Halloween Fun

• Wow, what a day. The annual candyfest has come and gone. This has to be one of my favorite holidays of the year. I mean how many other holidays are dedicated to dressing up in a silly costume and asking perfect strangers to give you candy?? And speaking of candy, we could open a store with all the stuff the kids brought in the past two days. Why two days? Well Carolyn has school Monday through Thursday so her school held a "Fall Festival Party" on Thursday and she came home loaded with candy, pencils,and plastic cups all in a very cute trick or treat bag. Thursday night was also the night our fitness center held it's annual Halloween party and this year's theme was Princesses. Unfortunately, we did not get to go due to Matthew waking up with the mother of all ear infections that morning. He actually woke me up sometime in the middle of the night to tell me that his ear hurt so of course I did the "ok sweetie" mumble and promptly fell back asleep only to be woken up a few minutes later by the same child with the same complaint. I dosed him with Motrin and all was quiet. I asked him later that morning when he was getting ready for school if his ear still hurt and didn't get a response so I assumed he was fine. I didn't know and the loving husband forgot to tell me that Matthew had complained about his ear before Jim left to go to work. Anyway fast forward to later that morning and the phone rings and it is the school nurse telling me Matthew is in her office complaining of an earache. We decided that we were going to try and get him through the last hour and a half of his day but I told her that if she needed me to, I would pick him up. I made a doctor appointment and waited for my phone to ring. It did a half hour later and I went and picked up Matthew. We got home and as soon as I gave him the Motrin he passed out and did not wake up until after Carolyn left for school at 12. I tried to get him to come out and eat lunch but all he wanted to do was sleep. We went to the doctor appointment and got the antibiotic for the ear and I had asked to get some drops that would help releve the pain so we filled those prescriptions and as soon as we got home I gave Matthew the eardrops and he spent the majority of the day sleeping. After all that sleep yesterday Matthew was wide awake at 6:45 this morning. He came into the bedroom to wake us up and the loving husband reminded me that he probably was ready to start the day. Of course I wasn't but that is besides the point. I got up and got his costume (Spider Man) packed and his special treats. Side note...The school rules prohibit students from bringing edible items to share with thier classmates so Matthew got to take his costume and whatever was packed as a snack. He did come home with some nice things like a book and some of his classmates did do goody bags (pencils and play-doh) but it was nothing compared to what Carolyn brought home the day before. Because it was dark this morning when Matt got ready and left for school I did not notice anything out of order but when he got off the bus later in the day I noticed that his left ear was very gross looking. Sometime the night before his eardrum had ruptured and all the blood and gunk had stained his pillowcase and crusted in his ear. I guess the ear drops had done thier job at relieving the pain because he never woke up during the night and when I asked him if his ear hurt he said no. Besides me being grossed out there is not alot I can do. He is already on an antibiotic so I don't have to worry about more infection and according to the doctor, the pressure is now relieved in the ear so Matthew will feel a lot better. The kids were pretty excited to go out tonight and do some trick or treating. I had planned on taking them to the mall for their collections but it was such a nice day and evening that the loving husband decided we should try something a little different. We started out visiting a few businesses and then went over to the local volunteer fire station for the community party. We got there right as it started so there was very little waiting for the games they had set up. All the kids enjoyed themselves. Andrew became quite good at saying trick or treat and of course he threw down the cute to the max. His cutest spider in the world costume still fit so he wore that. Matthew and Carolyn had outgrown thier costumes so I had to buy them new ones. Matthew wanted to be Spiderman so as soon as I saw the costumes in Wal-mart I went and got him that one. Carolyn wanted to be a witch and that was a little harder. Fortunately, one of the ladies who works in the fitness center nursery knew I was looking for a witch costume and found one for me at Savers. The only problen was that the arms were too long for Carolyn so I had to put a few well-placed stiches to keep them in place (I knew that sewing kit would come in handy) After filling the candy buckets at the city party we headed out to the streets. Jim picked a busy block in one of the better neighborhoods filled with other trick or treaters and off we went. I drove the van while Dad and the kids worked the houses. Jim's rationalle for picking the spot he did was based on his belief that the residents of this neighborhood would have older children so they would be home passing out candy instead of taking thier kids house to house. He was right and boy did the kids haul. After about a half hour or so the kids were starting to get chilly so we headed over to McDonalds for a snack. After we had eaten we decided (ok Jim decided) that we should do the Trunk-n-Treat over at one of the local churches. For those who have never done this the idea is simple...a bunch of cars parked in the parking lot and kids go car to car and get candy. We got there and even though the event was due to be over soon it was packed with people. The kids really had fun. Each car was decorated and there was a theme to it. Most of them had some sort of game to do. Matthew even got to try on a football helment and throw a football at a target. The best car was the one with the "Jonah and the Whale" theme complete with a water squirter on top the sprayed "whale spit" The highlight of the night was the really big fire truck parked at the end of the route. I'm sure the space it usually took up in the fire hall was the space being used for the games at the community party. The kids got to go inside and sit in the seats-all of them, especially Andrew loved it. By this time the kids were a little on the chilly side so we packed it in and headed home. I gave the kids a warm bath and we hearded them off to bed. Carolyn refused to wear her nightgown so I jokingly put it on Andrew. Of course I had to take a few photos--I need something to show his prom date. All in all it was a great night. The weather was as close to perfect as you could get. It brought back memories of me and Jim sitting out in our front yard back in Michigan passing out candy by the pound trying to convice gullible trick or treaters that our dog was a cat in a really good dog costume. I'm hoping we luck out weather wise next year so we can do this again. Now I need to go sort (eat) the candy and put some of it away or I will have three very sick kids. I am actually amazed at how much "good stuff" we got. In years past when we have done the mall we have come home with a ton of the cheap hard candy that sits around uneaten until after Christmas when it is finally tossed out. This year we go quite a few candy bars and other chocolate goodies along with suckers galore and other tasty treats. I hope you all had as good of a Halloween as we did.