Happy Halloween

Halloween was lots of fun this year.  On Monday we got together with our friends Rachel and Robin and their two kids, Elliot and Emily, to do some pumpkin carving.  When we began, Gus sighed and said "every year my pumpkin face looks like crap.  Every year I tell myself that I will come up with a really cool design ahead of time next year, and I never do it".   Fortunately, Gus let the kids design our pumpkin, so he didn't need to worry.  They drew the face with markers and he cut it out.  Part way through struggling with his carving knife Gus had the bright idea that he could just use his favorite hole cutting set to cut out the pumpkin.  He wanted me to go get two more pumpkins so he can carve them with power tools.  He kept trying to convince me that "the kids would love it."   As it was, the kids loved their old fashioned pumpkin even with the absence of motors.  They attacked the pumpkin with butter knives, covering it with mini lacerations.  Then they coloured in their lacerations with a purple marker.  The final effect was....creative.  I said to Gus later, "well honey, the pumpkin face leaves something to be desired, but I'm really glad you let the kids design it."  Gus objected, "what are you talking about!  That is my best work!"  Anyway, you can see our pumpkin in the video at the end.  It is a very endearing little pumpkin.

Later in the week Max visited the pumpkin farm with school.  He brought home a tiny little pumpkin and Gus seized it to use with his hole cutting set.  The end result was quite cute.  Max made the hat.

Max spent the whole week looking forward to his last day of outdoor school, which just happened to fall on Oct. 31st.  Max loves outdoor school at the worst of times, but this day was going to be particular fun because they were going to have a Halloween party, outdoor style.  Unfortunately, Thursday night Max woke up vomiting.  He vomited again Friday morning and I just couldn't take him to outdoor school in good conscience.  Max was heart broken and I felt terrible.

Fortunately, Max was back in peak form by the evening and he and Darwyn could barely contain their excitement.  Max dressed up as a pirate and Darwyn as a fairy.  They raced from house to house.  At each door they would yell "trick or treat!" and then receive far more candy then is good for a child.  Afterwards I would prompt "what do you say guys?"  and they would stare blankly and then look back at the person who had just given them candy, hold up their bag again and say "trick or treat?"  Sigh....eventually we got the hang of it.  Darwyn would begin to say trick or treat and then Max would whisper out the side of this mouth "no the other one" at which point she would switch mid sentence to thank you with a result something like "trick or thank you!"

At a couple of houses the kids were prompted to do tricks.  Darwyn did a lovely fairy dance and Max pulled out a bunch of sword tricks.  Although rather stereotypical, both were quite endearing.  Part way through the night Max lost his sword and then his act became a little more perplexing.   We only did a short circuit, but by the end of it the kids were loaded with candy and I'm already trying to figure out how to keep them from eating it all.  I remember my sisters offering their kids the option of trading in candy for favorite activities or toys.  I may need to do the same thing....

Anyway, all in all a successful Halloween. You can see more photos here.