Last week I was talking to someone who said she was really sad that I hadn’t posted anything on the blog since July. There’s nothing like knowing I’m contributing to someone’s sadness to get me moving, so here are some photos from Halloween.  I could just post a few cute photos and let you imagine our picture-perfect Halloween, but that’s not how I roll.  For some reason I feel compelled to tell the truth – the good, the bad, and the ugly, even though not everyone approves.  It is what it is.

I thought I had done everything right. The costumes were procured well in advance. Well, except for mine, which I threw together at the last minute with the help of my Italian neighbor lady’s apron, a curly brown wig, a bloody cleaver, and a squawking rubber chicken, which was the hardest thing to find. The theme for the Halloween party was “famous people who have died within the last 10 years.” I found it a tough theme to comply with, because I have no idea who has died. I would be terrible at that game – Dead or Alive. I know Michael Jackson died, but pretty much anyone else I have to Google.  So I spent an hour and a half in the costume store with everyone else in the Metrowest region, getting costume ideas and then Googling to see if the person was dead or alive.  Luckily my pal Elizabeth, who was helping me via text, thought of Julia Child.  There were 2 other Julia Childs at the party but I think I was the only one with a bloody cleaver and squawking chicken. 

So, back to Halloween.  The kids had their costumes – Adlani was a white ninja, Norah was a drama queen, and Aliya, Hannah, and Chloe were a “disturbed 80’s family” (it kind of freaked me out that they were wearing stuff I actually wore in the 80’s, but time marches on).  I had procured 3 pumpkins from the church pumpkin patch, for a whopping $42 – yes, $42 worth of pumpkins.  We had carved them, with the exception of Aliya’s which turned out to be a gourd and wasn’t carveable.  I spent hours separating the goo from the pumpkin seeds and roasting them.  I bought the candy the morning of Halloween so I wouldn’t eat it all before the trick-or-treaters came (I made sure to buy a kind I didn’t like).  After a lovely dinner at the Pearces’ I roamed the neighborhood for 3 hours, including a visit to the scary house – where a guy in a horrible mask would jump up and chase trick-or-treaters with a chainsaw (no chain).

When we got home around 9:30 I was feeling pretty accomplished, and like maybe I had earned some Mommy-points for my efforts.  Then the inevitable happened.  They started fighting about who had collected the most candy – they all dumped it on the floor to count it, and THEN, Aliya and Norah started screaming and KICKING each other’s candy across the floor.  AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!  There’s nothing that makes me crazier than the fighting.  That’s when I lost it and gathered up all the candy and put it in ONE BOWL, and yes, I yelled, “HAPPY FRIGGIN’ HALLOWEEN!  NOW GO TO BED!” 

I’m pretty sure my point total is back in the negative.  Oh well.