So glad it's over.

Well, it would be safe to say that I'm glad Halloween is over. I enjoy the festivities, but we seemed to have a few glitches this year that wanted to steal the fun. In the end, fun won, but I was one tired Mrs. Bananas (and trust me when I say 'emphasis on bananas').

Cheeks - Kitty, Koko - Heart, George - Storm Trooper 

We did manage to get our pumpkins carved (well, except mine) before trick or treaters came. It was a late night finale for George, who enjoyed every minute of that late night hanging with is idol, King Kong, and having some one-on-one time, while mama diligiently carved away. I'm all for non-traditional carving, and love to get artsy with it. Given the time (and energy) constraints, I printed off some easy-to-choose-from designs for the kids (online templates ROCK!), and we went to town on those pumpkins. George was happy attacking his with the markers, while Koko and Cheeks scooped the goop to their hearts content. Cheeks took a while to warm up to the slime factor of it all, but once she did, she wouldn't leave the bowl of innards alone. George's pumpkin was the only one that was a more free-handed ordeal. I found a pumpkin pattern he liked online, but there was no option to print out a template, just a pic, so I just "copied" it best I could. Came out great, and all were happy.

Then came the costumes and hitting the streets.

A certain child, who's mother spent the most on and looked the hardest for his costume not so kindly refused to wear it. This did not make for a happy mama. After "joking" with my mom about putting a sign on him that said "2 and stubborn" I put on his jacket and said, let's go. But... as we were heading out the door, me still slightly frustrated, I kept thinking what I could do when I came up with this wonderful idea:

Yes, you read that right. It says 'STUBBORN.' I told one of the girls to grab a marker, and I plastered it on his forehead. Total stress reliever. lol. It's not unkind; It's the truth. :D Both parties left happy, and everyone thought it was funny.

Then we had this princess who just rocked the Snow White. When she had her school party, she trotted around in the hallways like a true queen. It was so cute to see. You could tell she felt like a princess. Then mommy put lipstick on her for the actual event and, well, she hasn't stopped asking to wear lipstick since.

Next was our beautiful belly dancer. What's so funny was her modesty when trying on the costume, concerned that people would see her tummy and laugh. I told her that when she wore her swim suit you she wasn't worried about that and this was no different. That worked fine for her. She also enjoyed the make-up part of the evening (and to tell you the truth, mommy had fun putting it on them), but I also saw my future as mother of a heartbreaker. She is unargueably a beauty.

And if eating, sleeping, playing, and breathing Star Wars wasn't enough, we managed to obtain a Darth Vader costume for George, which pleased him to no end. (Thanks, Grandma!)

So after I lost Cheeks costume suddenly and spent two hours looking for it (and stressing and pacing and crying and tearing my hair out), I found it, and we finally made it out the door, albeit 2 hours late. It was a good finale to a less than stellar day as we enjoyed our first-ever jaunt around the neighborhood as trick-or-treaters.

And after hitting a couple blocks, we came home for gloves and coats, and hit the streets some more.

The End.