On the First Day of Halloween . . .

We've already gotten into the spirit of Halloween, because it's the first day or so of the month.  Blythe has been thrilled.  Brandt has not.  On Sunday Blythe asked me what the date was, and then she asked what day it would tomorrow.  When I told her it would be October 1st, she said, "Do we get to decorate for Halloween?!"  I told her we would, and she was super excited. 

So on the first day of Halloween, I began decorating.  I hauled everything up and worked through boxes, putting things out while saving stuff aside that I thought Blythe liked to do.  As she got home, I was outside, and the first thing she said was, "Can we decorate for Halloween?"  She was so excited.  I said I had started, but I had things for her to do, and she raced inside to see what I had done.  She came right back out, mad at me.  "I wanted to put things on the piano!" she said.  "I wanted to do the bat's blood!  I wanted to hang the bats!"  I apologized, and agreed to let Ellen come over and help decorate.  The two of them did stuff together, and it was all okay.  They spread bones around front yard, named every Halloween decoration (eye roll), stuck bugs on the wall, and put glass ornaments on the black twigs.  It was just enough to give them some leeway in how they decorated, it filled the time they were together, and they both had a great time.  The shuse looks spooky which Blythe and I like and Brandt and Kent don't.

And then, as if decorating wasn't enough, we got booed.  That's right! On the first day of Halloween, we got booed.  Brownies and fruit snacks on a cute Halloween plate, accompanied by a card and a bag full of cut out ghosts.  All we had to do was tape a ghost to our door, fill the plate, and pass it all along to the next family.  What a way to start the month!

I'm going to put some bats hanging from the mantle, too.

I just haven't gotten to that, yet.

On the second day of Halloween I found myself too busy to make anything to boo someone with, but I did hang spiderwebbing on the porch.  Still not finished with all the outside decorations.

On the third day of Halloween I got my act together, and with Blythe's help, we made monster munch, a popcorn/peanut/candy corn/Reeses Pieces/pretzel mix covered with a peanut butter and honey mixture that makes it much like caramel popcorn, and equally addictive.  I was happy/sad we had lots left over, because I know I'm going to eat waaaaaaaaaay too much. 

After some discussion, we chose to boo the Runias.  Blythe had talked to Evan at school, and he had said how desperately he wanted to get booed.  They have a camera at their front door, so we had much discussion about how they could drop it off, ding dong, then flee without being seen and recognized.  I suggested we make them look like ghosts, but as we don't have any small-ish sheets, I gave them white towels to put over their heads to mask their faces.  It was decided I would drive them down to the culdesac and drop them off.  They would ring the bell, then dash around the side of the house, into Sertoma Park, and meet me two culdesacs up.  That's a good plan.

I drove them into the culdesac, dropped them off, and told them to be sneaky.  As I came around the corner heading out of the culdesac, there were the Runias returning from a walk.  I realized that they were going to be walking right into the children trying to boo them, and Brandt and Blythe were going to get caught.  I hoped the children saw them coming before emerging from hiding.  I parked at the end of the culdesac and watched.  The Runias went into the house through the garage, but then Dane brought out the trash, twice, and seemed to not be in any sort of hurry to get back inside.  The garage finally closed, and I turned around to see that happened with the kids.

They had just started out from behind the neighbor's fence when they heard the garage open.  They darted back into hiding and slyly watched the Runias come home.  They stayed hidden for a few minutes after the garage closed, and once again, I parked at the end of the culdesac to watch how it all unfolded.  I saw the children creep up along the front of the house, towels over their heads, and deposit the monster munch on the porch.  Brandt rang and they dashed away into the field.  I couldn't see if anyone came, so I drove up to meet them.  They met me, having not been caught, and we all found the whole experience rather thrilling.  We had to do one final drive by to make sure they had found the treats, because neither of them heard the doorbell ring inside the house, and they worried no one heard and the plate was still on the porch.  They must have heard, because when we drove past, the plate was gone.  What a rush!

I'm not sure I would want a treat from either of these people.