11/1/10

We Aren't That Spooky

Halloween Instax

Our Halloween evening was short and sweet with two little ones that were too tired to rock-n-roll all night and a slightly sick mama that was just fine with turning in early. I spent most of the weekend between fevers and headaches and Brett took care of the kids so I could rest. Halloween afternoon rolled around and I was able to finish Ruby's Little Red Riding Hood cape and decided on my own costume as the wolf dressed as granny. That's when things started to get interesting.

Brett pulled me aside and told me he was an hour into his essay revisions for his online class and it was going to take him much longer than he thought to finish. I knew he was hoping I'd be the one to mention he stay home to work while I took the kids out and that we were both disappointed. I pouted a little but then remembered how much time he'd sacrificed all weekend watching the kids so I could rest, the five loads of laundry, the three loads of dishes, the trips to the grocery store, and taking Sebastian to church by himself that morning. He had taken good care of us so I needed to take care of him. Though, I did pout a little bit longer than I should've.


Spidey On The Lookout

I got Ruby dressed and left her to scoot around her room while I located her brother who suddenly didn't want to dress up AGAIN and go get MORE CANDY. He wanted to look for transformers online! And play transformers with his friend from across the street! And why couldn't he be BUMBLEBEE for Halloween! Because the fever inhibits my ability to make costumes appear out of thin air, son. Obviously.

We had Brett take photos and video of us in the front yard after I changed my costume from granny the wolf to The Woodsman. It was WAY more comfortable anyway, ya'll. We got packed into the car and I downed a small bag of M&M's while I pouted a little longer that I was hauling two small ones out into the night while wearing a moustache and a fever. (Maybe I should've been the H1N1 virus!)

We then drove to McDonald's ya'll, because in all the costume finishing, plan changing, pouty face frenzy, I had forgotten to feed my son. My son who then uncharacteristically threw his Happy Meal toy at my head while I was driving so I could open it for him. I called his toy stupid as I teared up at the state of our evening and soon we were both crying. Did I mention he missed his two hour nap?

We finally made it to the trunk-or-treat to meet up with our friends and hit up a neighborhood with plenty of candy and not too many kids to wait behind at the door. I got to see my friends' son and daughter experience Halloween for the first time (without missing a beat I might add) and enjoyed the comic relief that all of our kids provided as they raced back from each door to show us their buckets.

Spiderman, declared he was worn out before I did so I took that opportunity to head home, count our candy, and tell Brett what he'd missed. Thankfully he was able to see all the photos before we tried uploading them later that night because most of them managed to get deleted en route. Yes, the perfect ending to the evening. My Instax 210 saved the day, though, so Ruby will someday have proof that her first Halloween actually happened.

At the end of the day I got my costume photo, Sebastian got to see his friends, and Brett finished his paper with about 30 minutes to spare. It could've been worse.

I'd love to hear how your Halloween went! Do share...

xoxo,
Rachel

29 comments:

AshleyAnn said...

I love those little boy costumes with the big fake muscles...I really need to buy one...or 3 of those. Tell Sebastian he is one tough looking Spiderman!

Stacy Hart said...

our halloween wasn't as stressful as yours (sorry about that by the way, i think all moms understand those days - i've had my share), but funnily enough we were on the same wavelength with costumes! check us out here:

http://hartandsew.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

I'm sorry it turned out so topsy-turvey. :( I'm not feeling well, either, but I haven't got any littles yet that I need to care for. Hope you're feeling better soon Rachel!

andrea said...

oh dear. I've had a few halloweens like that myself-especially with ezra. feel better soon, mama. xo

Erin Alaska said...

OH, I love that your Halloween sounds just like mine...or any typical parent with two little ones. I blogged about my Halloween last night. But needless to say we are still in a candy hangover!

Anonymous said...

Well nobody cried on our Halloween but somehow I forgot to eat a single piece of candy the entire day... Your kids look super cute despite the chaos! :)

katielicht said...

THANK you for sharing this. i was honestly starting to feel a little bad yesterday since all I saw online were picture perfect happy families and kids and while our halloween was fun, it was not picture perfect. this is my photographic evidence of our night: http://tinyurl.com/27edp53

My son had a meltdown when I wouldn't give him more than one piece of candy so I decided that trick or treating for MORE candy was not a good idea. and of course he wouldn't wear his costume. oh, and my husband found something online that said our son's costume (garden gnome) was one of the top 7 most psychologically disturbing things you can dress your child as. Then I cried. :)

All in all we did have a fun day, but I totally understand your day. And yes, it could have been worse!

Mandy Ford Art & Illustration said...

Whew - what a day you had! {hugs} Ours was kind of similar, although we didn't do any running around town. Landon had a bad cold and didn't want to put his entire costume on, but ended up being the one that wanted to trick or treat more than his brother, who was in full Woody mode (Landon was Buzz). We ended up going to two of our neighbor's houses and calling it a day. Hopefully next Halloween will be much less busy and more enjoyable for both of our families!

MilliD said...

Oh man, I have SO been there!! Sorry you had one of those days. Don't feel alone! Hope you are feeling much better very soon!

Hope said...

Oh i feel you! Last year my husband was sick at home and i got sick half way through the trick or treating!! This year went much more smoothly, as soon as my son decided he FINALLY wanted to wear his costume! Boys...
There's always next year for that perfect All Hallows Eve!!


http://myhandfulofthoughts.blogspot.com/

Gingiber said...

Your kids look precious! That stinks about the photos being deleted and the stress of the day. I give you 2 gold stars for being awesome!

Amanda said...

Sounds like you made the best of it even with a cranky preschooler and sick momma.

We had a fun evening with only a few minor bumps. Our costumes were my favorite EVER! I am proud to say almost everything my girls wore was thrifted or something we already had on hand!

www.amanda-thriceblessed.blogspot.com

Alison said...

I'm sorry your Halloween was sort of a downer, but the way you told the story was so funny, I was laughing all the way through:) I dressed up as Mary Poppins this year, and was so in love with my costume, I asked my husband if he would be ok with me wearing it every day:) He wasn't quite as enthusiastic about the idea as I was, but I saved the costume, just in case he changes his mind:)

Unknown said...

Wow - you had a banner night (not in a good way), I'm impressed you soldiered on, I think I would have thrown in the towel! Our Halloween was quiet, Ella is too young still for candy, but had fun roaming the square as a little cow (with a hat that a passerby described as a "Yamaka with ears" seen here - http://ellabeanandco.blogspot.com/2010/11/spooky.html )

I hope you are feeling better!!!

Karen M. Andersen said...

Oh Rachel...you poor thing! I so hope you start feeling better soon! LOVE Ruby's cape, you did a great job there, and you all look fantastic together :) I have similar discussions with my son, so don't lose heart lovely...that's boys for you!

We celebrated our first Halloween ever this year. You see, we are Aussies and Halloween has just started to become more popular here over the last few years. I thought the kids were a little young to take trick-or-treating up till now, and we had a great time tripping around the neighbourhood gathering lollies and laughs from our friendly neighbours and being yelled at by the not-so-friendly ones. I made my kids a very simple cape each out of some heavy black cotton fabric. Lachie was a surfie version of Count Dracula and Lili was a witch. I would have loved to have sewn more of their costumes, but they had their hearts set on other things so as long as they were happy, I was happy. My man stayed home to man the fort here too, and I pouted about it also haha! Pics of my kids in their Halloween fare are on my blog if you wanna see http://karenmandersen.typepad.com

Karen xx

P.S. Your Halloween sounds an awful lot like my last Christmas ;D

margot said...

you're not spooky at all, but you're all adorable!
hope you're feeling well soon!

Nell said...

I hope it wasn't too traumatic for you all. We went to my Nan's house (she throws a mean halloween party each year) and took my nephews (Batman and a scary pirate) trick or treating. We went as Cowboys and Indians. It was really fun and way too much chocolate was consumed!! xx

She said...

I almost had to cancel our Halloween festivities because my 3 would not stop fighting or changing their minds last minute about what to wear. Once it was all said and done and makeup was done on the kiddos. I threw my fit about not being able to dress up since my love is so last minute and indecisive and then my 7 year old (the oldest) finished complaining about her hair being too tight and my youngest (4) decided maybe she didn't want to be the rainbow butterfly fairy but maybe the pink rainbow butterfly fairy princess instead....well when it was all said and done we had a blast I got my pumpkin flavored frozen yogurt and we all went to bed tired and happy...also with a load of candy to boot.

Rebecca said...

Oh dear! Thank you for this very sweet reminder that life isn't always perfect. Hope you feel better!

Cindy J said...

So cute :) I love that story. I can relate to the happy meal toy to the head. My daughter spend a good 3 minutes at the fabric store yesterday swinging her my little pony by the hair straight into my head. Those little hairs get tangled up into those little fingers pretty good, it took me a while to get that pony away from her grasp. Stupid little ponys.

Emma was a panda, and we invited my 11 year old brother to come out trick or treating with us. At first he was bummed to have to go first everytime and ring the doorbell, but he decided it was an okay thing to go trick or treating with his baby niece because they give out more candy :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecupcakerygirl/5134175337/ :)

Fabiola "Fab" said...

gorgeous costumes!

Trine said...

ha, sounds you had a nice evening, and so did I ...;-))
I wrote about it here: http://www.blueberry-hill-studio.com


xoxo Trine

it can only get better next year...lol

Jessi said...

It was freezing cold for our Halloween, but the kids made it up the street and around the block - here are pics of our night!
http://commonthreadskingston.blogspot.com/2010/11/our-kids-theme-was.html

Elizabeth said...

I went to a student art show on at my university's art building, dressed as the Morton Salt girl!

Glad you survived Halloween! It sounds like it was a memorable one :)

Kim W. said...

everyone looks really awesome! and sounds like you had an amazing night! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays!

lauren ♥ said...

your son normally takes a two hour nap!!?? wow, i am lucky if my almost three year old will nap for 45 minutes. lucky you! <3

Ashleigh Baker said...

Your night sounds like ours have been the past two years... we had so much going on last year that I hardly remember the actual trick-or-treating, save the fact that neither of my preschoolers wanted to get back into their costumes and the whole thing began with much crying on their part. Whose idea was it to have Halloween be an after-bedtime activity anyway? ;)

Anonymous said...

Our stubborn mule of a daughter declared she wasn't dressing up as Dorothy at the last minute (I had sewn the dress myself) but was going as a cat. OK. Fine. It was so cold here in upstate NY, the kids were bundled up and you couldn't even see their costumes anyway The kids only lasted 2 blocks and wanted to go home, due to the cold. So it was a quick Halloween. But man can I relate to your story, that's like everyday at our house.

Larky Park said...

Ok I've read you blog for awhile and thought, "this girl is so creative, cool etc" and really liked that you disliked the word moist (sick). But after this post, it might have graduated to online stalker love! I was laughing in total sick comradery. Currently, I'm on a cross- country roadtrip with our kiddos. And this post was a perfect steam- release. Thx!!