Uncle Booga and his family arrived early so we sent all the kids outside to rake up the leaves in my back yard. Once we got the whole yard clean and pristine looking, with just one pile neatly gathered in the middle, we sent all the kids jumping into it at the same time. The girls had a blast dancing in the leaves and throwing handfuls at each other. (Ladybug didn’t throw very well, she usually just ran up and pushed her handful onto your leg, having forgotten to actually throw it.)
Having had our fill of leaf jumping, we all came back inside and set the kids to work coloring Halloween pictures to hang on the mantel and hanging bats from the ceiling as decorations. Then, since we still had some time before the party was scheduled to start, we took the kids downstairs for a movie. I had gotten “Nightmare Before Christmas” but didn’t realize how creepy it would be. Fortunately most of the kids got distracted to we turned it off about halfway through and played with toys instead.
As we got dinner ready, all the kids make sucker ghosts (tootsie pops with tissues, string and drawn-on faces). Grammy had planned a great and creative Halloween feast. Our pumpkin-look-alike breadbowls were filled with clam chowder and were accompanied by jack-o-lantern quesadillas (the kids got to cut faces into the tortillas before they were cooked) and veggie sticks.
After dinner, everyone got ready in their costumes and lined up for a costume parade. Butterfly had picked out a tiger dress and wore matching tiger ears, Ladybug wore a comfy monkey suit, complete with tail and face on the hood and Baby wore a pink leopard sleeper. Daddy was the absent zookeeper, unfortunately having been summoned away on a last minute business trip. I was going to be a tree, knowing that I’d be carrying the tiny leopard around all night, but without daddy there, it didn’t seem as funny and I ran out of time to prepare it properly anyway. One of my nieces was a witch and her little sister was her black cat. We also had a pirate girl, ladybug, baby ghost, evil eye monster and a family of angry birds! Booga painted a shirt to resemble one of the levels and pinned the evil pigs on his shoulder to be the target wall and his wife, two sons and youngest daughter were each different colored angry birds. Only a few of the adults dressed up, but had some of the most clever costumes of a basket of laundry and a bunch of grapes.
We had some awesome games planned. First we had the witch hunt and the kids went searching the downstairs playroom and bedrooms for cut out paper witches. Then Grammy solemnly announced that there was a giant spider living in my house and I needed help cleaning up the mess. We took the kids into the unfinished portion of the basement and gave each child one end of a different color of yarn. Then they had to follow the yarn, winding it up as they went, crawling through the unfinished framing, under tables, through chairs and over all kinds of obstacles, including each other! In the middle of the room sat the massive spider (made from trash bags and filled with leaves and newspapers). This was a great game for older kids but the younger kids needed help (which was fun too!) Then we returned upstairs for pumpkin bowling (bowling a pumpkin ball into empty milk jugs) and the candy catch (kids were blind folded and sat across from an adult partner, then they had 15 seconds to throw candy as fast as they could and their partner had to use a trick or treat bucket to catch as much as they could). Lastly we did the eye ball bounce where the kids bounced ping pong eyeballs into plastic cups filled with candy (getting to keep the candy from the cups if they made it). We had a few more games planned but since it was getting late, we ended the party with cupcakes and drinks. Then as we cleaned up and sat around to chat, the men set up the bowling alley again and bowled the kids into the jugs! (I have very beautiful, very slick, hardwood floors.)
Soon the party was over and about half the guests went home. The other half spent the night so after a short night’s sleep, we got to play some more. This time, daddy got to join since he had arrived home around midnight. I made chocolate chips pancakes for everyone but since I used hot water, all the chocolate chips melted and we had chocolate swirl pancakes (my brother thought it was brilliant and that I had done it on purpose). After breakfast the kids played downstairs while I got to relax and enjoy talking with my mom, aunt and grandma who had come to town for the party. The dads took the kids out to the hay maze and to the park for a picnic. But soon all of our guests were gone and our very happy girls settled down for a long nap.
The rest of the day was lazily and leisurely spent watching movies and running a few errands. Sunday morning came too soon and after the usual getting-ready-for-church chaos, daddy took the girls on the “church date” while me and the baby cuddled at home. I love that she is spending more time awake throughout the day but along with that, she’s becoming more insistent that she is to be cuddled all day. She begins to fuss and cry whenever I put her down (even if she was asleep). So we spent most of the day cuddling and accomplished very little by the time daddy got home.
The evening was wonderful. We spent it with more family to celebrate daddy’s sister’s birthday. Most of the family there hadn’t met our baby yet so it was fun to show her off and spend time with family that we haven’t seen for a little while. Dinner was so good and the girls loved playing with their cousins. They also particularly enjoyed the birthday party part of the evening—opening presents and blowing out the candles. We had taken the girls to the store and wandered, telling Butterfly she could pick out a present for her auntie. We were surprised when she really did fixate on something (a leopard print umbrella and red socks) and got so excited, insisting that her auntie would love it. With a shrug of “why not” (animal print is her trademark after all), we agreed and Butterfly was so proud of herself.
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