Spooky season has come and gone, but it was another fabulous October at for our family. The month is often busy with lots of other school, church, and work commitments, as well, so I’m always grateful when I can squeeze in some Halloween activities aside from Trick-or-Treating. I’m not sure why I’m made the way I am, and I’m usually okay with that. I love Octobers, pumpkins, a bit of spookiness, dressing up, macabre humor, and I’m SO glad I get to share it with Jack and the kids.
I think part of my love of the season is how it gets my creative juices flowing. Why make meatloaf when I can make feetloaf? Or, “Wouldn’t Jell-o be more fun if it was in the shape of a skull?” This incessant need to turn food, decor, our music list, and our social activities into something Halloween-y has also rubbed off on the kids. Take Claire–she wanted to make a treat to share with friends, and ended up making these adorable, healthy, and yummy apple monsters. I watched her clip the marshmallows into fangs and the Twizzlers into forked tongues. So proud!
Since Jack had a work trip in the middle of October (I try not to curse the people who plan conferences and symposiums during one of my favorite times of the year TOO much), we did our pumpkin carving a little earlier than usual. There’s something special about digging your hand into the innards of a pumpkin and making a face or spooky scene out of a previously blank slate. Jack outdid everyone, of course. He is a master at working with what he’s got, and made a very convincing monster eyeball out of two separate pumpkins, eyelashes included.
One of our favorite Halloween pastimes is a festival that happens at a small park near us. It’s grown in popularity, though I can’t blame patrons for coming. There’s a trunk-or-treat for the kids, several old-timey buildings that house things like a blacksmith and the Sanderson Sisters, and they’ve started doing a haunted trail through the forest. I aspire to be one of the actors in the forest, but the timing hasn’t been right, yet. Someday…
Since all of my makeup supplies are also packed up with the Halloween decorations, the kids will frequently ask if they can do their own face paint or spruce up a younger sibling. I used to turn them down, or at least make them wait for me, lest more makeup end up on the walls and their clothes than their face, but several of the older kids have gotten the hang of it. With some practice, they’re getting pretty good at making themselves haunting, ghoulish, or otherwise eerie.
Perhaps my favorite part of Halloween was waking up to find Evelyn had spent her free time sewing, crocheting, and needle felting small baskets and creepy characters for each of her siblings. There was everything from the Grim Reaper to a zombie rat to a baby Demogorgon (if you’ve ever seen Stranger Things). What a perfect way to put everyone in a festive mood.
While I had intended on helping at the kids’ school for their Halloween parties, it wasn’t meant to be since Jack was gone and I didn’t have anyone to watch Adam. It made the day of Halloween quiet, so I used it to get ready for the Trick-or-Treat fun of the evening. When the kids got home, they dumped their backpacks and changed, while I did hair and makeup for those who wanted it.
I have to give Jack another shoutout here–while I’m content wearing whatever costume I can salvage from our Halloween costume box, Jack is always reinventing himself in new ways. This year, he was a creepy scarecrow AND he put it together in about five minutes. A flannel shirt, some twine, a potato sack with an eerie red smile, and some Hawaiian party decorations and he was set. I cannot tell you how many people did a double take of him, wondering if he was real… and then asking to take a picture with him when they realized he wasn’t a decoration.
Since Claire was invited to Trick=or-Treat with friends, we gave her the green light and dropped her off at their house. Usually, we pick a neighborhood to patronize, mostly because we live out in the country, and no one really is expecting kids to walk up to their porch. We’ve had a few years where the neighborhood was a bust or the weather wasn’t conducive to wandering outside for hours, asking for candy. Not this year, and not this neighborhood.
It’s a newer neighborhood near one of the elementary schools in the kids’ school district, and it was packed with both families Trick-or-Treating AND handing out candy. The decorations were awesome, the costumes were amazing, and it was just so much fun to let kids be kids (while also remembering what it was like to enjoy Halloween as a kid myself).
Though I’d initially said I wanted to be done a bit earlier this year, since we’d gotten started earlier, we ended up staying out until nearly bedtime. With the perfect weather and the welcoming neighborhood, it was too fun to quit. We saw so many friends and classmates, and even without all the festivities, I love a good stroll in autumn.
Our last Halloween event was our family murder mystery. I had intended on doing it, you know, before Halloween, but again, the schedule and my stamina didn’t allow it. There’s a lot that goes into making a fancy, spooky dinner, while putting together a kid-friendly murder mystery. But, we pulled it off, and it was, as expected, a lot of fun. Someday, I’d love to host a big murder mystery bash at a posh location and catered food and all my friends, but for now, I’ll keep practicing on my family.
I’m not sad when a season has passed–usually, I’m so worn out from all the excitement and work that I’m glad for the “break” of normal life again. I really do cherish these special memories with my family, and hope they’ll remember the fun we had together, even if I’m a weirdo for enjoying spooky season so much.
