Halloween recap

Halloween came and went and there are already Christmas decorations everywhere. I sure wish the retailers would give us time to recover from the candy overdose before shoving Christmas sales down our throats. Not to be a bah humbug but with money so tight this year - I need not be reminded that Christmas (and E's birthday) are just around the corner.

The kids had a great time Trick or Treating last week. E thought the whole process was pretty cool. He loved getting the candy and I loved that he said "thanks" at every door. He's super polite and I love it. He cracked up a friend of mine who just happened to be walking by when he informed me that the decorations at one house were "Freaky". Where does he get this stuff? His big sis - that's where!! She says freaky all the time but I guess I didn't realize how much until he said it. He's a real parrot these days so we have to be pretty careful about what comes out of our mouth or we will soon here it out of his!!

A was a little disappointed that we got back to TC to TorT after all her friends were already out and about. She was hoping to catch up and walk with a few of them but that didn't happen. She wanted me to let her run up ahead of us so she could try and find a group of friends that were supposed to be in the area. I let her walk ahead a house or two but became nervous about the idea and decided it was a good time to tell her my "halloween horror" story. ......

When I was about her age, I thought I was too old to TorT with my parents so I begged them to let me go with my friend Debbie from down the street and some of her friends. Debbie was two years older than me but we got along really well. Her mom convinced her to let me tag along and the four or so of us headed out in the neighborhood. We were doing great - the candy was plentiful that year. As we made it to the edges of the neighborhood, the big girls decided they could get lots of loot if we went to the apartments. Big problem - our mom's had forbidden us from going there. I was at that age where I still listened to my mom so I made the decision to walk home alone while the big girls went to the dreaded apartments. On my lonely walk home, I heard footsteps rapidly approaching from behind. I was too scared to turn around so I just kept walking. All of a sudden, I was pushed to the ground, my candy bag yanked out of my hand and I had a view of a couple big boys running away with my candy. I sat on the ground and bawled my eyes out. I was scared.....I was hurt.....I wanted my candy back....and I knew my parents were right about me being to young to TorT w/o them. Another boy came along, picked me up off the ground, walked me to a nearby house and asked them for an empty sack and any candy they were willing to spare. He then escorted me to a couple more houses and proceeded to get me a decent amount of candy before walking me back to my street. I ran to my house and thru the door and collapsed on the floor crying in my mother's arms. She finally calmed me down enough to get my story and never said "I told you so". I never learned who the boy was that helped me out that night but he was a real "knight in shining armour". After that, I always went Trick or Treating w/ my dad and brother (until I was too old and then I just escorted my brother and his friends). A couldn't believe I'd never told her this story before and promised she would always stay with an adult when out on Halloween. She also decided that she got more candy when taking her little brother to the houses anyway - he's a real goldmine!!

E update - He's learned to spell his name. He can also spell JOE - thanks to Blue's Clues. And he can spell DOG - thanks to my mother. He loves to sit at the computer w/ Word up and type. He's always just banged away on the keys until this weekend, when he started using the keyboard to spell real words. He spelled his name on is own and then backspaced the letters and asked me how to spell Mommy. Where did this kid learn to backspace?? His new thing is "I say dat all the time". He'll say something silly and then follow it with "I say dat all the time Mommy" and then laugh at his own joke. He is such a hoot.

A update - 5th grade is going well. They performed a Living Museum at school last Friday and she was Wilma Mankiller (first female Chief of the Cherokee Indians). She had to prepare a speech, create a backdrop and object that represented her famous person, put together a costume and then perform all day Friday for all the other grades and then the parents. These kids did such a great job with their costumes and speeches. I was floored by the amount of effort you could tell was put into this project. The variety of "famous" folks was pretty interesting: Ronald Reagan, Colin Powell, Robert E Lee, Harriett Beecher Stowe, Helen Keller, George Washington Carver, Albert Einstein, etc. It was set up in various rooms around the school and the students were frozen until it was there turn to speak. It was supposed to look like you were going thru an actual museum and pressing the button under each character to start their speech. Great Job Fifth Graders!!!