Halloween 2010

Another Halloween has passed us by, and in its wake, it left behind a tired, oversugared 10-year-old.

Mark earned the fatigue honestly--he had a super busy weekend.

We started with a photo shoot at the local pumpkin patch. Pa's Pumpkin Patch, where a gritchy old Pa waving a light saber yelled at us as soon as we pulled into the lot.

We still managed to have fun, anyway.



Mark found a little pumpkin stem, and an empty space in a row of pumpkins. He quickly filled it by pretending to be a giant pumpkin.



We spent most of Saturday night carving pumpkins in a panic. I panicked that Mark would slice his hand off, and he panicked he would never cut through the top of his pumpkin. I'm happy to report that my panic, while justified, went unrealized, and that Mark did, indeed, finally open up that gourd. Which made him really happy for five minutes--until he tired of scooping out pumpkin guts and whined about that instead.

I carved a cyclops pumpkin sticking its tongue out, and Mark added lots of decorative colored toothpicks to his. I was pretty happy with the results.




On Sunday, we visited a local rancho, which was hosting a Halloween extravaganza. Mark and his friend Sean ran from game to game, while Sean's mom, Liz, and I trailed behind them. They played sports from all around the world, and both boys turned out to be expert bocce ball players. They also engaged in a knock-down, drag out tetherball game. They used a racket to smack tennis balls that a super nice volunteer tossed at them. I warned Mark not to hit it over the fence when it was his turn, and Liz laughed at me. Then I stood by and gave him the stink eye, and he still knocked it over the volunteer's head, but not as far as he wanted too. I guess that counts as a small success, huh?

After a quick dinner, it was showtime! Mark and Sean couldn't wait to get out in the neighborhood, so they suited up and grabbed their bags. Sean was Elmo, and looked hilarious. It was even more hilarious when he told us the biggest size Elmo costume they had was a 4T, and he fit in it!



Mark was, of course, a Dodger player. My nephew Johnny was mad at me because I didn't buy Mark a costume--he couldn't believe I made Mark wear "old" baseball clothes. I explained that's what Mark wanted to wear, but Johnny still frowned. Apparently, costumes only count if they come in a box from the store.

I should've known better than to put Mark in white baseball pants. He did his best to make his uniform look authentic by sliding across the front lawn, which Sean strongly encouraged. When Mark got enough grass stains on his pants to look like a pro player, the boys high-fived and took off.

We met up with some of Mark's friends from school and their older brothers. They all looked great!



We've always gone trick or treating with Mark's cousins (with my brother pulling a wagon full of margaritas), so it was fun to actually go with Mark's friends instead. I really like all the parents (who are also Cub Scout parents), so we laughed a lot and had a good time.

The kids darted through the dark neighborhoods, zigzagging across the streets rather than utilizing the more traditional up one side/down one side of the street method.

An hour into it, the kids' bags were already full, and they were tiring out. We ended after 90 minutes, and the kids immediately tore into their bags and started trading fast and furiously. They were protective of their stashes, and one mom told me she knew a kid who inventoried all his candy using an Excel spreadsheet. Now that's an organized kid!

Liz and I collected our tired boys and lead them back home. The boys were simultaneously exhausted and jacked-up on sugar, and I thought the sugar buzz might keep Mark awake for a while. But the minute he laid down on his bed, he passed out.

He was tired, full of candy and happy--the way every kid should be at the end of Halloween.