The Aftermath

November 1, 2008

For some unknown reason our teacher work day fell on Halloween so we did not have school yesterday. This did not really sit well with me. I could see the kids start asking at 9:00 am when we can go trick-or-treating. It had the potential to be a very long day.

To fight this we jam-packed our day with fun things. First on the agenda was a walk down to the river. We called some friends and we were off. A lot of leaves had fallen the night before so it was a blast to walk through all the fallen leaves.

The river was also really low so the kids had lots of fun throwing rocks and getting into all sorts of mischief.

After the rive walk it was almost lunch time so we headed back for a quick lunch with Greg and then we were off to the Dinosaur Park. I don't know about you, but I think it is really fun to go to the Dinosaur Park around Halloween.

Eliza kept walking around and telling me how scared she was. She really wasn't scared, but she likes to pretend to be scared around all the dinosaurs.

After the Dinosaur Park I got the brilliant idea to go and get the kids their flu shots. I know, I know that wasn't really something fun, but I figured the doctors office would be dead considering it was Halloween. I was really wrong. It seems a lot of other moms had the same idea and the place had been hopping all day with moms bringing their kids in for their flu shot. We were lucky and got in when they were in a down time. The other nice thing is they didn't get a shot. It seems now the flumist is covered by almost every insurances so instead of a shot they just had to sniff. It made for a much better doctors visit.

We finally got home about 3:45 and everyone rested up for the night. After dinner I started to get the kids ready.

Both kids were really excited. (I know you can't tell in the picture, but neither of the kids would look at me. Out of the 10 shots I took this was actually the best one. Little stinkers.)

This year it was my turn to stay home. I love to go out with the kids, but the last two days had been so jam-packed that I was really looking forward to just getting a small break. The kids left at about 6:00 and were back by 6:30. Forrest said he had enough candy and wanted to come in. I convinced him to go out for a little while longer. They finally came home at about 7:30 and that is when the real fun began. My kids love to hand out candy. They will fight and race to the door to give out treats. Forrest soon grew bored of it, but Eliza didn't.

She would gaze out the window holding the candy bowl looking for the next group of trick-or-treaters. When we would tell her it was time to go to bed she would sign more and then point to the bowl. Finally Forrest and I decided to help her along. We went out the back door and ran around to the front to ring the doorbell. She loved to open it up and have us yell trick or treat. Pretty soon she also wanted to join in the fun. After about 20 minutes of this we finally convinced the kids they needed to go to bed. Both kids were in bed by 9:00, but I doubt either of them fell asleep much before 10:00 they were so wired.

This morning when Eliza woke up she got her costume back on, grabbed the bowl and immediately started to watch for more trick or treaters. It has been a hard blow to her that Halloween is over for the year. Hopefully we can think of something fun to keep her going until Thanksgiving.