Days of the dead...

Halloween came and went without much fanfare this year.

We decorated the yard a bit more than in year's past. It looked good.

My favorite inside decoration was the spider I made a few weeks ago. I added some web candle holders to the table as well.


When it came to costumes, I took the easy route. I had a discount coupon for an online costume shop, and let Jack and Olivia pick what they wanted.

Olivia chose a "tween" version of Alice in Wonderland. It was actually pretty cute.

Jack chose a cheap plastic getup.

Grant didn't get a choice when it came to his costume. I had a hand-me-down firefighter costume that Jack wore when he was 4. No sense in buying a new one, right?

He really wanted to be Wolverine or Harry Potter. So I drew a lightning bolt "scar" on his forehead, and told him he was Harry Potter pretending to be a firefighter. It worked like a charm.

(He looks thrilled, doesn't he?)

The kids enjoyed their annual Halloween celebration at school. They wore their costumes and participated in the parade through town.

Olivia marched with the band.

On Halloween morning, I woke up with strep throat. I wanted to die. Literally.

We had not yet carved pumpkins. We hadn't even bought pumpkins (except for the little one Grant got on his field trip to the pumpkin patch). Steve took the boys to the (fake) patch at the fairgrounds, and came home with one of the last pickings of the season.

The kids walked with Steve around the neighborhood begging for candy, while I stayed home and answered the door. 4 times. That's right, we only had 4 groups of trick-or-treaters. And I was armed with 10 pounds of candy, expecting the little goblins to come in droves.

I'm still on the couch, 4 days later. The DVR is empty. I've moved on to On Demand. The only benefit of not being able to swallow is I haven't even been tempted to touch these:

or this:

or this.

Here's hoping I'm back among the living soon.