Halloween 2008

Certain people have been at me to put pictures on the site from Halloween. And since I'm such an accommodating gal, I thought I would comply with said requests.

We had a good time this Halloween. It's one of my favorite holidays, and we successfully streatched it out for about a week. Three parties and boatloads of candy!!! We carved pumpkins, played games and spent time with good friends. As you can see from the pictures, we had fun.

I think the kids enjoy getting the candy more than eating it though. We have sooo much of it, and they've probably only eated about three pieces each. I've probably eaten three pieces in the last 30 minutes.

Liam was Harry Potter (although we own the movies, he's never seen them, so I don't quite know why he picked that) and Andrew was some kind of demon or something. Same thing as last year, only this year, he wasn't too chicken to let me paint his face.

I didn't let Andrew paint his face for some of the parties for the little kids though. I didn't want them to be scared. This picture on the left is from one of those. The kids here with Andrew and Liam are friends of Liam's that go to his daycare. Mac and Maggie are their names. They are all very sweet and funny to watch.

Last night we went over to a neighborhood where we've trick or treated for the past three or so years. We have several friends that live in that neighborhood, and they always have lots of houses to trick or treat. This year, one of the families had a party before we went trick or treating. It was funny because all the kids from the party went out together, so we had quite a little caravan going.

They all stayed together at first, but by the end, they were all over the place.

There is one house in this neighborhood that is always freaky as hell. Andrew usually wouldn't go near it, but he did this year. They give some darn good candy, and they all dress up. It's cool because they put ghosts in the windows, they have little graveyard, and always some kind of something that moves or shoots air or something. This year, they added several things including this little girl that will no doubt give both the kids nightmares for a couple years. Freakin' scary. (see below)

I wish I had taken video instead of just a still shot, but basically, she acted like she was eating the leg and every once in a while, she would look up and scream and smoke shot out her mouth. It was pretty gross. Andrew still wouldn't go in their yard, but Liam had to go examine everything. I did hear him say, "It's just pretend." to himself a couple of times, but he was fascinated.

So, we have two adults-only parties tonight and then we'll put another Halloween in the books.

BOOOO!

Guess which one is MEEE!!

I had an awesome childhood. If I ever wanted to tell something to my mom and dad, it would be that. We may not have had a lot of money, but we had so much family, I don't remember that part at all. We were always with family. I really loved having my sister and cousins and grandparents around.

Sometimes I feel like I'm robbing my kids of the same great childhood that I had. But what can you do? We're all scattered now.

Grandpa John (pictured in the center) died this spring right before my other granpa did. I miss them more than I thought I would. They were loud, outspoken, opinionated and often crotchety. But there is definitely something missing in my visits without them.

I'm looking forward to the holidays. Even though these are the first Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays without my grandpas, I know my family. And I know that someone will find it in their hearts to drive to the liquor store, buy some booze and we can all sit around making bad jokes and talking about the ones that didn't make it home (or at least the ones who went out to get more booze). And then we'll eat and eat until we can't eat any more. Then we'll pile our fat asses into the car and go to someone else's house to eat more.

Here's to awesome families. The world would be a better place if everyone had one.