Halloween 2024

Happy Halloween! Presenting the Energizer Bunny, the Queen of Hearts, and a Minecraft Enderman:

For the second year, CC made her own costume, and was very proud of it. I didn't help her at all! She decided to be the Queen of Hearts, and then convinced her friends to go as other Alice in Wonderland characters. Patricia was Alice, Scarlett was the Mad Hatter, and Clara was the White Rabbit. It was such a fun group! They all came here to get ready, then trick or treated in the neighborhood.

Sweet Pea got the idea to be the Energizer Bunny from her cirque friends, and it certainly fits her personality. She and I spent quite a bit of time making her drum -- comprised of cardboard, duct tape, and paint -- and it had a hole in the back for her to keep her candy in. Her friend Charlie decided to be a battery, so they were the perfect pair. They started trick or treating in Charlie's neighborhood, which is adjacent to ours, and eventually finished here. Several people said that they had the best costumes! 

And for the second year, Little Man trick or treated with his buddy Brennan in that neighborhood. Brennan's mom reported that they finished surprisingly early, but Little Man was pleased with the amount of candy he collected. He carried it around in a cardboard chest he made to resemble Minecraft chests. There was so much creativity this year!

I made a char-BOO!-terie board for dinner. It was hard to find plastic insects this year, but I added edible eyeballs, which I thought was a fun touch. The kids were so excited to go trick or treating that everyone completely forgot about the Halloween cake for dessert! So we'll have that tonight instead.

Jack O'Lanterns

Jack O'Lanterns were fun this year! The kids are getting more and more independent in their carving now, so our jobs are mostly relegated to grunt work (MJ scraping out the insides) and design finesse (me doing fine-line work). 

Sweet Pea saw a cute idea online that she wanted to replicate. Yes, that's an airstream trailer being pulled by a car! The downside is that she had two pumpkins to carve.

Little Man and CC like to match their Jack O'Lantern design with their Halloween costumes. Little Man's theme this year is "Minecraft," and he was telling everyone how easy it is to carve Minecraft designs, because there are no curved lines. He settled on a Creeper's face, and bizarrely carved the face out before the inside was even scooped out, which made MJ's job a little trickier.

CC's costume is the Queen of Hearts, and originally she wanted to carve the phrase "Off with their heads!" into a pumpkin. But then she realized how much work it would be to cut out all those letters. So she settled for a pretty heart with a crown over it.

Now we're ready for the big event tomorrow!

CC's New Smile

After 20 long months, CC's smile is braces-free! She has been counting down the days and even having some last-minute anxiety ("What if they can't take them off at my appointment for some reason?!"). But the day dawned bright and clear, and her appointment went very quickly. And now she can't stop smiling -- I think her face will crack!

It was the perfect time for me to get out my good camera and take some updated portraits of her. 

The timing couldn't have been more perfect: the day before Halloween! Now she can eat all the gummy, chewy, caramel-y candies she wasn't supposed to have for the last 20 monthas. Not that it stopped her anyway -- she ate that stuff pretty regularly while she had braces on. "But now I don't have to feel bad about it!" she announced.

She was also excited about eating corn on the cob, which is something she never ate with braces on, because all the corn would get hopelessly stuck in the brackets. So we definitely had to celebrate with some corn!

Busy Weekend

Last weekend we were BUSY. On top of our normal weekend activities, the girls had two Cirque performances on Saturday. And on Sunday, Little Man and CC had their second cross-country meet. Grandpa and Grandma joined up for both events, and Memere and Pepere came to town, too. 

Cirque went well. It was the studio's annual "Tricks and Treats" festival. There were lots of activities, and two shows in the afternoon. CC's contemporary dance class performed in the first show. The second show featured a silks solo by CC, plus a number by Sweet Pea and CC's jazz class.

Direct link here: https://youtu.be/jFAobsZoXGQ

CC was extremely nervous about her solo. She worked her tail off these last few weeks, doing all the choreography herself, selecting music, and picking out her costume. She even learned several skills just for this solo -- like tying a knot in the silks with her feet. At the dress rehearsal the night before, she made a big mistake, and she woke up the morning of the show in tears, convinced she'd do it again. But I told her that people in the performing arts always say that a bad dress rehearsal leads to a great performance. And that was definitely the case with her solo! It was beautiful. I was so proud of her for putting herself out there and taking such a big risk.

The next morning we went to early Mass, in order to be at the cross-country course by 9:30. CC and Little Man were raring to go after having so much fun at their first meet. The rest of us stood around, shivering in the cold and wind! It was a complete turnaround from the day before, which had been hot.

Little Man beat his time from the last meet, so he was happy. CC's time was slower than last time, but she attributed that to sore knees from Cirque the day before. She was pleased, however, that she met her goal: to keep running (not stop and walk) up and down the hill. And she was happy but a little embarrassed that we lined the track to cheer at several different places, and took pics as she ran past.

The weekend was successful all the way around! 

Spooky Amusement Park

Last year we went to our local amusement park's annual Halloween celebration, but none of us enjoyed it -- it was extremely loud and crowded, plus the employees who dressed up in freaky costumes and jumped out at people in the dark were too much for the kids. Little Man was convinced the roaring chain saws some characters were swinging around were real, and the entire night was just unpleasant.

This year we decided we'd go during the day, so we could enjoy the decorations without the crowds or noise. It was much better! And we took Sweet Pea's friend Charlie as her birthday gift.

Charlie had never been on most of the big rides there, and was a little nervous about trying them. But after she overcame her nerves to go on the first big one, she was ready for all the rest! At the end of the day, she couldn't decide which ride was her favorite because she'd loved them all so much.

I think this is definitely a fun new Halloween tradition!

Pumpkin Patch!

MJ and I chaperoned the parish's youth group trip to a pumpkin patch over the weekend. Our kids had been looking forward to it since last year, when CC attended and raved about it. This year Sweet Pea and Little Man could come, so we made it a whole-family affair.

MJ and another dad were in charge of seven boys in the corn maze, while I took CC, Sweet Pea, and another girl. The girls beat the boys, but only by a few minutes. The maze was much easier this year (last year it took CC's group about 40 minutes to complete!), so the kids had plenty of time afterwards for other activities. Little Man loved the tennis ball cannon and slingshots, and Sweet Pea's favorite activity was the huge trampoline-like balloon to jump and flip on. CC opted for hot chocolate instead of activity tickets, but ended up using a spare ticket to do the wiggly tube race with Sweet Pea.

Afterwards the whole group -- about 100 of us! -- gathered around several bonfires to make s'mores. A sweet way to end the outing, and we were back home in time to catch most of the Yankees game.

Picture Day

The girls were very excited about picture day this year, and woke up early to have me do their hair. I straightened Sweet Pea's (it looked so much like Hayden's!) and double-French-braided CC's with some loose tendrils in front. They looked beautiful and were very happy.

(Little Man threw an Army jersey on over his clothes and called it a day.)