Halloween

Halloween, my favorite holiday, has come and gone. My love for this holiday grows more and more as each year passes. Growing up, we did not do much for the holiday other than dress up for the school parade and then somebody's parent would drive us to the densley populated neighborhoods in town where we would trick or treat until our bags runneth over with candy. I remember my sisters and I would spread out our candy on the bedroom floor, sorting, separating, and trading our goods.

I don't remember all of my costumes from when I was little but do know that we never once wore a cheesey store bought costume. We mostly scrounged up some kind of costume from things we found around the house or borrowed from other people. I realize that times have changed and the new store bought costumes are now so much more improved, but those horrible plastic excuses for costumes in the early to mid eighties were dreadful. Those costumes are like those nast boxed lunchables made by Oscar Mayer. To quote my brother in law, "Those must be for kids whose parents don't like them."

I did not dress up during my High School years because you know I was way too cool, but once college rolled around it was on again with a vengeance. We did not dress like strippers back then like they do now, but we had some pretty creative costumes. We would all parade around town and check everyone else out. There is something about alcohol and the annonymity of a costume that makes us all just a little bit more friendly and open to eachother. I was dressed as a nun one year and must have been groped and or hugged by at least a dozen priest and did not think a thing of it. These magical moments only happen on Halloween.

Ok, enough about the past. Here is the rundown from the past week.

Here is a picture of the house all spiffied up:

I try to buy a new decoration every year to add to my collection. I have more fun decorating for halloween than I do for Christmas.

Last Sunday, we went to the pumpkin patch in Scott's Valley. D's preschool had been there the previous week, but we have a new tradition of going together as a family and picking up a couple of pumpkins. The farm grows and improves every year. They have a corn maze and petting zoo and do a lot of other scary things at night.

Here, D and I strike a pose

Time for me to hold the camera as D takes a picture with Jason
D and his cheese ball grin

Me giving the bitchy mom look. "Just take a freakin' picture!"

When we got home, D freaked out when I started to carve the pumpkin so I decided to compromise and we painted it instead. Katie girl is in the back there, looking like a coyote.

Jason and I both took Halloween day off of work so we could go to D's preschool party and then the Elementary school parade down main street. This is our new family tradition and it really is fun to have this day off work. It is funny when you are driving down the highway and you see a witch and a clown in the car in front of you.

Here we are at D's school party. He was refusing to wear his lion mane. His costume was home made, a joint effort between me and his grandma Georgine.

This is the boy's table and man oh man are these guys a handful. They are really sweet and funny but when they all get together, you better watch out. The kid there with the batman costume is a real character. His costume had muscles buit in to it and he would flex his arms and yell, "Welcome to the gun show!"

Here Jason is sitting at the table looking right at home with a group of kids. He has their full attention sitting there in his inmate jumpsuit. Makes me wonder what he is saying to them.

After the party, we had a couple of hours to kill before the parade started. We had nothing else to do so we decided to wander around Kmart, our equivalent to the mall. Jason ended up in the sporting goods section and realized that he was low on .22 ammo. By this time, we had kinda forgotten that it was Halloween so when he asks the guy behind the counter to grab a box of .22 ammo, we got the funniest reaction. Kmart guy looked him up and down and said, "This is a costume, right?!" Did I mention Jason was wearing a bright orange jumpsuit with Lake County Jail stenciled on the back.?

So, after we left Kmart with our box of ammo, we go to the corner of 3rd and Main St. This is when I meet up with this cute little guy

This is my nephew, and quite possilby the cutest little monkey on earth.

We tried so hard to get the cousins to take a good picture together.

The parade started up with the High School band leading the way. D was absolutely enchanted with the music and judging by the look on his face, we may have a future band geek on our hands.

By the time we got back to the car, we had one tired puppy on our hands.

Ok, jumping forward to Saturday night. Jason and I were primed and ready for a night out. I wore a costume from some years back with a few modifications. We were supposed to be a couple - Jason as a race car driver and me as a dead trophy girl. I made a sash saying "Ms. Lakeport Speedway" and even made tire tracks across my beautiful red dress. Jason, however was a slacker and did not get his costume together so he just went as an inmate again.

Here we are posing with Sarah and Casey, the zombie bride and groom before we headed off for the costume party

Here we see Obama there on the left during a stop on his campaign trail. Mike, the guy wearing the costume does the best job every year. He is a tall slender white guy with light hair but you would never be able to guess that from this picture

Here is the hostess, Jen, as magic Johnson, and there in the back is the host, Scott, as Larry Bird.

Whew! That was a long post. So, farewell, Halloween, it was fun. Here's to the start of a great holiday season to come.