Not so happy halloween

Unfortunately things don't alway go as planned. Several factors played into our not-so-fun night of horrors. I would say the evening was only 50% successful. It started with a fever for William the day before. I knew he was sick when he went back to bed after church. He spent the next 24 hours there.

Flash forward to Halloween night.....we were already down one, but still hoped for the best. I helped pull together costumes for the other three, who were beyond excited. This is where my lack of planning comes into play....and might have contributed to the downfall of the other 1/4.

Anna's costume was set.

She and Sydney were siamese twins.

John still had not decided what he wanted to be,

but happily took over William's costume as a

"cheesy" guy with a brostache.

This left David.

He really wanted to be a kid that had been run over by a car. I actually think he was trying to repeat John's character from last year - a kid in a "car" accident. Since the crutches were too big, and we couldn't find the broken bloody arm, not to mention he doesn't have any ripped up clothes, I felt it was going to be too difficult to it pull off. He was disappointed, but we negotiated "the wounded army man". I thought he looked great, and he seemed pleased with the appropriate amount of blood and gore applied to his face.

At six o'clock, the healthy Powell's headed to a neighbor's house for pizza. Then, the dads would lead the way as the crew conquered the neighborhood house by house. My job, this year, was to pass out the candy. So while all of this was going on.....David decided that his cute pumpkin bag, he has used for years, was a little too babyish for his manly war costume. He made the command decision to go home to get his pillow case instead. This is where is gets hairy. Dave didn't get the message about David and I completely missed him, as he went in a different door.

Twenty minutes later.....

David walks in the front door, pillow case empty and bursts into tears. Apparently, he couldn't find Daddy and had spent the last half hour looking for his family and friends, before giving up and thankfully heading home. Poor little guy. I called Dave and asked if he was missing anyone? In the chaos of Stonebrook Halloween madness, he hadn't realized our little war hero was MIA.

In the end, David was able to trick-or-treat for a bit. I think the novelty had worn off and when the crew passed by the house again, he decided to call it a night. John and Anna continued their quest to get the most candy possible within a 2 hour timeframe. Like I said, a 50% success rate.

Reuse, recycle, reduce

I have always felt a tinge of guilt each time I carelessly tossed a recyclable into - gasp - the garbage. The guilt was at an all time high when someone would innocently ask (holding an empty soda can) if we recycled. Oh, the shame! We knew we were wasteful, we just didn't realize how bad we actually were.

I saw the error of my ways when, over a year ago, we decided to recycle. To our utter amazement, our recycling bin has consistently trumped our now sad empty garbage can. No joke....we know we've had visitors when we throw away a second bag into the trash.

Just recently, I thought I would try my hand at upcycling - only slightly different from recycling or reusing. Upcycling is where you take something that could be recycled or reused, and give it a whole new purpose. It's garbage reincarnated. Check it out!

Halloween 2.0

Empty glass jars repurposed

into fun Halloween lanterns.

Just drop in a glow stick

and

line the walkway to your doorstep.

And in the end......really, only my time was

wasted!

Simple treats

I love a cute idea. And these little

s'more goodie bags are just too

cute!

Two graham crackers, mini Hershey's bar and a ghost Peep.

That's it! Adorable, right!?!

I don't have an original thought in my head,

but I'm really good at reproducing

someone else's brilliant idea.

I've said it before and I'll say it again,

I love Pinterest!

The Forbidden Fruit or in this case - CANDY

My intentions were good. I know my family and I know their temptations. So when I decided to use candy corn as decoration for Halloween.....I was pretty sure there would be some desire to sneak a bit here and there. Not so much me (remember it's candy corn, not Reese's)....but there are a few in this house and with no one looking, would not be able to resist a handful or two.

So, I came up with a lie.....a little white one. I didn't think it would hurt anyone. Plus, there was some half truth to it. I told them ALL that I had sprayed a "clear" coat of poison over the candy to preserve it through this season and hopefully the next few. Okay, the truth here is, that I really do/did plan on spraying them with polyurethane to protect and increase their longevity. But in my typical "later is better than never" style....I'll wait until after Halloween to do it. I knew in the meantime that I had to convince my crew not to eat my decorations.

And it worked - perfectly! I witnessed each of them adamantly refuse the sugary treats. I even overheard them telling their friends NOT to even touch the candies.....because they could die. I might have oversold it....but it was working. That is until Poppa came to visit. No one noticed at first. Dave just thought he was eating Goldfish. Nope! His multiple trips to the kitchen resulted in a greatly reduced "bountiful" look than what I was originally hoping for.

Thankfully in the end, it was Dave who noticed and quickly ended Poppa's innocent sugar binge. Later, when Dave told me about his dad's sweet tooth attack - my imagination ran wild. I thought of how different the scene would have been if one of the kids had witnessed their beloved grandparent eating the forbidden candy. I shuddered as I envisioned their screams and cries as they slapped the tricolored poison out of his hand, followed by an emergency 911 call.

My conclusion - No harm, no foul - right? I mean, the "lie" prevented my kids from eating what they shouldn't. But more importantly, if I had sprayed them!?! Oh....I cringe at the thought.

Homecoming '11

King's Highschool Homecoming

dance was this weekend.

Sadly, Brooke (an 8th grader) was not

allowed to attend because it was for

high schoolers only.

She was a trooper, just getting

home from DC

and then playing in back to back soccer games.

Still, she wanted to see William

before he headed out.

So he met up with some of his guy friends

and enjoyed the evening sans girls.

It sure was cute seeing them all dressed up in their

"Sunday" best.

They dined at a sushi restaurant,

while the moms hung out at TGIF's close by....

waiting for the text to chauffeur them to their

next destination....the dance.

Now, according to William....

he was the only one out of this original group that danced.

They were more the "sit and watch" type.

Really?

I just don't see it.

Instead, William hung with a group of

upperclassmen

that weren't afraid to get their groove on.

I love that he danced!

On a side note:

This was our texting

conversation throughout the night.

I guess he has to

grow up

sometime.....but I'm glad it's not yet!