Halloween

Halloween here was very different than in Mobile. I have never seen so many trick-or-treators in all my life. Even when I was a kid and we lived in a neighbourhood with lots of other kids, I've never experienced anything like this.

On Tuesday night, we designed our pumpkin. Here's a picture of us scooping out the pumpkin guts:

Here is the finished product. Archie got upset with me for accidentally chopping off the bottom tooth, but sometimes that happens when you have a slimy, pumpkin gut-covered knife. Archie decided he needed a Halloween mask for his costume. We were looking for an eye patch at first, but then he found his Zorro mask. We were super excited and proud of the pumpkin.

Morgan decorated the outside of the house. She did a beautiful job. Archie was too scared to go check it out, until I checked it out first and promised he wouldn't be scared. Here is the house decorated and pumpkin out. Archie was a bit leery of the 'bloody' paper on the door, but everything was okay, despite his phobia about spiders.

I have had a difficult time running errands at stores this whole Halloween season. Archie is scared to go into Biggs (the grocery store), Walgreens, Target, Home Depot, the IGA (another grocery store)...everywhere. The decorations are 'too scary' according to him. So I have had to endure him clinging to my leg with his eyes shut tight and asking over and over again, "Are we done yet? Are we out of the scary part?" So I am pretty glad we are done with Halloween for the year.

I did get him into Target last Tuesday morning because we had to purchase our candy for Trick-or-Treators and he was pretty excited about getting to pick it out, despite the fact that we would be in the 'scary' section. While we were there, we saw a Batman and a Ninja costume that he decided he would like to have for his Halloween costume. He finally decided on Batman and we got our candy and went home. He put his costume on right after we came home and it did not come off until Wednesday night after Trick-or-Treat. He did tell me that the costume wasn't as good as he first thought because the boy in the picture's neck wasn't hurting from the costume like his was. Ah...the first lesson in buyer beware!

Morgan had two of her friends over and they raided Archie's costume box for costumes. Amazingly enough, they found lots to use from a 5 year old's costume box. They were just getting started with their costume gathering, so we left them at 6 for Tricks or Treats. We ran into Archie's friend next door as we were leaving. She was Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas and her big brother was Jack, the Pumpkin King. Here's a picture of Sally and Batman:

Pretty cute, huh?? Archie wanted to trick-or-treat with her, so we all went together. The neighbourhood was thick with Trick-or-Treators. I mean, it was difficult to move down the sidewalk! I've never seen such great participation of Trick-or-Treat ever! Also, all the neighbours sat outside on their porches to give out candy. It was really nice to see everyone out like that. There were lots of cool decorations and we had a great time. Until it got dark. Fortunately, the time-switch didn't happen yet, so we had over an hour of daylight of fright-free trick-or-treating. There were a few houses Archie wouldn't even approach because the decorations were too scary or people had on scary costumes.

Around 7:30 we called it a night and went in to check our loot and watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". Morgan and her friends came in about 15 minutes later and then went back outside. Morgan came in and told me that some mean-spirited jerk-face had thrown our pumpkin on the sidewalk and smashed it. I went outside to pick up the pieces and told Archie. He cried a bit and wanted to know why someone would do that to HIS pumpkin. Morgan and I were both pretty ticked off about it. It was a bit of a downer after our otherwise grand Halloween experience.

Later that night, at bedtime, when Archie said his prayers, he asked God to make those people who smashed his pumpkin have 'right thoughts' that they won't do it to another boy's pumpkin next time. Sometimes he really amazes me with the things that go through his mind. I have a really hard time praying for those who have done something wrong to me. However he did tell my Mom that if he put toilet paper in the trees of EVERYONE'S house in the neighbourhood, then he's sure to get the ones who smashed his pumpkin. Ah...finally something I'm familiar with...thoughts of retribution!