Hey, here are some jack o lanterns we carved Monday. Jas roasted the seeds and they were really good. Some had the usual butter and salt. Some had spices(?) and they were extra good.

Nabby fixed my hair while I carved her requested skeleton pumpkin.

Oliver drew a picture of what he wanted his pumpkin to look like. He made a scary face in the photo I took of him holding it to amplify the scariness of it.

This was the first time Oliver jumped around the house turning off all the lights himself.

Imagine Oliver and Nabby jumping like crazy and making sounds (3 and 5 year old excited for halloween sounds).

She had a great time at the party decorating cookies with candy corn and dancing in the dark with glow stick/bracelets to the classical song “the mountain king” (I got to see the dancing part and it was awesome).

I spent Wednesday/Halloween morning finishing Oliver’s party snack prep and then Nabby and I met his class for the Wines Halloween parade. It was cold and Oliver almost died, but then didn’t. Nabby had costume #3 on: the lion, so she was warm enough.

One fortunate (or unfortunate?) student dressed as a really cool robot. It even had lights. I liked the mom/teacher dressed as Malfeasant.

I remember my Dad dressing up for a few years as a grim reaper for halloween when I was little. He’d use makeup to paint a skeleton face and wear a long black hooded robe that smelled like a musty basement. I remember being scared of him every year when I first saw him, but then I was proud he was my dad and loved it. So…I decided to paint my face green and read a story to Oliver’s class dressed as a witch. Luckily I didn’t scare anyone too much and the make up came off in the shower really easily.

Before i took it all off Jas and I went to Chipole and earned our traditional $2 burritos (normally $7). They even included guacamole. This year we didn’t have to come in dressed as something from the farm, we just had to be dressed up. Jas wore his spider shirt and Nabby’s Lion costume hood. It looked good on him! I wish I had a photo of it.

Some of the party snacks I made. There’s fruit salad in the orange-jack o lanterns. Everyone liked the Oreo spiders with twizzler legs. Then there were some “edible eye balls” made with carrots, cream cheese and olives. “Goblin grins” made of sugar snap peas, shredded mozzararella, and red pepper, and “cheese stick fingers” with red pepper nails.

Oliver handcuffed anyone who asked him to.

Several other parents helped and one even brought party bags with erasers, bubbles, a candy necklace, etc for each kid. Oliver liked that.

I didn’t take photos of the accordion leg construction paper spiders I brought for the kids to make. It turned out to be a pretty tricky craft and very stressful for Oliver. He was sobbing and yelling and unfortunately just couldn’t accept help from anyone. It is still SO hard to see him have to deal with the anxiety he’s got.

Oliver felt better after the party and went trick-or-treating with Nabby, Jason and lots of friends from church. They had a great time and got hot cocoa at our friends the Neilson’s afterwards. I stayed home and showered and watched tv and that was very nice too. It was an excellent halloween!