Another Halloween has come and gone.

As a follow up to last  week's blog, RJ fully recovered from hand-foot-mouth (HFM) disease and went back to school on Thursday.  That was good.  Now for the bad...I got HFM.  My bumps starting appearing on Monday, so I went to work that morning, confirmed with the doctor that I should not be around my coworkers and came home to work from here for the rest of the week.  I was able to make all my commitments and actually got quite a bit done, but it was hard for the kids because they couldn't really understand why I was home and couldn't play.  I don't think that I had HFM as bad as RJ did--only a couple sores in my mouth, my feet had some red dots that hurt and itched but no blisters, and my hands had several blisters and an equal number of sore red dots.  I'm not sure what my problem is, but I seem to be a magnet for childhood diseases that you're supposed to have when you're young.  I had chicken pox as an adult (back in my mid-twenties) and now I've had HFM!  What's next?

Luckily Amy and Ryleigh continue to be free of HFM, but we're still watching.  With an incubation period of up to a week, it could still be lurking.  Until then we are persistent, insistent, and consistent when it comes to washing our hands, no kisses, and not sharing drinking glasses.

Even though most of our time this week was spent being all cooped up, we did prepare for and had a pretty good Halloween.  I walked the kids up just two streets in our neighborhood and they made out like bandits.  As for what kids got at our house, we went with a non-treat this year and handed out glow-in-the-dark bracelets/necklaces.  Last year, we handed out over five hundred of a similar item.  This year, I'm not sure we even broke two hundred.  There were not as many trick-or-treaters this time around for some reason.  Maybe it was a Friday night thing, or maybe our neighborhood has lost some of its appeal....who knows.  Bottom line, though, is that if the bracelets/necklaces last in their     boxes for the next year, we should be set next Fall and don't have to buy anything in preparation.

Here are a few pictures of Optimus Prime (a Transformer for those of you who might not know) and Anna (from Frozen).  Enjoy!

A comparison with the Anna toy.  The one on the left is certainly cuter!

RJ and Ryleigh at RJ's school Halloween Carnival on Friday.

RJ's good friend Joshua also happened to be Optimus Prime.  Lookout Megatron!

Our two (post trick-or-treating) out trying to get more kids to stop by and get bracelets.  They were yelling up and down the street to come get bracelets at our house.

Amy was also able to get the kids back to Pumpkin Station again.  Pumpkin Station is a little podunk amusement park that shows up each Halloween in a big parking lot near the local community college.  We went there a few weeks ago.  The kids had a great time, so they went back again. Here are a few pics from those visits.

We hope your Halloween was fun and that no one in your house gets HFM anytime soon!!!
-Jip