Sabbath Halloween

It certainly simplifies things for me.  I would much rather be home together as a family than all spread throughout the neighborhood trying to convince my kids to call it a night.  I’m grateful for trick-or-treating at microsoft and our ward trunk-or-treat to make my kids feel like we still celebrated halloween and that they didn’t really get ripped off by not getting dressed up and going out today.  I’m also grateful for children who didn’t even question our decision to not trick-or-treat today.  And I’m mostly grateful that tomorrow starts the “real” holiday season; one i can fully get on board with and excited about.  :)

 

thoughts on our pumpkins:

• several of them were huge, particularly ray’s and emma’s.  i had to get out a butcher knife to cut all the way through the rind to get the top off.  they were pretty thick!
• emma chose to etch her pumpkin with a calvin and hobbes pattern rather than carve it.  with the exception of damon enlarging the pattern and pinning it on for her, she did 100% of the work herself.
• ray copied emma and wanted to etch his pumpkin as well…using a calvin pattern.  ray gutted his pumpkin all by himself, but damon ended up etching it for him.
• elli went for simple this year and just whipped out a cute little pumpkin with a bow before most of the other kids were even done gutting theirs:  the benefits of choosing a normal-sized pumpkin.
• elli also came up with the idea to make my pumpkin pregnant with lucky’s pumpkin.  she crafted that idea and implemented it on her own.  it turned out cute.
• nolan and savannah went for traditional designs as well and gutted and carved their pumpkins completely independently.
• damon was kind enough to clean up all the guts all over the floor and table…with only a little complaining.
• savannah sorted through and separated the seeds to roast.
• emma found a spicy recipe (nutmeg, cinnamon, etc) and a traditional salty recipe online and roasted them. 
• damon (nearly) threw his back out carrying the pumpkins inside to the kitchen table to be carved. 

 

thoughts on costumes:

• elli went all out and bought a pair of nerd glasses at claire’s and called herself a nerd.  it was pretty creative and awesome. 
• emma was a rainbow.
• nolan was jango fett, the costume i was buying at target last year when i noticed calvin’s lack of movement.  he didn’t end up wearing it last year because my sister brought a cooler costume for him (luke skywalker) when she came out for calvin’s funeral.  i bargained with nolan:  in exchange for him wearing this tight, high-water costume that i spent a load of money on last year and didn’t get worn, i told him i’d buy him an accessory for this costume (a gun) if he would wear it without complaint.  deal.
• ray took me up on that offer as well.  saved me lots of money, but netted us 3 guns.  oh well.
• ray was a “trooper, of the storm kind” as he told me.
• savannah was sleeping beauty for her school party and microsoft trick-or-treating, but switched to cinderella for our trunk-or-treat party last night. 
• savannah looked cute in her sleeping beauty costume, but she looked adorable in the cinderella costume she wore last night.  she said she felt like a “real princess!”
• i didn’t get a chance to take any pictures at last night’s party, and i’m kicking myself today because i don’t have any good pictures of savannah in her cute costume.
• savannah wore the cinderella costume i made for emma when emma was four.  i have tried it on savannah for the past several years, but it always drowned her.  this year, as a seven-year-old, it was still big, but it didn’t drown her.
• damon and i dressed up as the same thing we do every year:  ourselves.

 

other halloween notes:

• i went off of all my anti-nausea meds today.  and i think i actually feel better today than i have all week.  weird.
• damon’s microsoft team just moved offices, clear across the city.  instead of a 12-minute drive, he is about 25 minutes away.  :)  the good news is he is right by the seattle temple now.
• none of us had been to his new office until we went trick or treating there on friday.  his new building (Advanta) is totally modern and i loved the decor. 
• i ordered my halloween candy online this year.  it was awesome.
• it’s hard having a dog when trick-or-treaters are ringing the doorbell every 10 minutes.
• the kids are watching a scooby doo halloween movie while i type this post.
• damon is playing with my hair while i type this post.  it makes me want to keep typing because it feels so good and i don’t want him to stop. 
• i had 4 different elementary school parties to make appearances at during the same 90-minute time-frame.
• i enjoyed halloween-time more this year than i have any other year.  go figure.

the [super] annoying bat

If you’ve ever been inside Ben Franklin Crafts at Halloween, you know exactly what I’m referring to.

It’s the bat that has red lit-up eyes like a vampire (or a bat) and hangs from the ceiling with a string and flies around and around in a circle over your head.

It’s super annoying.

And, of course, it’s something that every single one of my kids has asked to buy for our own house every single year.

It’s super annoying.

This year, I caved.  [weird, i know] And I let Ray purchase the annoying bat with his own money
{“Mom, can I please buy the annoying bat? Please?  I really love it!”}.

And then Damon did something even weirder:  he actually installed the annoying bat (like within a week of the request).  right above Ray’s bed. 

The boy is in heaven. 

 

And you know what?

It’s even more annoying when it’s in your own house.

the celebration

the plan:

4:15 pm:  limo arrives at our house to take us “away”

5:15 –5:30 pm:  to cemetery to release balloons with love notes for calvin attached

6 pm:  to the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle (Sky City) to have the most expensive dinner we’ve ever paid for out of our own pockets. 

8:30:  back home

things to remember about our special evening:

• some of the kids were speculating that our big “calvin celebration” would be a trip to disneyland.  it wasn’t.
• even though the limo pulled up in front of our house and the driver got out and stood next to the door of the limo, none of the kids made the connection that the limo was for us.  they all just thought it was really cool that a limo happened to be parked in front of our house.  imagine their elation when i told them it was there to pick us up.  their reaction alone was worth the entire cost of the evening.  it’s something i wish i would have gotten on camera.  it was priceless.
• the most exciting thing for savannah was that the limo had water bottles sitting in ice inside it.  “look at all the drinks!!!”
• the most exciting thing for the boys inside the limo was the control panel to turn on the different lights inside the limo (at the bar, the lights on the roof that looked like the stars, the neon lights down the side, etc)
• the most exciting thing for elli was having the limo driver drive through the junior high parking lot where several of her friends were watching a football game and letting them peek inside the limo. 
• nolan, emma, and elli were busy texting and calling as many people as they could get to answer their phones on the way to the cemetery to tell them the exciting news:  they were in a limo!
• rest assured:  nolan does not own a cell phone; he used mine.
• nolan drank too much water on the limo ride to the cemetery (can you find the photos that represent that?)
• this was the night i was hoping to announce my pregnancy to my kids.  but, alas, morning sickness got the best of me yet again and i had to out myself much sooner than i planned. 
• i have been worried about the limo ride and the spinning restaurant ever since i got pregnant, but everything was just fine on my sick little tummy. 
• ray was especially fond of the radio, also (except for when elli’s song choice won over his preference- can you identify which photo represents that?).
• damon and i were especially fond of sitting next to each other and not having to drive.
• i resurrected my broken calvin scrabble pendant necklace with super glue that morning because i couldn’t bear to not wear it on that day.  i haven’t taken it off since friday.  i also wore a thumper pin my sister sent me and the necklace damon got me for my birthday. 
• i asked my next-door neighbor karen if she would take some photos of our family with the limo.  love them.  thanks, karen!
• emma told elli she looked like “someone from paris, france” when elli came out in her outfit.  i believe elli took that as one of the highest compliments she’s ever been paid.
• it was freezing and windy (again) at the cemetery. 
• each of use wrote a note to calvin on a small piece of notebook paper and attached it to 2 balloons each with a clip that we released from calvin’s gravesite.
• we sang happy birthday to calvin as we released the balloons.
• we still haven’t ordered a headstone for calvin.
• savannah was particularly emotional at the cemetery.  she was actually a mess.  i thought for sure someone had hit her or done something to her because she was sobbing when we got back inside the limo.  but when i asked her what was wrong, she said that being at the cemetery reminded her how sad she was that calvin died.  what was really cool about that moment was that no one else was emotional so she was not crying because others were crying; she was crying because SHE felt like crying.  loved that she was expressing her own emotions.
• also love that when emma gave her a hug to comfort her, emma started crying, too.
• at emma’s request, damon made “C” pancakes and a few bonus pancakes for breakfast that morning.
• ray suggested we have a “family prayer about calvin” as soon as we got into the limo.  we thought that was a wonderful idea and damon offered it. 
• nolan thought the limo driver “was really patient” because he was willing to wait for us while we ate dinner at the space needle.
• nolan had no idea that the limo driver was making loads of money just for being “really patient”.
• unbeknownst to her, elli ordered the most expensive thing on the menu:  filet mignon and king crab legs.  she actually finished every bite.  she adored the little carrot that garnished her meal.
• after seeing the prices on the main menu, emma opted to order from the kids’ menu- of her own free will and choice.  totally emma to think of others first.
• the younger kids thought the “lunar orbiter” dessert was about the coolest thing ever:  a scoop of ice cream with chocolate syrup…surrounded with smoky dry ice. 
• we thought it was even cooler that they were so mesmerized with the cloud of dry ice that they didn’t notice that damon, elli, emma, and i ate the real desserts:  apple/cranberry cobbler and chocolate molten lava cake
• the restaurant is disc-shaped and rotates a complete turn every 47 minutes.  the little kids were mesmerized with the view from our table and kept getting out of their seats to go right up to the window…which would slowly move them to another table if they weren’t paying attention.  funny.
• the kids thought it was cool that we were above the science center and other places that we are so used to visiting.
• i had a hard time viewing seattle’s skyline withOUT the space needle in it.
• ray, savannah, and emma all ordered space nOOdle pasta.  which is so appropriate because all of our kids have called the space needle the space nOOdle for years.
• nolan went with the very safe grilled cheese sandwich.
• savannah had a special pen-pal at the restaurant (at the table nearest to us) that kept leaving notes on the rotating windowsill that would eventually end up near our table as the restaurant spun its course.  savannah received 3 such notes before she left her own….on the windowsill that would reach her pen-pal in approximately 47 minutes.
• our limo driver’s name was kamal.
• kamal asked us if we wanted him to put the tinted window up between the back seat and the driver’s seat to “give us some privacy”.  i’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that a very excited and enthusiastic raymond was inches from his ear. 
• all of my kids said the balloon release was their favorite part of the evening.
• …and the limo
• …and {finally} being allowed to eat at the top of the space needle.
• savannah was totally confused as to how calvin would be catching the balloons in heaven.  she spent quite a bit of time thinking that one through.
• at the end of the night, when i asked nolan if he was disappointed that we didn’t go to disneyland, he replied with an enthusiastic, “this was way better than disneyland, mom!”

      
       
    

friday, october 15, 2010 will go down in history as one of the best nights we’ve ever experienced as a family. 
totally and completely worth the expense.

We heart C.