I love how much my kids love Halloween. They start thinking about costumes just after Labor Day and peruse all the catalogs that arrive for possible costume ideas. l’d told them this year we could have a Halloween party, or even do a version of a haunted house. At the time I made the promise, I didn’t know I’d still be so sick the day before Halloween, so this year it’s a cobbled together Halloween celebration with me postponing shopping and decorating to the last minute. Their dad took them costume shopping on Sunday, Ty Gurney took them to a haunted woods scarefest Wednesday night, and then Ty and I finally carved pumpkins and made candy apples with them last night.
Next year we’ll do the party. Next year we’ll really do something scary. The boys have hit the age where they want to scare kids. That sounds fun to them because they remember how much they loved being scared when they were little.
I don’t dress up for Halloween. I think I have three times as an adult, and each time was out of necessity because I’d been invited to a party–costume required. I don’t know why I’m not into dressing up. I love it when other moms and dads do. Ty Gurney had really wanted to dress up but yesterday instead of getting a costume he bought an old 1971 truck and today he’s tinkering with the truck, most happily, I might add. I’m glad he’s got manly wheels of his own now. He hated driving my 2002 Tahoe. Called it a mom car, a Bellevue mom car, and I can’t say I blame him. It is a mom car, it’s my car, and I love it. It holds 8 people, has lots of cup holders and it’s paid for. Maybe that’s the best part.
Today at noon Ty Gurney and I head to son Ty’s 4th grade class to help with the afternoon Halloween party. I’ve cookies for his class and then I’m the ‘dirt mom’, in charge of the pudding cup graveyard activity. Ty Gurney’s so good at all the school stuff. He chaperoned one of Ty’s field trips this week (to the salmon hatchery in Issaquah) and then chaperoned Ty’s play practice on Wednesday. It’s awesome having help and company.
Tonight we’ve been invited to a friend’s Halloween party and then we’ll go trick or treating after, although I’ll probably head home after the party instead of going house to house since I’m still on limited activity. I’m excited about the party. Ty’s here and he can go with us, and we haven’t been invited to a party in a long, long time. One year? Two? It’s so nice to be included.
And in light of today being Halloween, and the fact that I appreciate my readers and also really love sweets and treats, I’m doing a one day contest that ends tonight at midnight and I’ll announce the winner in the morning. The prize is my last signed copy of The Desert Sheikh’s Marriage, Jane Porter goodies, and a $40 yummy cookie gift from my favorite bakery, Cheryl&Co. to start your November right. I will have the cookies sent straight to you so they’ll be fresh, and they have sugar free varieties in case you or your family prefers them. How to play? Post a comment below, telling me about your Halloween or weekend plans, and you’re entered.
Have a wonderful Halloween, be warm, be safe, and know I’m grateful to have you in my life!
The DH and I went to a costume party last week. We were dressed as the Prince and Princess of Darkness. We must have looked pretty scary cause we won the costume contest and the prize was an iPod Nano. Kewl! The DH said he might reprise his role as the Prince tonight and scare the trick-or-treaters. He needs to be careful not to traumatize the little ones though. LOL! The neighbors would never forgive him.
I’m not a huge dress up for Halloween person myself. I never feel as though I’m clever enough – especially when I see everyone else’s fiercely clever costumes. This year we have a dead on Palin impersonation (who doesn’t), a Ghostbuster who I doubt was even born when the movie debuted, and a laugh riot Bret Michaels.
Every year our admin assistants do a theme here at the office, and this year it was convicts and wardens. Last week they had several of us pose for mug shots for their perp wall, and I became the Red Pen Murderer (I’m an editor…gedddit? geddit?) So today I’m wearing red and black with a red and black punk wig, red accented make up, and red pens taped to my wrists vampire slayer style, the better to complete my murderous intent. Beware – I slay bad grammar and annoying people indiscriminately. Neither of which would EVER apply here. 🙂
Jane,
I am so happy to hear how much better you are!! Tonight we are having a party since the whole town goes trick or treating in my neighborhood. The streets get closed off and houses have open house parties so you see pretty much everyone…good and bad:) Tomorrow night, I am handing my kids off to my parents and going to a Haunted Housewarming party which sounds like a blast!! And Sunday is my hubby’s birthday! Now I have to get back to cleaning before the hectic day really starts! I just wish a house could be self cleaning like the oven!! Wouldn’t that be great?
Have a wonderful Halloween and a great weekend!!
We were invited to our friend’s house for dinner and trick or treating! My daughter was a bit disappointed because plans tonight ruin our breakfast for dinner tradition on halloween night! Oh well….mommy doesn’t have to cook. woohoo! Saturday is my daughter’s 10th birthday party and her real actual birthday is sunday. We also have company coming from out of town for her birthday which means that I actually have to clean my house! My husband’s 40th is on the 6th! 😉
Jane, glad to hear that you are up and about! You sound like you are feeling better!
Dear Jane,
I’m so glad to see you’ve been upgraded to limited activity!
No plans for Halloween this year but we’ll support the local volunteer Fire Dept at their semi-annual pancake breakfast on Sunday; it’s a chance to get together with friends and support a good cause (plus, I don’t have to cook! – always a bonus in my opinion LOL).
We’re grateful to have such dedicated volunteers and always make it a point to tell them so while we’re there.
Take care and don’t overdo things as we head into the hectic holiday season ~
LynneW
We are staying home tonight and passing out candy. The kids are going out with my nephew trick or treating. Tomorrow is my birthday and we will celebrate my birthday plus have a halloween party as well. Why not knock out 2 parties at one time?? Happy Halloween!!
Well, this is the first year in a long time I am taking it easy and enjoying myself and the kids! Usually I have a big party and don’t have much time to enjoy the day/night. This year I am simply taking my girls trick or treating and I am going to love every minute of it!
Hi Jane,
I just love Halloween, almost more then I love Christmas. Tonight we are going to meet up with some friends from my work, go Trick or Treating and then go back to his house for a party and some steamed crabs. Yummmy. My daughter is dressing up as TinkerBell and I am dressing up as Queen Clarion, from the Tinker Bell movie. My middle son(12) is going to dress up as Jason, he loves to scare kids also, must be that age. It’s going to be a fun night, unfortunetly I have to work tomorrow at 7am so I can’t have to much fun :(. Take care and have fun, Happy Halloween.
I am happy to hear you are off of bedrest and onto limited activity. That’s great news. Happy Halloween to your family!
For the first time, my family will be broken up instead of doing the trick or treat thing together. My husband is in Guam (big sad face), the twin girls are 15 and heading to separate sleepover Halloween parties and my son, 11, is having a friend spend the night and trick or treating. I am doing the mom thing, passing out candy and parying that my kids are safe this evening. I’ll be drilling the boys, remember, look left, right, and left again….
I love Halloween. I loved it even more when my kids were growing up. It was a big night at my household. I’d even take a few hours off of work to take the girls to the mall, to the school function, to whatever party was happening and then trick or treating. I miss having little kids so you go Mama Jane and have a wonderful time with those boys of yours.
Happy Halloween
Since I live in a rural area I get very few Halloweeners. That means I get to do my favorite thing…read!
Have a Happy Halloween!
Glad to hear you are doing better. My husband and I are going on a date tomorrow and on Sunday we are going to see my parents.
Have fun at the party. 🙂
Hi Jane I love cookies, hehe
I have no plans this year- I am not home.
BUT last year was a hoot. I was in the hospital and my sis came with a sheet and cut holes for eyes and then wheeled me around in a wheel chair like a ghost. We visited several wards- mostly on my floor and I gave away books to so many new friends. And, lets see I got an unopened jello a little girl didn’t like, and some cookies from the staff nurses and a graham cracker package that I gave to my sis. I can’t speak so she made the spooky noises. I was laughing so hard I about cried. It was the best ever. Thanks for ur love and contests. ur friend anna
Hi Jane,
I am so glad to hear that you are doing a little bit better.
Since I live in the country and no trick-or-treaters. I will be listening to the High School football game on the radio. It is out of town and my daughter is there with the film crew filming it for the school.
Today is also my m-in-laws birthday so after my DH gets home we will have to take her the gift.
Tomorrow my youngest daughter has a costume party to go to. (she is the one away at the game)
Her costume is a very cool somewhat sexy pirate outfit. She looks like the female version of Captain Morgan on the Rum bottle but her costume is shorter.
I wish I had a party to go to but not this year.
Jane–
As it’s been said already, I’ll add my congratulations to getting off complete bedrest! Here’s hoping the rest of the pregnancy just gets easier and easier!
I, for as long as I can remember, haven’t liked Halloween. My birthday is the day before, so all my friends wanted to Halloween related stuff and I just wanted to have a “normal” birthday party. Since there have been kids born into the family (5 of them now – ages almost 7 to almost 3) we go trick-or-treating at University Village (since we know it’s limited and pretty safe) and then back to someone’s house for a soup party. Last year I dressed up my poor dog as “Superdog” and took him trick-or-treating too. This year, we have two dogs and they’re both too big to get regular costumes – we would have had to special order them. So, I’m actually going to stay home for the first time in quite awhile and hope that I can just have a quiet, relaxing evening curled up with two big pups and a good book!
Hi Jane! Right now I am at work, but the boss is out sick, so I am thinking about sneaking out a bit early this afternoon 😉
I love Halloween more now as an adult than I did as a child! I love to hand out candy – It is so fun to see all the kids and their costumes.
We usually dress up at work which is lots of fun too 🙂
We are hosting a Halloween party for our neighborhood tonite with hay rides, kareoke, bon fire, marshmallow roasting and hot dog roasting – it is sure to be a fun time!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone 🙂
Jane,
So happy you’re feeling better and able to get out to hang with the boys!
My kids are so excited and can’t wait for the doorbell to ring and to be ringing them too! We’re here in our little hood of 37 houses for most part, and for little legs, that’s plenty! Then we’ll head over to the neighbors for our own “treats”.
Never dressed up much either, just not the thing I do.
Happy Halloween!
Good afternoon, Jane… this afternoon when the kids are out of school, it will be off with the school clothes and on with the costumes and out to visit the grandma’s and grandpa’s before we hit the door to door trick-or-treating. Neither my husband or I dress up for Halloween, but this year seems to be an exception for me… as I had a run in with my hairdresser yesterday. I went in for my normal cut and color, wanting go a bit darker for the fall. A nice creamy chocolate brown was the color I picked which is fitting being chocolate is my favorite food group! Once the dye was washed out my hair was not the color it was supposed to be. I’m a cross between Elvira, Joan Jett, and Cleopatra. Imagine that. I’ve already had two hairdressers try to tell me but it’s Halloween??? My response… Sure I can get away with that today… but what about tomorrow and the next two months! So looks like I’m dressing up after all!! Hope you enjoy your day with your kids and your surfer…
hugs,
Micole
My weekend plans include going to a big holiday booksigning tomorrow! It’s at a mall, so I’m hoping to start my Christmas shopping tomorrow too. Plus I have a friend in from out of town who’s also a writer, so lots of writerly talk. No real Halloween plans, though.
Hi Jane,
Well, this Halloween we aren’t dressing up. I will be by myself this year. My boyfriend is out of town, so I’ll be passing out the candy to the neighborhood kids. As for this weekend, I make jewelry so I’ll be beading my little heart out since I won’t have any obligations!!! Have a great weekend!!!
Guess this means you are feeling better?
Nothing going much here. I finally today got candy for the kids… and will probably just veg out with our Halloween kitty at home. (She’s orange.)
Hey Jane,
Glad to hear you are feeling better! We are going to a Halloween Ball tonight. It should be lots of fun!!
Have a sweet Halloween! 🙂
Hi Jane. This Halloween is actually going to be my first here in the States so I’ll be at home passing out candy to the kids.
Have a happy Halloween!
Hi Jane. Happy Halloween!! I’m spending this evening (and tomorrow) preparing for my friend Kim’s bridal shower on Sunday. It’s going to be a great party! I can hardly wait to shower her with good wishes for a long and wonderful marriage.
Take care!! LeAnne
Hopefully the winning of this contest isn’t contingent on having exciting plans. 🙂
I have school work to do, plus I’m trying for an upcoming marathon so I have to keep on schedule with that. And if there is time left over, I’ll be going into the office to get some things done when no one’s there to interrupt.
See, not too exciting. Enjoy your weekend! 🙂
Right now I’m home for handing out candy but not in costume. My friend phoned and said she was almost out of candy already on her side of town. Probably we’ll go over to her place later on to see what her 3 brought home or they’ll come over to watch a movie being it’s Friday night.
This year is sad because our dog had to be put down a few months ago and he won’t be here with me to see the little ones and some big ones dressed up.
Now that my boys are grown, Halloween isn’t as much fun as it used to be. I need grandchildren!
The girls and I went trick or treating. The big girls (5 & 8) are really into it but are still frightened of any house with spooky sounds or headless people. Little bits (19mo)has discovered chocolate and adores it and won’t give up the little round pumpkin without a fight. Tomorrow Gracie’s invited to her first ever Halloween party and is super excited. This is my oldest first year as something other than a Disney princess (she’s a gypsy fortune teller). Princess’s are big in the Orlando area. I guess it means she’s officially a big girl now-sigh. Good news I get donated candy the girls don’t like which I like. Yay!
I am dressed as a cat this year. I seem to go back and forth between cat or witch, and some years both–one in the day, another at night. And I have to dress my dog in a costume. This year he is a pink pig. And I like to take him around to a few pet costume contests. Don’t have any parties to attend; Eric & I just have fun handing out candy to all the cute neighborhood ghosts & goblins. And I LOVE decorating the house for Halloween–fun to get out all the decorations–some that I even bought in Salem last year!
Happy Halloween, Jane!
Luv, Lesli
Hi, my name is Shawnna and this year, me and my best friend Ronesha went as two old ladies, complete with walkers, canes, gray wigs, and pearls. We plan to go trick-or-treating with Ro’s twin sisters tonight so, Happy Halloween!!!!!!!
Hi Jane,
Glad to hear you are feeling better.
Right now I am listening to my 9 year old son brush his teeth for about the 5th time in the last half hour. He thinks if he brushes after each piece of candy I will let him eat candy all night! Not going to happen! I need him to go to bed soon so I can dive into his candy bucket.
I love Halloween. My husband goes all out decorating inside and outside. We live in a neighborhood that gets hundreds of kids. I just love watching all the little ones in their costumes.
I have no plans big plans this weekend. Meet a friend for lunch tomorrow, then brunch and a museum trip on Sunday with another group of friends. Nothing Halloween related. Hopefully, most of my weekend will be devoted to nanowrimo 🙂
Incidentally, I don’t really get into dressing up for Halloween either. I always tell people it’s b/c I’m happy with myself the way I am and don’t feel the need to be anyone else, even temporarily. However, I think laziness is a big part of it too!
No big plans but love to answer the door and see the kids and the costumes. Hope we get lots of kids this year, there seem to be many more in the neighborhood and the weather is good.
Halloween was busy this year with two class parties today and pumpkin patch field trip yesterday. Our neighborhood is always crazy on Halloween- I bought over 200 pieces of candy and I ran out! Felt like Bree Vandekamp at the door as they were a little snarly towards the end and I had to remind a few of Halloween Etiquette. Anyway, my little butterfly, witch and presidential candidate are home and in their PJ organizing and trading their candy with their jack o lanterns lit and glowing on the fireplace. I remember doing the exact same thing with my sister when I was little. I bought a little pumpkin ice cream at the store today for my treat, so I think I am going to read one last Halloween story to my three, tug them in and break out the ice cream- I may have to “borrow” a butterfinger from one of the kids to sprinkle on top. The I will curl up with my little Scottie dog still in his pumpkin costume (he is tolerant) and call it a night. Happy Halloween!!!
I had a busy day with my 2 little men — it started with last minute costume changes before school this morning, and I’m not one of those super-Mom’s that can pull a costume out of a hat, so I was thrilled everyone left happy this morning. Another costume change after school, and I got the trick-or-treating duty tonight (usually they want their Dad to take them). I think it was even more fun for them to pass out candy to the kids that came to our door after we did a pass of the neighborhood…it’s fun to see them so excited and having “the best Halloween ever”, but I’m glad they are finally asleep and Halloween is over for another year.
I’m glad you’re feeling better and getting out to parties!
N
PLans for Halloween are to go to the Haunted House with friend and then to a Halloween party.
This weekend I’m spending it getting my house ready for winter. I will be going through closets pulling out winter clothes.
For the first year in over ten years our daughter didn’t have a Halloween party, we didn’t have a giant yard and house to decorate, etc. It had always been such a time-consuming all out even that it took us a month to get it all done. We loved it..but this year we moved into an apartment. The best part of that is that for once we had trick-or-treaters! In the country we didn’t have any. So when one’s life changes there are good and bad. It was a good Halloween where my husband and I passed out candy to some adorable kids. Nice night.
Marilyn, because it’s November 1st and you were the first to post, you are the winner of the signed book and yummy yummy cookies from Cheryl & Co. Send me a private email with your address and I’ll get the book and goodies out, and cookie order placed. Congratulations, Marilyn, and thank you to everyone who posted and shared Halloween plans. Everyone’s comments were so fun to read.
Jane
Time changed at 2:00 am and I’m wide awake. It was so much fun to read the Halloween comments. We watched football but had no trick or treaters since we are an all adult community. Those that wanted to party had dinner and costumes at the club house but we are packing for our trip to Africa this coming Wednesday. We spend four nights in Cape town. Do you have friends still living there? Give each of your three boys a hug for me. Lots of love, Mom
natural fibers like wool are still the best for winter clothes-`”
when buying winter clothes, i always chose wool because i love the feel of it;”‘
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