Trick (for the parents) and Treat (for the kids)?

Yesterday was Halloween, not today.  However, I feel like today is just a continuation of the festivities.  My middle brought home a painted pumpkin today from preschool.  My twins got to wear costumes and trick or treat at the clinic where they get speech therapy each week.  And Caleb and I scoured the clearance Halloween costume section at Target while waiting for the big brothers to finish up at their activities (FYI, we did score an Obi Wan Kenobi and a Green Lizard costume).  And, there is candy EVERYWHERE in my house.  I just rounded it all up from the bedrooms, backpacks, goody bags, and cupholders in the car and now there is about 50 pounds of candy sitting out in our kitchen.  In case you think I'm exaggerating, here is proof. 

Like all holidays in our house since having children, yesterday was jam-packed with fun activities, picture taking, silliness, food and a few tantrums for good measure! 

First on the agenda were the school parties.  I got to help at the twins' parties.  I split my time between the two classes so I got to see them both.  In the chaos of running back and forth to see them both in the parade and help at both parties, I forgot to get a picture of me with each of them (proof for later in life that I was there just in case they don't remember).  Oh well! Perhaps next year I won't get frazzled and forget in the chaos.  I did get manage to get a few pictures.

Here with some classmate friends

This is Andrew with his buddy Theo.  Theo happens to have a twin brother too.

 

Here is James with Sam (Theo's twin brother).

At the start of the school parade

Finishing up the parade and giving high-fives to the older kids on their way back to the classroom.

Andrew is dressed as Thor about 3 kids back in the line.

Making each other into mummies

Game time

Freeze dance game to the Monster Mash song. 

Pumpkin Toss

After school, we jetted home to meet up with the 2 littles.  The very littlest had been napping soundly until someone (who shall remain nameless but likes to wear blue a lot because it rhymes with his name) decided to literally swing on the adjoining bedroom door and scream thereby waking up the sleeping littlest boy.  Since we were all awake, we decided to bundle up and trick or treat. 

We wouldn't want our Halloween costumes to be covered up with coats, so all the boys got out of their costumes and bundled up and then put their costumes on top.  This is where it started to get a little dicey.  I can't remember exactly what happened, but there was a skirmish and someone's Peter Pan dagger got ripped out of the makeshift holster that I had just created with a rubberband.  There were tears from Peter Pan and attitude from Superman.  Consequently, Superman was banned from the first few houses of trick or treating.  When we attempted to join up, Thor informed Superman about the houses he had missed despite being told not to, so then we had another round of both superheroes banned from the next 2 houses.  After that, we seemed to have everyone under control.  And, in case you want to blame this on the sugar, the children hadn't even had any yet. 

First attempt at a picture following the tantrums...not everyone is happy yet.

I pulled out the big guns for this one making jokes about boogars to try to get smiles.  It didn't work.

We spent the next hour trick or treating. 

The big boys are old enough now that they actually like the houses with spooky and creepy decorations, so we hit up as many of those as we could find. 

I think Caleb was too little to realize to be scared of the bloody zombie and creepy Santa Claus that bent down in his face to give him candy.  Not my favorite!

When we could no longer carry our bags because they were so heavy, we headed home to debundle and eat dinner.  After a quick dinner, we got in our costumes AGAIN (yes for the 3rd time that day) and head off to the Awana Fun Fair.  Aaron was dead set on bringing a friend, so we had his good friend Jenna meet us there.  As always, she was adorable and sweet.

I spent the next 90 minutes running the ring toss game.  All the kids filtered through at one point or another.  Both Aaron and Andrew found me and played my game several times.  After Awana, James asked me why I didn't follow through with volunteering like I said that I would.  Apparently, he did not see me in the gym.  Really?!?!  He was a little irked that I hadn't sought him out despite the fact that I was running a game by myself. 

Aaron stopped by my ring toss game several times.  He was definitely the  most excited to see me there and gave me hugs each time he played.

We came home from Awana with 3 more bags of candy and some prizes (Yes!!! More Sugar).  On a sweet note, James did spend some of his fun fair tickets to buy 2 presents for an Operation Christmas Child.

The kids crashed and were asleep within 10 minutes.  I sat on the couch last night in a daze.  Usually on Wednesday, Jon & I run 8 miles together outside. We didn't have time with all the Halloween partying to do our run.  I naively thought that I'd have the energy to a treadmill run after Awana.  No way!  I had just barely enough energy to let Jon order us a Jet's pizza, have him drive to pick it up and for him to put 2 (I mean 3) slices on a plate for me to eat while I rested on the couch.  Seriously!  I felt more exhausted than when I run 12 miles.