The parade began at 9:45AM. I figured it would take about 30 minutes for the whole school to shuffle past. Maybe less. Why did I think this? Because I am an optimist. After the parade finished (in less than 30 minutes), I was going to take the younger two boys and run to Costco. There, I would buy everything on my list (because, of course, they would have everything) and be back to my house before noon to meet the visiting teachers. This would leave me plenty of time to listen to the VT, get the boys lunch, tidy up, start more laundry, and put the pumpkins we carved last night out on the porch before the kids got home from school (Fridays are early out days). That way I could get the kids showered really, really well (hair dye in a can is quite awful), and #2 to her eye appointment (yes, it looks like she needs glasses, too!) by 3PM. The appointment, which is supposed to run for an hour, will end on time and give me loads of time to get dinner on the table. Once dinner is finished, we will have plenty of time to clean up dinner, get dressed nice, and drive north about an hour for a wedding reception.
But the parade didn't last 30 minutes. It lasted far longer. I left after an hour.
By then, I didn't have time to go to Costco before the VT came. And now I've realized that although I HAVE to go to Costco today (I'm hosting a baby shower tomorrow morning!!!), I have no idea how I'm going to do this with the #2 eye appointment and the wedding reception (that I honestly cannot miss. I can't!). So, shoot-from-the-hip plan:
1. Get kids cleaned up really well from Halloween costumes when they get home (in about 30 minutes).
2. Take EVERYONE to the eye appointment. Ugh.
3. Take EVERYONE to Costco. That part doesn't scare me. We do Costco as a family a lot. Big carts are my fave!
4. Throw the food in the fridge, eat a quicky dinner (probably just make-your-own nachos or cold cereal, unless I get on the ball and put something in the crockpot in the next 30 seconds), and then...
5. ...Calculate the last possible minute when we need to drive north. The reception goes until 8:30PM. I'm thinking if we leave by 7PM, we're good to go. That way, even if we hit traffic, we've got a 30 minute buffer. Heck! Maybe it won't even take an hour to drive. Maybe 45 minutes? [See! I'm an optimist!]
6. Bring kids home and collapse in a heap before realizing I forgot to start laundry. Which I probably should, but why should I when I will forget to change it and then have to re-wash what's in the washer because I remembered to change it 48 hours later...
7. Wake up early to get the baby shower prep going, a.k.a. clean the kitchen, living room, bathroom, hallway. Make the food. Decorate a tiny bit. Give the children to the sitter. Be grateful my sister is helping out!
8. Clean up shower stuff and get the kids ready for trunk-or-treat stuff.
9. Put on my own costume (I'm going as a witch! With a false nose! She's a witch!)
10. Make sure I've got the stuff for passing out at the trunk-or-treat --ACK!
11. Add to list: Stuff for passing out at the trunk-or-treat.
12. Who made this holiday!?
13. I'm guessing I'll love Halloween more when the kids are older and can put on their own dang costumes. Or would rather not dress up.
14. I hate that everything revolves around getting candy, though. Candy-schmandy! Every stinkin' holiday revolves around food that clogs our arteries and gives us cancer. LAME! That's why the "stuff" I'm getting is going to be spider rings or something. Take that, you candy-begging-kids!
15. I wish I liked Halloween more. I probably would if Brandon's school schedule didn't fall on it --again! The year before that, he was in China for work. Three years, folks. He's missed three Halloweens in a row. Not his fault! But, still...
Happy Halloween?
7 comments:
Hat Halloween, as you know. I've manged to work on Halloween for the last 4 or 5 years (so give Brandon a break) and I'm on call for it again this year, here's hoping (that I get called in).
This is the second time today that I've been really glad our district doesn't do Halloween at school. They do DARE/Red Ribbon Week/Pink Out Day, which is bad enough because hello, why must we have a camo day?? Anyway, I'm glad at least this year since our Halloween stuff will be tomorrow, so I'll have all morning to put them in costumes and then they can (WILL!!) stay in them until we get done with both husband's school carnival and the ward party. When Halloween is on a weekday, I suppose it's easier to shovel them into the costumes in the morning than during the witching hour between school and dinner and parties. Bah humbug.
I'm not a big Halloween person but my husband is. If he wasn't around, it wouldn't happen. This morning when I left for work at 7:30 he was curling my daughter's hair for her costume. And I didn't go to the Halloween parade at her school because I was running errands. Does that make me a bad parent? Oh well. Maybe I'll go next year when I have two kids at school.
We're going to the ward party tonight (thankfully they aren't doing trunk-or-treat or too much candy), and then tomorrow we'll do some trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. I still haven't figured out how to deal with the candy and my kids. Today I at least made them a fruit smoothie after school because dinner at the ward thing is chili and I know they won't eat it.
PS--If you ever want to drop your kids at my house before you go to Costco, call me. I literally live two minutes away :)
I kind of like Halloween. It's fun. My kids are so excited about the whole thing - carving pumpkins, costumes, candy. I don't dress up and my kids don't get to do costumes at school. I think I would like it less if they did. How distracting.
One lady at WW said that she was going to pass out pencils. My kids would love that. What kid doesn't love pencils? My theory on the candy is - let 'em eat it. Get it gone. Don't take them to too many houses so they don't get more candy than you want them to get.
I hope you're able to get everything done! GOod luck!
Halloween for me is the start of the holiday's! I usually love it...and decorate for it...but something happened this year and it didn't happen...don't know why, but it just didn't. I thought that Brian would be "really" upset about it, but he wasn't, to my surprise. His costume was relativily easy, he wanted to be the "Godfather". Pretty easy for an Italian kid, right. I spent $10 for the white tie, and gray hairspray..cheepest Halloween yet. I did go to the school parade and even helped with the party in class, and loved it. I figured that this one was the last one after about 15 years, until I'm a grandma....so glad I took the day off work for it.
As for candy..getting mine tomorrow at Costco and out for pizza at Terra Mia....as for the house trick or treaters....can I just put an empty bowl on my porch that says "take one", and then turn the lights off and forget about it??? Probably not, but it was a nice try!
See you tomorrow...good luck with the shower!
I think Halloween is a fun holiday but not one of my favorites. We went super cheap this year and bought NADA! They are wearing costumes from the 3 dress up buckets we have except that I borrowed a pilot costume for my 5 yr old and my daughter got a Minnie Mouse costume for her birthday and that is what she will be.
You make me tired...I refuse to take all 5 kids to costco with me unless my husband is with meYou da (wo)Man!
I hate Halloween. Lucky for me, I have three wonderful sisters who are very generous with costumes from past years, or my kids would end up in Sunday dresses, and we'd call them princesses. And I agree with you on the whole candy thing. I don't need it, my kids don't need it, and having it only means we'll eat it.
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