Meet Elsa:
We went around the neighborhood with some other kids on our street. After an hour, the kids were tired. Both of their buckets were full and Ryleigh was having a hard time carrying hers because it was so heavy. So we headed home to hand out our bracelets.
While we were gone, we simply left out our bucket of bracelets. No sign. We assumed everyone would know what to do. And we were right. Leaving a bucket was actually a common theme in the neighborhood for those who were out trick-or-treating themselves or those who didn't want to answer the door all night. It's so commonplace, that the kids (and their parents) just know to take only one item per kid. It's pretty awesome!
Of course, by getting back to our house an hour into the trick-or-treating, we didn't have many trick-or-treaters. But, the kids did enjoy saying hello to the kids who did come by.
Halloween is regulated by the local communities through ordinances. They can set the trick-or-treating night (if it falls on a weekday, they may move it to the weekend). And, they set the age limits and times. So, kids are all under the age of 13 and it is over at 8 pm. I know it sounds strict, but it was actually kind of awesome. No late night doorbells. No teenagers showing up with pillowcases. I liked it a lot.
I was a little concerned I wouldn't be able to pull off the pumpkins like Jip has been able to the past couple years, particularly since I didn't start carving until Saturday afternoon. Ryleigh designed a funny face and RJ wanted Optimus Prime. Ryleigh also just drew on a mini pumpkin. They turned out fine. I need to get some finer tools if RJ keeps picking these detailed designs, though.
We put out the spider luminaries again. They weren't as cool as last year since we didn't have the full-on spider theme, but they were still festive.
So, now I'll back up a bit. The kids' school had their fall carnival on Friday afternoon. The kids had a ball and were totally worn out.
I made Halloween-ish t-shirts for the kids to wear under their costumes at school in case they got tired of wearing them. In case it is hard to tell, they are Lego minifigure skeletons. I cut the stencils out of freezer paper and the kids painted them with glow-in-the-dark paint. Note--the glow-in-the-dark paint does not actually glow in the dark. And, yellow doesn't show up well on dark pink (Ryleigh really, really wanted yellow). But, I'm still pleased with our $10 project.
Ryleigh had a birthday party to go to Saturday morning. RJ tagged along for the jumping part. They both had a great time, but RJ never stood still long enough for pictures. And, this was the best I could do for Ryleigh.
And, finally a couple of shots of the kids from earlier in the week. RJ is showing off his spider hat at school (the school takes pictures everyday and uploads them to a parent portal) and Ryleigh is just chilling before gymnastics started.
That's our week. Oh, it is worth a mention that we are now over half-way through with our family's separation. Hooray!
We're getting ready to send a Thanksgiving care package to Jip to help our chances of getting it there on time for the holiday. As always, pics of that and whatever else we've got going on this coming week to come.
