halloween 2006

Halloween is big fun in our neighborhood. The events start at 5 pm and keep going until 9 pm. A lot of the cul-de-sacs plan block parties where the adults hang out and take turns shuttling the kids around from street to street. There is always plenty to eat and enjoy. It's a great time to reconnect with everyone. This year our neighborhood association had a policeman hired for the front of the neighborhood to encourage outsiders to park their cars in one place and walk. In the past people would follow their kids from house to house in the cars and it would be so difficult to walk around with little ones. Our neighborhood is full of kids and so the streets were just filled with people. It was nice to have the outsider cars limited so the kids could play.

My pictures are not award winning this year. All the kids wanted to do was get candy and TOT around the neighborhood. Grace was Snow White, Jordan was Hannah Montana (thanks Alia!), and William was a Pirate. William looks like he lost his best friend in this photo. In actuality he was just tolerating me so he could go to the party.


We didn't quite get to the pumpkin carving, but our porch looked seasonal with the pumpkins the kids selected.


Here is Hannah Montana hanging out with her girlfriends. I think we are past the point of cute (aka Mom influenced) outfits for Halloween.


After returning home we got the kids headed toward a decent bedtime after sorting the candy into seperate ziploc bags. Needless to say, our pantry is stocked with candy. Things were going well until Grace fell off of William's bed and nearly bit her tongue through from the fall. I was reading them a Dr. Suess story when Grace decided that she wanted to turn around to see my face. She was sitting upright on William's bed when she suddenly just got sleepy and fell backwards. The bed is only a foot off the floor, but I could tell from her cry that she was hurt. I kept looking at all the obvious spots and could not tell what was wrong. I picked her up and then she opened her mouth and blood began pouring out of it. It was horrible. I searched for the wound initially thinking a tooth had come loose, but then saw the mini-grand canyon created by her sharp little teeth on the right side of her tongue. The cut was about 3/4ths of an inch and deep enough that I thought it had completely punctured the tongue. Fortunately it didn't. Poor little girl. It took us a while to stop the wound from bleeding and then it still hurt horribly. We ended up letting her sleep in the crib for the night so that we could hear her if anything happened. I took her to the doctor on Wednesday and after a peroxide wash of the tongue (yech) she declared the tongue to be healing beautifully. The canyon had already sealed and we are only looking for signs of infection and eating a lot of applesauce. I tell her that candy will hurt her wound. Is that lying???

In other news, my Father-in law got a good report from the doctor yesterday and went back to his home after dinner last night. The kids missed him horribly this morning. Grace kept looking for him. Don is still in recovery mode, but after having the staples removed he in on to stage 2 of the recovery. He cannot drive for several more weeks and also has to be very careful. His therapist will visit him there in the home.

Tell me how everyone else's Halloween went? Even though the holiday is a lot of work, it's loads of fun to be a parent that night. Definately a top three holiday in my book.