Happy Halloween

Another Halloween has come and gone, leaving me feeling nostalgic and the kids acting off their rockers. Never again will they be 8 and 6. Time is flying by. Life is happening now. I have moments where I am overwhelmed (and maybe the tiniest bit paralyzed) by wanting to hold on to an exact moment or feeling. These moments have a way of happening a lot during the holiday season when I am feeling particularly grateful for my life and those who I share it with. And then just like that...the kids are punching each other in the face and I am threatening to lie down in traffic somewhere!

Our Halloween festivities began with our (now) annual pumpkin carving contest that we have hosted the last 2 years. Last year we invited one other family over to carve pumpkins and watch the World Series. This year we invited 4 families, served pizza, listened to spooky tunes and purchased every carving tool that Walmart had on their shelves in the hopes that it would inspire creativity and make the kids excited for the holiday. What we found was that the kids do very little carving...or brainstorming...or scooping. We parents were exhausted carving, scooping, designing, repeat (we all have more than 1 kid who refused to do anything having to do with the actual process) and then we also got to clean up the mess! The kids then proudly stood by "their" pumpkin, which was really "our" pumpkin because we worked on the damn thing for an hour. Each. In the end it was all worth the blood, sweat and tears we put in to creating spooky creations for our kids. Because without it we would have never gotten this ONE amazing picture!

A few days after we recovered from the carving contest (an adult's design was chosen as the winner...IN YO FACE KIDS!) my little gymnast and ghostbuster went trick or treating. Our neighborhood is notoriously crazytown on Halloween so in order to cope I invite friends and bring (several) road beverages with me. Without these necessary items I would not be able to leave the house. It is that crazy. Or it was that crazy. This year it was like everyone took a Xanax (Benadryl for the kids) and chilled out on Halloween. There was no pushing or shoving or trampling expensive landscape to get a fun size Snickers bar. I did not witness one adult, pushing an infant in a stroller, hold out a Walmart bag and ask for candy "for the baby." It renewed my faith in God and people! Happy Halloween 2105!

AJ's Benadryl Was Kicking In!