Adventures of a Modern Farm Family: Halloween Fun with my little monsters

Sunday we went to my mom's church and afterwards there was a Halloween/Fall Party. There was food and games for all ages. The boys had fun wearing their costumes and trying their first attempt for the year at trick or treating. Joel didn't really care about the trick or treating. He just liked being outside! Part way thru the party Vince decided he wanted to be a pirate like Tina. She was nice enough to share one of her swords and her eye patch with him. In return he began calling her Aunt Tina! So for awhile he was a "three eyed monster pirate" and then he was just "a pirate, but a nice one that cuts bad guys into pieces and sweeps them up into the garbage can and then they go into the garbage truck and to the landfill!" He slept with the sword and patch on his nightstand Sunday night and played with it all morning on Monday.

My littlest 3 eyed monster

Daddy with his littlest monster. The other monster didn't want his picture taken.

After church we had a little get together at my mom's before trick or treating in a near by town started. We only participated in the last 30 minutes of trick or treating since it was cold, wet and started raining again while we were walking around. Vince was not shy about saying "trick or treat" and had fun. Joel had fun walking around outside but at his age he doesn't really care about the rest of it. While we were walking around Vince saw a kid with a pitch fork and said "hey, are you a farmer?" The kid was dressed in all yellow and responded "no, I am a yellow devil." Vince replied "oh." He was a little disappointed that the kid wasn't a farmer. My former boss lives in the town were we were trick or treating and we stopped by there on our way out of town. Joel ran right into the house and jumped into Doc's recliner and made himself right at home. Before we left the kids had given themselves a tour of the house and had 2 bowls of chocolate ice cream. The kids were ok with me saying no after the first bowl, but Doc wasn't and really thought they needed 2 bowls of chocolate ice cream! It was a great visit and I am really happy we were able to visit with him! The kids were wired and stayed awake all the way home, which meant they went to bed without too many issues, so maybe the ice cream was a good thing.

Trick or Treating with Grandma Dawn

Mommy and Daddy and their 2 monsters!

Today we went to a local nursing home for trick or treating. It was great! They were so generous with their goodies, it was warm, and their were no streets for me to worry about. The boys both came away with more candy than they have ever seen. I am a terrible mom and I have already sorted thru all the candy and figured out what they get and what we get! It is about equal, but I am hiding their bowl and using it for rewards (AKA Bribery!). We also stopped at Grandma's house and got chocolate chip cookies and I didn't hide (or eat) those yet.

Vince being a pirate

Vince killing the bad guy

This morning I tried to get the boys to help me start on the pumpkin carving by cleaning out the pumpkins. It lasted all of 3 minutes. I cleaned 5 pumpkins by myself! Then after trick or treating and dinner we finished pumpkin carving. This time I got a little more help. Vince told me what shapes to make the faces and I did the carving. We had 5 pumpkins because Vince insisted that he needed one for his little sister. I designed hers and mine. During the carving Vince sat still and patiently watched. Joel kept climbing on the table and dancing, one of his favorite activities! The problem is when I have a knife in my hand my reaction time to catch him is slightly slower. I had to keep running to the kitchen, put the knife down, get Joel off the table, run to the kitchen and grab the knife, carve for a minute and then repeat. A couple times Joel was distracted by wrestling the dogs or dancing to the "Dancing with the Stars" music on tv and that bought me some much needed time. The boys were very happy with the final results and really wanted me to find candles to put in them, but to be honest we were on a tight time schedule and that wasn't going to happen. By the time pumpkin carving ended it was after 8:30pm. There is 1 tv show that I feel I deserve to (need to) watch undisturbed all week and it starts at 9pm. I don't like to tell the kids they have to go to bed so I can watch tv, so I just had to make sure we quickly got everyone to bed in 30 minutes. It worked and I got to relax and watch Castle mostly uninterrupted (Brad tried to call but I wouldn't talk to him until a commercial)! A great ending to a wonderful day!