Clark and I mutually agreed that the lead-up to Hallowe'en was disgusting, and we both felt gross.  I usually do not feel the need to gorge on Hallowe'en treats - they are the same crappy chocolate and candy that you can get any other time of the year, and that much sugar makes me feel awful.  But this year, what with being laid up with a broken foot, and recovering from my two root canals, I was stuffing mini chocolates in my mouth as though they would make me feel so very much better about my current lot in life.  Clark joined in for the sport of it, I guess.  Therefore, anything left over is now really and truly gone, never to be consumed by anyone.   We're both done.

One of the many projects that Linden brings home, but I really liked this one.  It is currently in the window

I hope everyone else survived the madness that is Hallowe'en-on-a-Saturday, and that you all did not eat as much gross candy as we did.  Next year will be different for sure - this is now here to remind me that it is never worth it. Happy November!