Hey y'all -
Yesterday was Halloween, and we celebrated by throwing a Halloween Carnival for your school. 120 people came. Grandma Sue made enough chili for all of them. We decorated the school and had carnival games and a dress-up "Boo-Tique" and roped another dad into running a photo booth. Your dad - bless his soul - turned all of the plastic nap cots in the school on their sides and zip-tied them together and used them to make walls for a preschool-sized maze. We assembled the maze in a big dark room at the school and decorated it with glow sticks and glow-in-the-dark skeletons and flashlights projecting ghosts on the ceiling and the whole thing was pretty awesome. The event was a big success, and I didn't take a single picture 'cause - I don't know - I just didn't feel like it.
We knew Hagen was going to be a monkey for Halloween, because we still had Laney's costume from a few years ago, and no sense in buying a new one. Laney was a different story; in the weeks leading up to Halloween, every time someone asked her what she was going to be, she had a different answer. My game plan was to buy nothing, because I had been burned by the Backyardigans Birthday Invitation Fiasco of 2011. Instead, as I loaded up all the supplies for the carnival, I threw her entire dress-up trunk in the back of the Subaru and took it with me to the school. When Laney's school day was over, I put her in the office with the loaded trunk and told her to come out when she was dressed up.
At the last second, she decided on Glinda the Good Witch:
We left the carnival early so we could do some trick-or-treating in Grandma Sue's neighborhood:
Our progress was slowed a little when we saw a cat jack o' lantern in a neighbor's yard...
...and Hagen had to stop and pet it, saying, "Meow, meow..."
After we'd circled Sue's block, I asked Laney, "Where do you want to go next?" She said, "Well, I think we should go over to that super-scary house."
Wait - WHAT? Really?
Red and green lights, caution tape, spider webs, a skull on the front door with gleaming eyes. All that added up to one big "No, thank you" to me. I am a notorious scaredy cat. In junior high school, I watched a group of my friends go into the Haunted Mansion at Disney World without me, because I thought it would be too scary. There's a gift shop in Panama City Beach that I've never been into because the entrance is made to look like an active jungle volcano, and y'all, I can't. Basically, inside this chest beats the risk-averse heart of an insurance underwriter.
But I'm certainly not going to tell Laney, "You can't trick or treat at that house because your mom thinks it's too scary." Although I did read the sign on the door to her out loud:
...and I warned her that something on the other side of the door could jump out at her, "so are you sure?" She shrugged and rang the bell. I prayed, "Lord, if a monster comes screaming out of that house, give me the strength to not abandon my children on this front porch as I run crying down the street."
Sure enough, out popped a scary monkey man.
Laney and Hagen were completely unimpressed. Laney put forth her bag and said, "Trick or treat!" Hagen demanded, "Candy!" And the terrifying Monkey Man gave them both a handful of chocolate.
I guess if there's ever a "Planet of the Apes"-style apocalyptic scenario, my children will have no trouble asking their new primate overlords for a Snickers.
Love,
Mom
No comments:
Post a Comment