Halloween week has brought 25 degree days and snow even!

Our poor little frozen pumpkins.

The kids have not been as excited about Halloween this year as in past years. We went to Target a few weeks ago to find costumes – Maria picked up some sleazy adult ones and when I nixed them, she went for the cowgirl costume. Mario debated between a few – I pushed for the Hulk – but ended up with a Redaki costume (only because it had a sweet mask). And after that trip to Target, there has not been much ado about Halloween. In years past, they would have been begging to change their costume after seeing a cooler one on tv or they would have been asking how many days until Halloween. Do they already feel too old to celebrate?!

Ri probably does based on her comment this morning to me. I bought her a turtleneck with gold stars on it to match her cowgirl outfit and she refused to wear it swearing that she “looks like a sissy baby in it.” Attire choices in the teenage years are gonna be horrid.

Mario is just way too focused on hunting with his dad this weekend to care about Halloween. Either that or his teacher, Mr. Park, has scared the zest for Halloween out of him by reading him the book, Tailypo. This past weekend, Jon was upstairs and Mario was downstairs. Jon heard a wail and shouted down to Mario. Mario continued to wail at the top of his lungs and had giant tears falling down his face when he ran up to Jon.
“I saw a monster downstairs. We read a story about a monster whose tail gets cut off and a man eats it and the monster kills the man to get it back. I’m scared of that monster.”

He slept with his arm on Jon’s body all night. Each night since, he has begged for me to go upstairs with him to get dressed because he’s so scared of the dark. He has slept in our bed way too many nights due to Tailypo. Thanks, Mr. Park.

The kids got a bit more into the spirit of Halloween on Monday night when we went to Ri’s school for pumpkin carving. I sported a huge cutting knife in my satchel, which felt very awkward carrying into a school. I bought two huge pumpkins to carve since the kids were not impressed with the baby ones I brought home last week. Maria went to town on her pumpkin but Mario ran around like a mad man playing with our next door neighbors’ kid, Paxton. He finally sat himself down to carve when Paxton tired out.

As we were carving, they drew a kid’s name every half hour. The winner got a small prize. Paxton won the first time. Mario and I were almost finished carving his pumpkin when they drew names again. They drew Mario’s name! He was charged up and came running back to me saying “I won!” A few minutes later, I deciphered what he meant by “I won” when he said “I won first place because my pumpkin is cool.” I explained to him that names were drawn and that’s how he and Paxton won a prize but he wanted nothing of that explanation. Now I know how scientists feel when they are talking cold hard facts about climate change and people dismiss them as not true. Mario refused to believe that he won for any other reason than he was the best. Imagine that.

So here we are on Halloween day. Hurricane Sandy blew in on Monday night and her remnants are still felt in Ohio (our love and support for the East Coast residents). It’s cold and rainy and grey. It’s supposed to rain during trick-or-treat tonight. But I think the kids will be ok with it based on their chill attitudes so far. I, on the other hand, am supremely upset because I look forward to mounds of candy to pick from all week long. Looks like I will have to hit the stores tomorrow for the 50% off sales.