Halloween run-down

All kinds of crazy things can happen on Halloween. Ghosts and goblins roam the streets, witches fly through the air and bald men grow hair!

Here we are, in all of our costumed glory. Medusa, Zeus, elephant and ninja.

I got the idea for my Medusa costume from marthastewart.com, and then I just put my own twist on it. I hot glue gunned little plastic snakes to bobby pins, and wrapped a large plastic snake around my waist. I also tried to make the skin on my face whiter than it already is, so it looked stone-like–no easy task, as I am pretty fair already. Once I had my costume picked out, I suggested Mike be some kind of Greek figure as well. He decided on Zeus, with the only requirement being that he got to wear a wig. I found our togas at a Halloween costume store, and ordered Mike’s wig online. Pretty fun.

Those costumes were pretty chilly, so we didn’t last too long with trick-or-treating. But the kids had tons of fun, and so did I.

A few days prior to Halloween, I talked to the boys about taking some of their candy to the Halloween buyback program I mentioned here. They seemed ok with the fact that they weren’t going to keep all of their candy, but I was worried their attitudes might change when it came time to actually part with a big portion of their sweets. Then, on Halloween night, after they dumped all their candy on the floor, Garrett called me into the living room. He showed me the two piles he’d made; one for him to keep and one “for the military.” Surprisingly, his pile was not the bigger of the two. Luckily Graham followed suit, and this morning we took a big bag to Dr. Autumn Hurd at Dentistry for Children.

Here’s the bag we turned in.

And here are the boys’ bags. See, I’m not a mean mom. I let them keep some!

What a great program! The kids didn’t mind parting with their candy once they understood who it was going to, and when Dr. Hurd and her staff handed Graham $4 for our four-pound bag of candy, he was ecstatic. To top it all off, Fox 31 Denver was there filming a segment about the buyback, and I think Graham might be part of it. I’ll post a link tomorrow if he is included in the piece.

I hope all of you had a safe and fun Halloween. I’d love to see some costume photos. It’s never too soon to start thinking about next year. Really, Martha has some great ideas on her website. Kind of funny for a lady who, according to her daughter, used to skip Halloween altogether.