HAAAAALLLLLOOOOWWWWEEEEENNNNNNNNN

Halloween started to feel like the holiday that never ends this week.  On the one hand, that is a funny, funny statement coming from me, the woman who drags Christmas out through all of Advent and believes in a minimum of three Easter egg hunts a year.  On the other hand, I am used to Halloween being a one, maybe two day affair.  This year, it lasted almost a full week.

First of all, we had the requisite Halloween picture taking outing.  John, having changed his name from Jack, avoided being put in a Jack of Spades sandwich board and instead got to be a generic superhero, allowing him to announce that he was Batman, Spiderman, Superman, or just "Superhero" to everyone he saw.  Sydney was going to be a marry lady (bride) but when she saw her brother's cape and mask, she wanted one, too.  So they were both superheroes.

Then we went to the church for the annual Pumpkin Carving.

This is one of Jeremy's favorite Halloween events and he came prepared with his own selection of specially sharpened knives.  As I was walking around, I kept hearing people as they looked at the store bought pumpkin "saws" asking, "Is this all they have."  I would come up next to them and whisper,, "See that guy in the orange shirt.  He's my husband and he has really good knives.  If you're over 21, you can go ask to borrow one."  (They really were that sharp.)  Anyway, when I got back to Jeremy he said, "Have you put the word out?  I feel like I'm running a black market as all these people keep whispering to me, 'I hear you have good knives.'"

Yep.  That's my husband.  The man who can get you good knives.

Sydney and Jeremy made traditional Jack o'Lanterns.  I made a superhero pumpkin for John and a pumpkin house for myself and Sydney's Loopsy Lala doll.

Then, two days later, it was time for the Fall Costume Parade and Fall Party at my school.  I let Sydney join me for the day again.  She had so much fun!

Sydney got to play the games with my class and spend the day doing all of the fun Halloween activities with us.  She ran in a candy corn relay, wrapped a friend in Charmin to make her look like a mummy, ate lots of Halloween candy, and actually completed all of the color by number, dot to dot type pencil and paper activities I had given my students to complete that day.

That night, we had the Edmistons and the Brutons over to play Betrayal at the House on the Hill, a haunted house board game.  While the adults were playing the game, the kids were playing dress up, because obviously that's what kids do during neverending Halloween week.

 

The best part was that I didn't even have to take these pictures.  Emelia is now a second grader and a great photographer.  I only had to step up when no one would take a picture of Emelia in her fabulous rocker policewoman outfit.

 

 Meanwhile, the adults were exploring a haunted mansion, hoping that the haunt would not start too soon.

And just in case you aren't picturing the game, here it is.  We are each a different character and we start in the entrance hall, turning over room tiles as we explore.

Our game ended as most of these usually do, with all of the characters dead in the Graveyard.  I mean, it is a haunted house.

The next day, Saturday, honestly we would have had more Halloween fun and gone to the church Pumpkin Fest, but we had already bought Peter and the Wolf tickets, so we missed that fun.

On Sunday, though, we were off to Sea World with the Fords to celebrate Mr. Ford's birthday and have yet another chance to dress up.  Jeremy couldn't make it to Sea World.  He was at the doctor's office finding out that he did indeed have a raging sinus infection and no wonder he hadn't been feeling well.

I loved seeing the Fords in their coordinated costumes, with Mrs. Ford as the football player, Mr. Ford as the umpire (and I do believe that ump is blind) and the baby is the football, of course.

 

My favorite part was feeding the dolphins.  Sydney and John both get so into that process and have such a great time interacting with the animals.

We went to the Shamu show twice.  It was Sydney's favorite this visit.  She even stayed after to ask some questions (how deep is the water, how do whales sleep) and just see the whales swimming around some more.

We also spent a lot of time at the Bay of Play while the Fords caught the Beluga show.  Sydney and John both loved the carousel.

Sydney made a new best friend in line for the carousel and she and her new buddy and her mom went on the boat ride while I stood outside with John (and really, nothing made me happier than having the excuse of a toddler as a reason to not get on that crazy boat).

Sydney and John then both played on the huge climbing maze.  Sydney would run up the ropes, slide down the slide and then run up the ropes again.

Both she and John tried out the tunnels, but capes are for flying, not crawling and kept getting in the way.

 I love this picture of the kids.  Mine seem so small to me until there is a newborn in the picture.

After Sea World, we went share a birthday dinner with the Fords at the best Chili's ever.  I mean it.  The hostess got the kids lemonade while we waited.  The waiter kept the refills coming.  The manager and two previously unseen employees swooped in when John spilled an entire lemonade on the floor, cleaning up the mess in less than two minutes.  Then, as a grand finale, there was a balloon man who made balloon animals for the kids.  Sydney got a butterfly, John got a shamu shark, I mean, whale (I really mean dolphin -- the guy at Sea World told us orcas are the largest member of the dolphin family).

Today, though, was finally Halloween.  The kids had Halloween parties at school.  Then when they came home, they found their mother in bed with a sinus infection and it was daddy's turn to take over Halloween fun.  Jeremy got the kids back into their capes, even choosing coordinating clothes other than the ones in the laundry from the day at Sea World.  He took the kids out to buy Halloween candy for the trick or treaters, and then took them trick or treating around the block.

That right there, is a LOT of Halloween.  In fact, one might say we had a SUPER Halloween.