Hodge Podge Halloween

The last few days of October kind of became a hodge podge of Halloween and other holiday celebrating. Some things were celebrated on their day and some were celebrated "observed." So here we go.

I asked Jet a while back what he wanted to be for Halloween. He told me, "Batty." I definitely went with a joke in there but also decided I could make him bat wings so he could be "Batty." Jeremy made bat ears for him.

He loved his bat wings so much, he wore them a lot. One day when they were all finished, he asked to watch an episode of Wild Kratts about bats. He wore his wings and watched the episode then told us things he knew about bats. "They sleep upside down." He said that as he was lying on his back trying to get his feet all the way up into the air. Have I mentioned I love that kid so much?

That day was October 29, National Cat Day (not to be confused with National Black Cat Day two days earlier). I took a picture of the neighbor's cat skeleton decoration again.

It was also National Oatmeal Day but we were too busy to celebrate that day. Jeremy and Lucky volunteered to make balloon animals at the Primary Carnival the Young Women put on. Jet got to test run his bat wings and ears. He enjoyed playing games and getting prizes and treats. He also decorated a sugar cookie. 

The Young Women really put on a good event. Besides the things Jet wanted to do, they also had face painting and freeze dance contests and musical chairs and crafts. I was impressed.

We celebrated Oatmeal Day the next day, October 30, which was actually Haunted Refrigerator Night. So Lucky and I made oatmeal muffins and I fried up some eggs (from the refrigerator- Boo!) for dinner.

Lucky: It looks like a duck face.

 

Earlier that day, our friend Stephanie came over to watch a spooky movie with Nichole and me while we drank hot chocolate and ate toast. Mmmmm. The movie was Something Wicked This Way Comes. I watched that movie when I was a kid and it was creepy. It's still creepy now that I'm an adult. I won't recommend it to my sensitive child.

October 31 was Halloween, National Breadstick Day, Frankenstein Friday, and National Knock Knock Joke Day. Jet and I did knock knock jokes a few days before when we were talking about that holiday coming up.

Jeremy got us donuts as a special treat for Halloween breakfast.

Jet did a really good job going in to school that day (he doesn't always). I think he was excited about Halloween and his costume. I watched Jet and Lucky in the elementary school Halloween parade. 

At home after Nichole got back from classes, she helped me make dinner. That was really helpful because besides working on the food, I was also running around picking kids up after school. 

Jet got fangs at school (which he calls a jaw- it makes sense), so a few times he told people he was a vampire bat. 

Because of Nichole's help, we were able to eat before trick or treating. Spaghetti Monsters to celebrate Halloween, National Breadstick Day, and Frankenstein Friday. 

The three youngest went trick or treating with me around the neighborhood then the whole family loaded up in the van and went trick or treating at my sister's house then went in to visit for a little bit. It's tradition. Every year, Jet talks about trick or treating at his aunt's house.

While we were out trick or treating, Jr. Jr., dressed as a jester, showed people juggling tricks and they gave him treats.  

Jet as you know was a bat (Batty).

Lucky dressed as Quirrel from Hollow Knight, the video game. Jeremy made his costume.

Hodge Podge Halloween celebrating. It's fun.

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.

Quarantine!

And then we got sick. 

It's a good thing I didn't schedule anything for Fall Break after the Scarecrow Festival since I didn't feel up to doing anything for a few days and I stayed mostly in my room.

After Fall Break we all had to quarantine.

Here's Jeremy with his "Vaccinated" shirt. Notice it says "COVID-19" under the word, "vaccinated." He made sure to wear this shirt while he had Covid-19.

I got a video of Jeremy eating pineapple (he hates pineapple) because he lost his taste for about a day or two. He wondered what it would be like to lose that sense but after a day of it he was done with that experience and lucked out with it being such a short duration. He had no problem eating the pineapple. Normally he would be grimacing and wouldn't be able to handle it so we could definitely tell he'd lost his sense of taste and smell.

Jr. Jr.'s birthday was during our quarantine. Since we couldn't go shopping for items for his birthday dinner and cake and ice cream he wanted, we made do with what we had at home with the promise that we would do the dinner and cake and ice cream he wanted later. Jr. pointed out that meant he'd get two cakes, etc.

So Jr. Jr. picked ice cream out of our freezer that he wanted and a boxed cake from the pantry and I made frosting to go with it. The frosting was from thefoodnanny.com and it's my go-to chocolate frosting when I don't have store bought frosting because it's simple enough. I put sprinkles on the top.

We skipped the candles for obvious reasons but still sang, "Happy Birthday," to him and he still got to open cards and presents.

 

We didn't do a lot of celebrating other things during quarantine but we still got creative like we did with "quarantine" last year when everything shut down. There was also some cabin fever like with "quarantine" last year.

Six Sisters' Stuff put together a series of videos about if they actually listened to internet trolls. One comment they got was how some people hate casseroles so they should take their casseroles and go jump in a lake so one of the sisters took a casserole and jumped in a lake with it. Other people complained how they use cream of chicken soup too much, in practically every recipe, so one of the sisters showed herself making brownies and adding cream of chicken soup to it. Our family get a kick out of those videos so one day while Jr. was making brownies, he made this comment, "I didn't add any cream of chicken soup. Do you think it will be okay?" I love that kid. It was so funny, I put it on Instagram and Six Sisters' Stuff got a big kick out of it, too. I told you. Creativity.

October 24 was Mother-in-Law Day. I made a general announcement, "Happy Mother-in-Law Day." I don't know if my mother-in-law heard it or not.

We may or may not have celebrated Picasso's birthday on October 25 along with Greasy Food Day. We had spaghetti and meatballs with sweet mini peppers and some of us made the food into faces.

We did celebrate National Chocolate Day on October 28 by making chocolate frogs. We used green food coloring in white chocolate which is not actually chocolate but it's a generally accepted term so good enough. I'm sure there was some other chocolate eating in there as well. The boys did most of the work but I helped a bit and they turned out great.

 

October 29 was National Oatmeal Day. Guess what I had for breakfast?

So I guess we did some celebrating, mostly after I was feeling better.

While the kids were quarantining at home, they had school work they were able to work on. Some days were harder to get going than others, though, and everyone had to take turns with the computer which wasn't always easy when everyone decided they were ready to use it at the same time.

So that's how quarantine went. We were very fortunate not to get too sick. We can count our blessings for that.