The Day After Halloween Is NOT Christmas

Jr. Jr. joined in on the celebration of Vinegar Day, November 1, this year. He is not a fan of Christmas right after Halloween and he made his position known to me.

It was also National Author's Day on November 1, which is an appropriate beginning to NaNoWriMo. I wished a happy this holiday to Nichole.

Since it was also Dia de Los Muertos, Lucky created a mask at school, inspired by some things Dad likes.

Halloween 2024

October 30 was Haunted Refrigerated Night. We had leftovers for dinner then headed to the ward/neighborhood Trunk or Treat. Jeremy brought the sugar skulls and a balloon puppet home from Thanksgiving Point's Dia de Muertos Celebration and suggested I use those to decorate our trunk for the festivities. It worked well.

When I asked Jet a week or two before Halloween what he wanted to be for Halloween, he told me a dinosaur. Perfect. He had green clothes, pteranodon wings, and Jeremy the night before the Trunk or Treat made him a balloon pteranodon hat to wear on his head. Perfect. (Again, we are using the word dinosaur as a general term for prehistoric creatures, including flying reptiles)

So as we were getting ready for the Trunk or Treat, Jet told me he was a vampire bat. O.K. Great. He was a vampire bat that some people would mistake for a pteranodon (and a lot of other things as that is how costumes go).

 

Lucky was Flowey, a character from the video game, "Undertale."

Jr. Jr. went as himself but with an "inflated ego." Ha Ha Ha Ha. Jeremy's idea.

Jr.'s Halloween costume was Death from Terry Pratchett's "Discworld." He had a Rat Death on his shoulder. Loved it.

Jeremy put together most of the costumes for the boys. I used to be more helpful but not lately (at least with Halloween costumes).

Halloween, October 31, was also National Knock Knock Joke Day but I couldn't think of any knock knock jokes that day. Weird and sad.

Jet and I went to see Lucky in his Halloween Parade at the elementary school. Like last year, they had the band from the high school playing for them as they walked outside.

After the parade, Jet and I drove up to Bridal Veil Falls to say Goodbye for the next 6 months.

That evening, Jet, Lucky, Jr. Jr., and I went around the neighborhood trick or treating. Jr. stayed home to work on college applications. He stayed in the van at Trunk or Treat to do the same. Poor kid. Lots of stress for him lately.

After we trick or treated in our neighborhood, we went to trick or treat and visit my sister. Nice chatting and good end to the evening.

Balloons and Birds

Jeremy built balloon puppets and skulls for Dia de Muertos at Thanksgiving Point again. We delivered the puppets the morning of the event then headed out to do some birding. We finished one site for our birding challenge and tried out a new birding spot.

We got our selfie. "Agh! The sun's in our eyes." We thought we'd get a better picture under the trees. We got distracted by a late season osprey, though. We weren't expecting to see one toward the end of October. We thought they'd all moved on.

For dinner that night we tried yet another new recipe from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 4, by Jordan Page. White Chicken Chili with Cheesy Garlic Rolls. Mmmm.

Since October 26 was National Pumpkin Day, we had pumpkin bars in the freezer that we finished off for this holiday.

Halloween 2023

We don't have time to do a fun Halloween themed dinner on Halloween anymore so this year we had a Halloween themed dinner a few days before. October 29 was National Oatmeal Day. Jr. and Jeremy helped me to figure out what we should make and what the food should be called. Bonemeal muffins, Baba Yaga's chicken legs, alfraidy sauce worms (pastaaaaagh!), and shredded lettuce with a costume... I mean dressing, scream soda to drink and batberry cobbler (blackberry cobbler) for dessert.

Here's what happened on actual Halloween. 

Jr. Jr. hadn't decided what costume to wear as of the night before Halloween. Jeremy had made balloons for Dia de Muertos at Thanksgiving Point again so he suggested he could use one of the puppets that was still in good shape. 

Jr. Jr. liked that idea and managed to maneuver around his school like that. Of course I dropped him off and picked him up for there was no way he was going to fit that thing on the bus.

Jr. was the happy mask salesman from Majora's mask. We were up late the night before and got up early Halloween morning to work on his costume. He did the sewing that needed to be done by himself. 

Lucky was a dementor from Harry Potter. He likes to do costumes inspired by his teacher's classrooms if he can. 

 

Jet and I bundled up to watch Lucky in the elementary Halloween school parade. They did it outside this year. The marching band from the high school up the street walked over to provide music for the parade. They led the parade through the school then continued to play in one spot while the rest of the students walked around for everyone to see. That was fun.

 

Trick or treating around our neighborhood went well (except I slowed everyone down because I like to talk).

The next morning I felt like a genius. I emptied Jet's Halloween bucket and put all the toys and activity items back in it along with just a few pieces of candy. 

When he found the bucket, he did not go straight for the candy as it was not an overwhelming amount. He played with other items first. Woohoo.

Dia de Muertos

I got to help Jeremy deliver balloon puppets for the Dia de Muertos celebration at Thanksgiving Point this year. He delivered balloon sugar skulls a couple days before. The puppets have become such a fun tradition. Kids/people can go around giving them high fives or waving at them. 

It was nice to see things before the crowds got there. There were dancers rehearsing. Such beautiful dancing. And though we only had a little bit of time (I had to get Jeremy to another gig that same day), it was still nice to see what we did see.

It's nice to see a culture that, though it may not be my own, I can respect and see the beauty in.

And of course the rest of the day, I had songs from the movie, Coco, running through my head.

At a later date, the high school also celebrated. Nichole and Jr. both got to perform with their combined orchestras, "Cielito Lindo," a familiar Mexican song.

Yet another day, Nichole's Yoga teacher asked the students to bring in pictures of loved ones who have passed on. Sweet. Nichole brought a picture of her great grandma who she remembers visiting in Washington.

Catch of the Day

I walked into the boys room and found this. A Darth Vader mask wearing a Dia de los Muertos mask. O.K.?

Economics Sale

Jr. Jr. and other students in his grade finished a unit about economics. At the end of the unit, they had an economics sale. The children (and family helpers) created products based on certain cultures to sell and invited family and friends and other students to come buy them. The money will go toward field trips, school activities, and things like that. I could tell the children worked hard on these projects. Way to go, kids.
Jr. Jr. decided his chosen culture was Mexican Dia de los Muertos and wanted to make balloon creations to sell. Jeremy taught him how to make balloon wands with sugar skull faces (they come printed like that) and bone handles.
Jr. Jr. did a very good job with those balloons (he made about 25) and they were popular.

Balloons. It's a family thing.

Dia de los Muertos

November 2 was Plan Your Epitaph Day.  Nichole and Jr. went throughout the day mentioning different epitaphs.
That day was also Dia de los Muertos.  How appropriate that both were on that day.
Lucky wanted to do some coloring so I printed out a sugar skull for him to color.  He really enjoyed that.

His coloring is improving, too- not nearly as much scribbling but he tries to color the individual parts now.  Fun to see the progress.

Fall Break- Scarecrows

Another day of Fall Break, Jeremy and Jr. worked on a project for school while I took the other kids to the Scarecrow Festival at Ashton Gardens at Thanksgiving Point.
Again they had an I Spy scarecrow scene.

They also had scarecrows advertising Dia de Los Muertos again (Jeremy again built sculptures for the event).

We found Waldo... twice.

We even saw One-Eyed Willy from the movie, Goonies.  My kids haven't seen that movie, but I just had to take a picture to show Jeremy.  One-Eyed Willy even had the key hanging from his neck.

At one point there was a scarecrow sitting on the edge of a bench with the sign saying, "Take a Seat."  The kids very nicely sat and looked scared for me to take a picture.

The last scarecrow we saw made us laugh.  It had a sign saying, "Harry Potter (under his cloak of invisibility)," with no scarecrow to be seen.  Of course not because he's invisible.

On the way out, the kids got on a bench to rest for a bit.  I mentioned that the scarecrow festival must have taken a lot out of them so I told them to say, "That Scarecrow Festival took a lot out of us." 

After that, almost every bench we came to, Jr. Jr. and Lucky would stop and say, "That scarecrow festival took a lot out of us."  We stopped at a lot of benches and they had a lot of fun saying those words.

 We had fun but that Scarecrow Festival took a lot out of us.