Halloween Down Under

This week has been one stressful evening after another … all culminating in Kelli’s monstrous shabang of a Halloween Party for Savannah and her classmates from school and a few friends from church of Savannah and Collin’s. I was in ‘yes, dear’ mode most of the week while the kids got more and more excited with each passing day.

Besides the party, the kids have been up to their usuals. Hunter once again is involved with a plethora of laughs, usually involving food in one way shape or form. But, more often than not he is getting into mischief as much as humanly possible. Kelli talks about it during the day while I’m at work, but it’s really a sight you have to behold personally to believe (watch out Grandmas Whetstone and Jones next week J). So, this weekend, indeed, I saw the boy in action. You could turn your back and literally 30 seconds later he was into something he shouldn’t – dirt out of the potted plants, walking THROUGH the screen door, breaking a glass, eating watercolor paints (would have made a good Dracula with the red paint dripping from his lips), going near the toilet, pulls frosting and sugar cookies from the counter, found my wallet and pulled everything out (took all morning to find my driver’s license and credit card), pulls all the games off of the computer room shelves and throws the cards and parts everywhere – yes, and that’s only a taste. So, we’ve managed to survive getting ready for the party with mischief man on the loose. Oh, and Savannah wants us to write … Hunter is cute. Such a good sister. He also had his first swimming lesson/class this week. He liked it for the first two minutes and then I (Kelli) had to dunk him. He cried the rest of the time, which wouldn’t be so bad except he is twice the size of all the girls (no boys), in his class, and they seemed to do just fine. He’ll get used to it, though.

Collin on the other hand is a – Savannah says ‘weirdo’ (she’s dictating as I’m writing … getting used to being told what to do by her J) The kid loves to talk ‘potty talk’, if you know what I mean. Don’t get any ideas, aunts and uncles – it’s not something we are encouraging. But, anything that involves the aft end of one’s body makes him laugh in hilarious fashion. He’s also kind of gross. The other day he got caught sniffing one of the kid’s sandals as they took them off – and then I turn my back and once again the kids are laughing and this time he’s licking the bottom of Savannah’s sandals!! Don’t worry this only gets worse … there was a fly buzzing around the kitchen this evening and gave him the fly swatter so he could whack it … well, I probably don’t need to finish the rest based on the licking the sandals thing … I turn around and Savannah was laughing at him because he licked the fly swatter. We proceeded to find the fly, whack it and then show Collin just why we DON’T lick the fly swatter. We’re also trying to get him off our bedroom floor, to which he always puts up a fight. Last night he went to the next extreme and instead of asking for water or needing a bed time story like most kids, he says, “But I like you, Dad!” Now who can resist that? (We did, though.)

Savannah on the other hand was our cute little Snow White and had a great time with all of her little friends this week. She’s reading like a champ and loving school. She’s also still actively involved in tennis, netball and swimming (whatever to keep her energy moving in the right direction!) She and Collin like riding their bikes in the backyard, throwing water balloons at each other, and playing soccer and tennis. One of the funniest things happened when she was cruising along the backyard and her chain came off so she lost control of her brakes … the next thing I see she’s flying over her bike as she hits a pillar straight on. Today she did the same thing again, but this time the chain was on and she just misjudged the corner and fell over. Sometimes we wonder about her!?!?! She gets along really good with her brothers … most the time J

Jessy wants me to write about the party—which turned out to be a lot of work, but really fun. We gave out invitations on Monday (the party was that Friday), half-hoping that some of the kids (mainly the wild ones), wouldn’t come on the short notice. Savannah gave them to her entire class and all but 5 kids ended up coming. Plus Collin invited 5 kids from the ward, and some younger siblings of Savannah’s classmates ended up staying, so we ended up with a total of 30 kids! Luckily a few parents stayed and Savannah’s teacher came, so we had some help with the crowd control, which was needed for a few feral children. I handed out small trick-or-treat bags with their names on it and some tokens inside as they came. After everyone arrived, we took a group picture and then explained to the kids how to use their tokens—for tattooes, a bean bag toss, ghost bowling (throwing a mini-pumpkin at 2-litre bottles painted like ghosts), and pin the wart on the witch (all the kids were given gum—when it was their turn, they were blindfolded and had to stick their chewed gum on the witch’s face, hopefully near the wart on her nose). Then they decorated some pumpkin shaped sugar cookies and ate them. As we waited for parents to arrive, we played musical corners, with the kids dancing their hearts out to “Ghostbusters.” We sent the parents with their bags of candy across the street to spread out along the trail, and then took the kids over and let them trick-or-treat to the moms, dads, and grandmas. It was the first time for all of them and it was fun to watch them run from person to person—their eyes and smiles just got bigger and bigger as their treat bags filled up! It was a fun little party for the kids and it was really fun to see these kids with their first Halloween. All the kids talked about last week was what they were going to dress up as. When some saw Savannah in her princess costume, they were disappointed because they were all stuck on being something “scary.” We had witches, ghosts, skeletons, draculas, monsters, a black cat, and several other spooky costumes, in addition to a few superheroes and dancers and an astronaut. The parents all seemed to enjoy the trick-or-treating part, too. Savannah’s friend, Keely, told me today, “That was the best party I’ve ever been to in my entire life!” And that may be true, given that most parties here consist of eating party foods, like mini pies and sausage rolls, visiting, maybe playing pass the parcel, and going home. I was told that I’ve set a precedent and need to do this every year now, but since we won’t be here next year, I’ll have to pass the buck on that one!