Holidays at the new house part 1: Halloween 2014

When pumpkin carving time came, Parker picked the cat design (no surprise there). He and Daddy scooped out the pumpkin seeds and other innards, and then Parker and I got to work on carving. Meanwhile Austin flipped through the booklet of designs and then began to grab at all sorts of stuff that was not for him. While Parker and I were getting our design situated onto the pumpkin, the doorbell rang and it was Chamberlyn, the four year old girl who lives across the street, and a few minutes after that her brother Lincoln, seven years old showed up. We invited them both to join us for pumpkin carving, and the kids had a great time carving together. Before we finished though, the neighbors had to leave and Parker’s interest began to wane, so Mommy finished carving the cat. Later that night, Clint carved his pumpkin: a fun jack-o-latern. The perfect end to our evening was enjoying our fresh baked pumpkin seeds.

An amusing note: Clint kept eyeing the blow up Halloween decorations every time we went to Home Depot (which when you’re buying a house becomes your new hangout). Being the supportive wife that I am, I teased him and insisted that we did not need a crazy blow up decoration. As I’m loading stuff into the back of Clint’s truck one day I notice a box with a blow up cat in it and laugh, “So were you going to wait until I was in a good mood and then tell me about that?” Apparently Clint has been dreaming of a ridiculous blow up decoration since he was little because his “neglectful” parents didn’t buy him one, and now that we had a house he was ready to realize his dream. Not one to stand in the way of dreams, I introduce you to our cat…

Halloween day finally arrived, and I hurried to pick up the kids from school and get home. Meanwhile, Clint picked up a pizza for us. We ate as soon as we got home and then quickly changed the kids into their costumes. We wanted to get out trick or treating as soon as possible so the kids wouldn’t be too exhausted. This year Parker wanted to be a Ninja Turtle (Michelangelo to be exact), and Austin used Parker’s old Tigger costume. Austin had been going through a phase of not liking to wear clothes, so you can imagine how he felt about a costume.

Previous years we’ve always had to drive to our trick or treating location, but this year was amazing: we just walked out the door. To make it even better, our neighbors (Chamberlyn and Lincoln’s family) invited us to join them. This meant Parker automatically had friends with him and so did we, plus we had a guide to show us where to go and keep us from getting lost. The streets we walked through were so lively too, with multiple front yard gatherings. Parker has always taken a little while to warm up to trick or treating before he gets into his groove, but this year there was no warm up period– he just started running off with his friends. Austin, on the other hand, was not interested in trick or treating, but he was very content hanging out in the stroller and taking everything in. We were all beat by the end of the night, but we had a great time. We got sprinkled on a little while we were out, but fortunately we made it home before it started to pour.

I hope everyone has been enjoying the holidays! Next up… Thanksgiving at our house…