Happy Halloween?

The two pumpkins in the
back were harvested weeks
ago from Grandpa's garden!

Nothing's scarier than a nasty head cold, unless it's three nasty head colds and two cases of pinkeye. Or a hurricane that might prevent Daddy from returning home from his work trip in time to catch the adorable Halloween costumes that the girls donned anyway, despite the nasty head colds. Add a houseguest who was recovering from surgery to the mix, and we had the potential for a pretty frightening holiday!

Fortunately, our Halloween was more treat than trick, despite all our obstacles! It started with carving pumpkins the night before the work trip--which meant that the jack-o-lanterns were well shriveled for the big day (fortunately, no one noticed much as we forgot to light them).

Both girls wanted cat pumpkins; Elise wanted hers to be purple, specifically. If we'd been better parents, we would've gotten out some paint, but as it was, we just agreed, "Sure, a purple cat!" and hoped the girl could use her imagination, which she did.

Elise takes pumpkin carving
very seriously.

We armed each girl with a spoon, and after cutting off the tops, Matt snipped some of the goopy strings with scissors so that the they could really dig in. Which they did, and it wasn't long before the pumpkins were relatively clean.

Daddy's become quite an expert at cat pumpkins by now, and carved them both with relative ease. This year, however, Elise all but demanded to help (Kalina was happy to sit by and watch). The special pumpkin-carving knives being quite blunt, however, she wasn't able to make any progress on either the pumpkin or her fingers.

They turned out cute, as usual, and we lit them quick before bedtime for pictures. A couple of sweet kitties glowed on our front steps, while my two sweet kiddies did the same as they headed inside for a rest.

Kalina had just as much fun making
her toy mice run up and down the
pumpkin as she did helping carve it.

Fast-forward to Halloween, five days later, and it's a different scene. Through crafts, treats and continual reminders, we have managed to "celebrate" the day as much as possible. We tracked the hurricane and Daddy's flight. The only thing that really makes the day festive, though, is the arrival of our (rather distracted, to say the least!) houseguests, Grandpa, and, finally, in the nick of time, Daddy! Poor Matt got put on pancake duty (in my attempt to fill the girls up with something healthy before being bombarded by sugar), while Grandpa distributed candy to neighborhood kids, and I dressed the girls in their costumes and paraded them up to the guest room.

The idea for crayon costumes, by the way, belongs more to Elise than anyone else. When I asked Kalina what she wanted to be for Halloween, I got everything from "A raindrop!" to "A ladder!" Not receiving the, "A mouse," or "A butterfly" answer that would've been a little more doable, I asked the same question of Elise. And what do you think she said? "Purple." Shortly afterward, she had enthusiastically agreed to be a purple crayon, and Kalina had decided to be an orange one.

Once I'd bought the felt fabric for the costumes, Elise changed her mind to "Purple cat!" and Kalina wanted to be a pumpkin. *sigh* Somehow we managed to stick with the original plan.

And then we were off to trick-or-treat! It took a while to get kids out of the "grab candy and run" frame of mind, and we worked on the "Trick or treat!" "Thank you!" "Happy Halloween!" routine. Around here, kids are also expected to tell a Halloween joke--something we were barely prepared for:

Kalina: What's a ghost's favorite color?
Neighbor: Hmmm, I don't know! (Knowing full well, I'm sure, the answer is "Boo," or blue)
Kalina: White!

I think we may have laughed a little too hard the first couple times this happened, because the next few times Kalina looked at me uncertainly and I had to whisper the answer in her ear.

Actually, the girls made good use of the joke gig--while Kalina wowed everyone with her stand-up comedy, Elise shoveled as much candy as she could into her pumpkin bucket. Nobody seemed to mind, as they could see she's too young to really know how to count. And actually, most of the time she stuck to the "take two" guidelines most people put forth.

For her part, Elise learned how to say "trick or treat," and "Happy Halloween." Or, the most important parts of those phrases, anyway. Neighbors were usually greeted with an ecstatic "Treat!!" and left with a sweet, "Hah-ween!!"

As the night was chilly and the colds probably wouldn't get any better the longer we were out (or farther past bedtime), we headed back home a bit sooner than any of us were ready. Fortunately, the last home was the best, as Grandpa was waiting at the door to greet our little trick-or-treaters.

Kalina and Elise were each allowed one piece of candy, and then sent up for bed.

The candy--and thrill of choosing it out of a purple pumpkin--must have stayed with Elise, as she's been asking for a "treat" a dozen times a day. She gets one per day, and not when she's whining for it, and so is told "no" a dozen times a day. This routine gets old fast.

Our Halloween was good. That being said, it would be fine if Halloween were a bit less scary next year.