Birthday Week + Halloween Festivities

Our pumpkin patch visit came a few weeks before Halloween on a Saturday. We picked out pumpkins, took some pictures and went home for a fire and roasted dinner and marshmallows.

 The girls had fall break from school for the few days before Camille's birthday. We didn't do exciting things, just hung out at home. Camille took a bag of candy to school on her birthday to share with her class. Daniel and I had decorated the house the night before with streamers and balloons. I think that afternoon, some friends from the neighborhood came over to play. That night we had pizza for dinner, and chips and salsa (Camille's current favorite food), and I had made a candy corn cake -- vanilla cake with candy corn frosting. It wasn't my most stellar creation -- taste-wise or decoration-wise. But she was happy. She opened her presents and played with her new things. It wasn't an overly exciting birthday. But, again. She was happy.

My birthday was equally uneventful. I did no housework whatsoever, without feeling guilty, which was lovely (of course, I paid for it for the next week and a half when I was behind my schedule and the house got completely out of control ... especially laundry. The girls kept complaining about no underwear and no pajamas). Jack and I played, I hung out with the girls, I let the kids watch some Halloween shows, I ate complete and utter "fun food" -- which ended up making me feel sick for a good portion of the afternoon and early evening. I had asked Daniel for In 'n' Out for dinner. But I felt so gross that I just asked for a big chunky salad. And he made chicken nuggets for the kids. Brian, Sammy and Cap came over for dinner and festivities, and Daniel and Brian and Sammy gave me some nice presents -- a hair wrap for after the shower, and some BYU paraphernalia. Also, Sawyer was 5 months old on my birthday, and the most delicious little pumpkin ever!

I think one of the reasons I felt so gross on my birthday was because for over a month before birthday week, I was sugar and flour free. That's a whole story on it's own. But for 3 days straight, I ate very poorly of all the things I'd previously been avoiding. It was a pretty clear testament to me of the benefits of healthy eating.

 

We carved pumpkins the Monday before Halloween for family home evening. Daniel basically carved Jack's and a bunch of Camille's, aside from his own. But Brooke did her pumpkin almost entirely by herself, and Camille dug her pumpkin's guts out basically on her own. All the pumpkins were cute.

From left to right: Jack's pumpkin, mine, Brooke's, and Camille's. Daniel wasn't done with his when I took the picture.

The night before Halloween was out Annual Halloween Feast, on the 30th. It's unusual for me to have our feast so late in the season. But many activities were cancelled this year due to covid, so it wasn't as busy as usual. For our feast this year, we had "Snail Shell Soup", "Graveyard Dip" (back by popular demand) and chips, "Bone Chunks", "Eyeballs", "Ghost Cookies" and "Potion". The kids loved helping me prepare for it, and we all had fun eating and listening to spooky music. Our movie selection this year was once again "Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie". I had shown the kids "Halloweentown" earlier in the month, and they thought it was too scary. So, I figured any of the other movies we could've watched would've been too much for them. Maybe next year, when they're a year older, we can introduce something else.

 

Halloween was a much lower key holiday this year because of Covid. I would say most people in our neighborhood were not participating in Halloween. Many people just left bowls of candy on their front doorstep, and some houses were just closed up. It was very anticlimactic trick or treating this year. Both girls said something about how many houses were duds. We didn't trick or treat as long as usual, either, maybe just less than an hour or so. The girls' haul of candy was quite pitiful. 

The kids costumes were ... special this year too. I really let them decide what they wanted and here's where they landed:

• Brooke wanted to do her costume all on her own, even though I offered several times to help her or at least buy a costume. She wanted to be a vampire, of the Vampirina style: blue skin, bat pigtails, black clothes and shoes, etc. On Friday before Halloween, for the school parties, she dressed in all light blue clothes, painted her face blue, and fashioned fangs for herself out of flossers which she'd cut into teeth shape and painted white. (*shrugs*) She was happy with it, and I was happy that she was happy. Also, that I didn't have to do hardly anything. I bought the blue shirt and helped her start her face paint application. Most of her classmates thought she'd dressed up as a smurf. On Halloween, she did the same, except that she added a cape for greater effect. 
• Camille just wanted to be a witch, using the witch costume Daniel had bought on super discount at the Party Store a few months back when it was going out of business... due to covid. She painted her face and neck green and put on the purple dress and hat. Halloween night she also added a cape. And she made a pretty cute witch. Again -- I didn't have to do anything. (*fist bump*)
• Jack really just wanted to be a ghost. So Daniel pulled out a flat white toddler bed sheet and rigged it up for him and painted his face white. He was an absolutely ADORABLE ghost! I could not get over it. (*heart eyes*)
• And we pulled out the old skeleton costume for Sawyer, which he, of course, rocked. 

So we had a vampire, a witch, a ghost and a skeleton. We were a very Halloween themed family this year. I bought myself some black cat ears to go along with the theme. 😊