Halloween '08

We had a great Halloween this year for a couple of reasons. The first being that I actually got to participate this year. Last year I was super sick with a very severe case of strep throat, so severe that I had to be hospitalized the next day! I couldn't even get out of bed Halloween night, so I missed out on all of the festivities. It takes a lot to keep me from celebrating with my goblins!

This year began with a field trip to Schnepf Farms for Dakota. I was able to chaperone and it was a very special day for the two of us. He was so excited when I went to his classroom, he ran up and gave me a hug. He wanted to tell me about EVERYTHING in the classroom. I got to ride the bus and he was even excited to sit with me. The kids had a blast even though pretty much all they did was go on the rides. Dakota was so exhausted, he fell asleep on the way back... and the school bus is a pretty bumpy ride!

After school we carved Jack O' Lanterns and put out Halloween decorations. Paul tries to bring home some of his "toys" from school to use for the extra effects. This year we had a fog machine, a strobe light, black lights and spooky sounds effects. It turned out pretty cool, except the strobe light made me kind of sick to my stomach! The boys dressed up as (you guessed it) Star Wars characters. Hunter was Darth Vader and Dakota was a Clone Trooper. Of course, both costumes involved some extra gear, a light saber, and a gun, which Paul and I ended up carrying. Grandma Phipps came over to hand out candy so both Paul and I were able to go out trick or treating.

The boys made out pretty good, they filled up their buckets despite the fact that there were several vacant (i.e. forclosed) homes in our neighborhood and they only made it up two streets before they decided they couldn't walk anymore. One of the neighbors up the street from us set out a bunch of stuff for a garage sale, figuring they would capitalize on the foot traffic, but didn't hand out candy! When the kids went up to them they said "Sorry, we handed out candy at the HOA picnic last week." How lame is that? I hope they got a trick!