We had a fun weekend! Busy, but fun. Saturday morning, Ben took Joseph to his birthday party at Pump-it-up, and I got Brigham and Mosey dressed in their costumes to go trick or treating at the Countryside shops (a strip-mall shopping center nearby). Millions of kids teeming around, and it was hot and sticky and raining off and on, but the kids liked it. When we got home, I got the boys out of their costumes and Ben went to pick up Joseph. Brigham and Joseph had another birthday party at the ice rink at 1:00, so I took them there and Ben stayed home with Mosey. That birthday party was pretty fun, but again, the place was teeming with kids (popular place for birthday parties-- they have these "boxes" along one side of the rink, separate enclosed rooms specifically for parties). Brigham and Joseph can't really skate by themselves yet so I took them out one at a time to "skate" around the rink (really me holding them up and trying not to fall). They enjoyed it, though, and by the end Joseph could get around (very slowly) while holding to the wall. It was so loud, though, with all the people and the music they played, by the time I left my voice was about gone. And it wasn't great to begin with because I'd been fighting a cold since Thursday. Anyway, it made me a little sad since that will probably be the last time they see their preschool friends (it was a party for a little boy they met last year in Pre-K). After that we went to the Dollar Store hoping to get some cheap decorations for our van for the ward Trunk or Treat. But they were all sold out, so I just decided to forget it. Then it was back home to get the kids back into their costumes and get our things together for the Trunk or Treat. That was fun, too. I tried to get the boys to eat the hotdogs they had there before diving into the candy, but it was sort of a losing battle. Besides the candy in each car, there were a few little games and a cakewalk (cupcake walk), for which I brought a tray of homemade cupcakes. I was proud of them, if I do say so myself. I made them with "ghosts" of white frosting piped to make a ghost shape, and then mini chocolate chips for eyes and a regular chocolate chip for mouths (pointy side in). And then some I made with skulls on top-- a round blob of white icing topped with a "hat" made of a chocolate wafer-type cookie for the brim and the bottom half of a chocolte mini-cupcake for the top. Eye holes were brown m&ms, nose hole was a piece of black licorice cut very small, and the teeth were mini marshmallows I cut in half. Hard to describe, but they were cute. And they all got eaten up (not all the cupcakes were), so I take that as a good sign.
So we ended up, Saturday night, a full 2 days before Halloween, with an obscene amount of candy.
Sunday was church and of course the boys came home with a little treat bag full of more sugar.
Monday the boys really started to show the consequences of the sugar overdose and they were all really very bad. And I dont' use that word lightly. After school, Brigham was literally beating me with his fists because I refused to comply with his demands and move me, Joseph, and Mosey from the living room couch to the family room couch to read stories. Yes, he got a long timeout. But Brigham so rarely gets timeouts, it is even more rare that it is for something like punching his mother. By the time Ben got home from work and we had eaten dinner, I had just about HAD IT with the whining and fighting from all 3 boys that I just threw in the towel for FHE and told Ben I was going for a walk. So he did FHE with the boys and got them to bed and I calmed down by walking around Embassy Lake.
One side note. I have this weird limp now, because my left leg isn't working quite right. It's not that noticeable, but last week I had to throw away a pair of flip-flops because I actually wore a HOLE through the heel of the left shoe. I guess because of the different way I'm walking on that foot. No such similar wear on the right shoe. Mosey thought it was really funny that I threw my shoes in the garbage.
Tuesday was the big day. We were up early (not too hard since the boys haven't adjusted to the time change yet), with the plan to eat breakfast, get school stuff together, drop Mosey off at Melissa's, and then get to school in time for me to get to Brigham's classroom by 7:30 so I could help with the Halloween party. Well, Joseph wasn't feeling too cooperative that morning and informed me that he couldn't get dressed. It was too hard. So I told him if it was too hard to get dressed, then he probably shouldn't go to school because all the learning they would do at school would be too hard for him. So then the argument turned into the fact that he was too tired. So then I suggested that I drop him off at Melissa's along with Mosey so he could take a nap if he was so tired. So then he threw a fit for about 30 minutes while I got lunches made, Mosey dressed, Brigham and Mosey breakfasted, and kids loaded into the car. I put Joseph in the car in only his undies and told him if he could get himself dressed before I got back from getting my purse and keys, then he could go to school. Miracle of miracles, he was dressed by the time I got back out. So the day was saved, although I was a little late getting to school.
Brigham's class had a fun party. 6 different stations each manned by a couple of parents. I was at the "ghost flying contest" where the kids had to throw lollipop ghosts into a bucket. There was a "goblin goo" station (that weird stuff made with glue and borax), a monster cookie decorating station, a candy corn bingo station, a picture frame making station (the teacher took pictures of each child dressed in his or her costume), and a bat bracelet station. It was fun to see all the kids in Brigham's class and to see him interacting with his friends. I was struck by how young Brigham is, not by his behavior (he was very well behaved), but because he is pretty small. Not the smallest, but one of the smallest. There are some big kids in his class! Even some of the girls, I couldn't believe they were only 5 years old! After the party the class performed a little dance for us, a hokey-pokey style dance involving thumbs up, elbows back, legs apart, knees together, bottoms up, tongues out, eyes closed, and turn around. It was very, very cute. Then off through the rain to pick up Mosey.
It rained quite a bit that morning but cleared up nicely for the evening. During the afternoon the boys and I designed and carved their pumpkins (2 pretty standard jack-o-lanterns and one batman signal). Ben got home a bit early to join in the festivities. Then it was time to don the costumes once again, dig out flashlights, find candles for the pumpkins, and head out. The boys were invited to a little pre-trick-or-treating party at a neighbor's house-- there was pizza and a few crafts for the kids who were mostly too excited to trick-or-treat to be bothered by such things. Then as soon as it got dark all the kids were out trick or treating. The idea was to go as a big group, but some of those kids were so enthusiastic they literally were off at a dead run. So we ended up getting a few houses behind and mostly just being by ourselves which was just fine with me. We pretty much only went down our little street before Brigham got really tired, so I took him home and Ben finished taking Mosey and Joseph around the block. They ended up with plenty of candy. We had a pretty good number of trick-or-treaters ourselves and made it to just about the end of the candy I purchased which was very nice. We now have probably 15 lbs of candy in our house from the various celebrations, and we didn't need leftovers from what I had purchased to add to it.
Did I say what the boys were dressed as? Brigham and Joseph were skeletons and Mosey was a bumble bee. A couple years ago I bought a few costumes on clearance right after halloween, and that was the one he chose. It is basically a winter coat type thing with curly fur in yellow and black stripes, a hood with antennae, and a stinger on the back. He was adorable and went around saying, "Buzz buzz!" to everyone who would listen. The problem is that the end of October in South Florida is still very, very warm. The lows are still only in the upper 70's, and it is still very humid. We had ONE day of nice weather last week (the very first break in the weather, actually), but it is back to hot and humid around here. Last night it was probably 80-83, and very humid. By the time I took Mosey's costume off, he was literally dripping in sweat and the lining of the costume was just soaked. But he didn't seem to mind. The boys were all rather cooperative about going to bed last night, and by 8:30 PM, all was quiet in the Turner household. One benefit of living behind a gate is that the only trick or treaters are local kids and you don't get the roving gangs of teenagers still hoping for candy at 10:00 PM. I don't think we had another trick or treater after 8:00 PM.
Mosey is still very much in the Halloween spirit today. The first thing he did this morning was find his trick or treat bucket, and he pretty much didn't let it go all day. He had to have his costume on for most of the day, too, heat notwithstanding. He got a lot of chuckles as I rode my bike to and from the school this morning and afternoon, Mosey in the child seat in the back, clutching his jack-o-lantern trick or treat bucket in his hand the whole way. The crossing guards were especially amused to see me this afternoon, with Mosey in the back, bucket still in hand.
Ok, so that is the long and exhaustive Halloween report. I did take pictures, of course, which I will attach at the bottom.
The only other news is that we are now for sure moving to Austin, TX. Ben's first day of work out there will be December 4. I'll be staying in Florida until probably December 22, when I'll fly to L.A. for Christmas, and then back to Austin after the holidays. We won't be listing our house to sell until we actually leave. I've had to show houses with small children at home twice before, and I am just absolutely not doing that again. Even if it means we have to pay the mortgage an extra month or two becuase we're not listing it right away.
So the next few weeks will be pretty crazy. I'm praying it all goes smoothly.
Have a wonderful Thursday everyone. Those who haven't done so, please send pictures of your kids in their costumes!!
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