Halloween

We had an eventful Halloween weekend. On Saturday, we had a party for Patrick and some of his friends. I invited a few family friends and kids William, Michael, and Jocelyn's age, but most of them couldn't make it.

I had fun planning the food (including punch with plastic spiders in ice cubes) and decorating the house. Cleaning the house enough for company and making room for a lot of 6-8 year olds reminded me of why we only have a few parties a year.

The kids had fun and Jocelyn and Michael made some nice crafts that are now decorating the kitchen. I had planned a good number of games. Most successful was turning the kids into mummies by wrapping them in toilet paper.

I went out with some other moms of triplets on Saturday night. After the younger trio were in bed, Patrick and Andy watched Coraline. Patrick had read the book the previous week and was interested in how the film and the book differed.

On Sunday, we spent much of the day finalizing costumes. Michael's costume needed hemming. Jocelyn needed accessories. It was forecast to be cold and costumes needed to be adapted for layers underneath. William had originally asked to be Spiderman, but changed his mind on Halloween. After considering Buzz Lightyear, he settled on Batman, so I had to improvise a costume out of black trousers, a vampire cape, and some of Patrick's old pajamas (which included a hood with ears). Patrick needed a scabbard attached to his ninja outfit. We got everthing together just in time to taske pictures and go out trick-or-treating.

Patrick went round the neighborhood with some of his peers and their older siblings and Andy and I took the others out. We saw Patrick briefly out in the neighborhood and he was having a great time. Jocelyn, Michael, and William got into the spirit of things and were running up to the doors and ringing the doorbell. We had to help them open their bags as the straps got tangled, but they were otherwise quite self-sufficient.

It was a cold night and we kept it short. Even so, Andy was carrying one bag of candy at the end of the evening as it was too full for Michael to manage with the claws that were part of his costume. William took the lead both in assessing whether there were enough lights on to indicate that somebody was home to give out candy and in making sure that people were thanked for giving out candy. It was wonderful to see them sharing the joy of trick-or-treating with each other. Last year, they had fun, but didn't quite seem to get it. This year, they knew exactly what they were doing and how to do it.

There was much glee in the running from door to door and much melting down when we got home and informed them that they could eat one treat before heading off to bed. But we expected that. All in all, it was a great weekend.