Halloween Weekend

 Miciah as a blue crayon in her school's parade.

Pumpkin Carving

We carved pumpkins on Saturday.  Each of the kids picked what they wanted, and then Rob and I and Rob's mom carved them out.  Elijah wanted a pretty normal pumpkin.  Round eyes, square nose, toothy grin.  Miciah wanted about the same thing.  And Tank wanted an owl.  ???  We are not artists.  This is what Rob came up with for the owl:

Rob finished carving the pumpkin and then turned it around to show his mom who burst into uncontrollable laughter.  Then he showed it to Tank.  He tried to stay positive.  "Look, Tank!  It's an owl!"  Tank giggled and said, "No, it's not."

This is the one that I did for Elijah:

I told Rob that my pumpkin got a "that's exactly what I wanted" reaction.  Rob said, " I didn't hear you volunteering to do the owl!  You drew 2 circles, a square, and a smile!"  True.

Trunk-or-Treat

Elijah wanted to be a skeleton, but then refused to wear the skeleton apron that my mom made for him because "it's not a costume."  Fine.  So for the second year in a row he was a red crayon:  (I took this picture Halloween night, and he'd added the green vampire teeth for effect.  I was surprised that he wore them all 2 hours of trick-or-treating.  Those things are not comfortable.)

Miciah was the little mermaid, I wore the skeleton apron, Tank was the horse (again.  This might be 3 years running.  I don't think Tank has grown during all that time), and Rob was a mad scientist.  People thought that Rob's costume was a cop-out because Rob's a scientist anyway.  But I tell you what, his class at NKU loved it.  He had students taking videos and everything.  Really, what sold the costume was Rob's amazing mad scientist voice.  And then he'd start saying things like, "If you come in the back room with me I will harvest your body parts, I mean, can you help me with an experiment?"  Hilarious.

Halloween

The next night we met up with our neighbors, who are delightful, and did our Trick-or-Treating with them.  Elijah was the red crayon again, but Miciah was undecided about which of her 2 costumes she would wear:  Little Mermaid, or the blue crayon.  She'd worn them both to one event (trunk-or-treat and school party), so when she couldn't decide, I suggested that she wear Rob's lab coat.  Best last-minute Halloween idea I've ever had!  Rob ratted her hair, we put some green food coloring in a test tube, she put on rubber gloves and goggles, and viola!  Mad scientist:

At one point I joked with her that she needed to work on "breaking out of her shell."  She's such a ham.  She loved it.  People who gave her candy loved it.  This is definitely a costume we could use again.

And now...

The weekend is over and I'm serving on a grand jury, which is actually very interesting.  I have to go in every day (except next Thursday which happens to be a federal holiday), but the hours aren't super long.  They TOLD me the hours would be long, but they lied about that.  It's laid back, the lawyer we work with is great, parking is an adventure, downtown is lovelier when the weather is chilly, and I should be home to get my kids off the bus every day.  Sweet!

Right now Tank is with my in-laws.  (Thank you, in-laws.)  I think he's enjoying himself, but he sobbed when we put him in the car to leave.  I'd been talking to him about it for weeks, trying to get him excited.  And he was excited, but I think also a little scared.  ...  Rob was helping him say his goodbye's on Saturday night.  "Give Miciah a hug."  He did.  "Give Elijah a hug."  He did.  "Give Mommy a hug."  "No."  "You don't want to give Mommy a hug?"  "No."  I walked over to give him a hug anyway, and Tank burst into sobs and fell into my arms.  So I did what good mothers should do:  I told him I loved him while I walked him to the car, put him in the car seat, and then walked inside.