76% ?!?!?!

The weather men around here are laying low! You see of the 30 days of October that we have had so far, 23 of them have been rain soaked. That means 76% of this month was so cloudy that we have begun to believe that the sun surely has burned out! The forecast for tomorrow is not the most promising either!!! No rain... but no sun... and temperatures in the 40's with WINDS in the double digits. Last Halloween we had 70 degrees and sun! BUT in this house we BELIEVE...Halloween will happen so today we prepared! Miss Vanessa sent Julia her first treat!! Mari is loathe to touch the thing but anything made from sugar is all good as far as Julia is concerned. The new school that Julia attends only had a 1/2 day session today. The tradition is to have the children wear their costumes to school and first thing on the schedule is a 'Parade' followed by an assembly in which the costumed teachers put on a song and dance routine. Due to our lovely weather the 'Parade' was indoors. The parents were asked to wait in the gym ...I just couldn't do it...I'm not usually a rule breaker but today I just couldn't ....and then before I knew it I saw the third graders heading down the hall! Snapped a quick shot as Julia raced by my position in the vestibule! I wasn't supposed to be in the vestibule...we had been asked to wait in the gym! But......... there was no room in the gym!!!!! The combination of rain and a Friday holiday created a fire marshall's nightmare. Being a tad claustrophobic, I decided to head on home to make preparations for the afternoon's activity as well as finish up Alyssa's costume. This afternoon we inaugurated a new tradition! Since I have yet to find a food grade mold for making the calavara azucar (sugar skulls) and since I found these Styrofoam skulls at the dollar store we made decorative calavaras for our ofrenda. Mari's was oh so Mari! Bling and pink are her trademarks!!!!!!!!!!!! Julia's was oh so Julia! Lots of blues and no 'staying within the lines' for her!!! Then I asked for a simple picture of the two of them with their finished products..... and it took more than a bunch of takes!!!! I mean how hard is it to stand next to your sister and smile at the camera??? I can only imagine how this would have gone had we done real sugar skulls...because you know they would have sampled while they worked. This was the best I could do before they went and did some more horsing around over who's calavara would go where on the ofrenda. Did they come back to help clean up...yeah, as if!?!? Sad to say that the crock pot held some lovely pork shoulder just waiting to be turned into pulled pork and we ended up calling for pizza. So, yes, after I cleaned up the beads and baubles we prepped for the pumpkin carving. Pictures curtesy of ....... of course!!!! Auntie Peggy came right from work to be part of the carving tradition...which is why the pulled pork was abandoned for pizza...we ALWAYS have pizza on carving day don't ya know?!?!? Sometimes us moms slip on the little details (: There was a little horsing around...this time by a grown-up but mostly it was all business. Both of my girls shoved their noses into the freshly cut pumpkin and said, "Ahhhhh, love that smell!". As 'girly' as Mari can be some time, she and Julia both love to squish the guts through their fingers as they clean out the core! This year the tradition evolved a little bit... this year the girls took on A LOT MORE of the work! They surfed the internet for inspiration, printed off ideas, settled on a plan, and marked their own pumpkins. I took a veeeeery deep breath and also let them... do most of the carving!! It is so very hard to let them 'grow up' but to everything there is a season. Besides, one of our annual reminiscences is of how my Dad DID our pumpkin every year. I mean he did it all as we sat at the kitchen table and watched. No say in the design and no hands on the pumpkin! We looonged to participate. Besides, this can only lead to GREAT times at future carving nights as their skills catch up with their imaginations! So here is Mari with her Jack inspired design from the Nightmare Before Christmas movie. Having trouble 'seeing' Jack? How about now??? You could just see her bloom at the sense of accomplishment when it was done and lit! What to say about our Julia's choice??? Her design requirements were, "It has to look mean and I want blood!" So the poor mini-pumpkin was drafted to be the dinner for the Monster Muncher and the blood is flowing as requested. Looks pretty darn mean if you ask me!!! So what do you expect from a dentist's pumpkin?? Besides I was inspired by the gaggle of middle schoolers around me! The 'braces' are just staples from Patrick's staple gun and the glasses are a broken pair that I hadn't yet thrown out. Not at all mean or spooky! It's not that I'm against mean or spooky, I just wanted to a change of pace from the girls' pumpkins. So we're off to bed in the hopes that there is some small portion of tomorrow afternoon during which we can trick-or-treat without needing a boat...we were too busy to get going on that Ark! SMILE!!!! It's HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!! TRICK-OR-TREAT...even if I don't NEED something sweet to eat!!!