Trick or Treat

The day they've been waiting for finally came, Halloween. All week long the kids have been trying to behave so they could have their night prowling the town scoring some loot. Deli Dude dressed as a football player, Bookworm a bride, Cheeseburger Boy of course a race car driver, Super Why was Thomas the train and The Babe with the Power was a chili pepper.It was really funny to watch Super Why, he understood it better this year, he knew he was suppose to walk up to the door and say trick or treat and the people would give him candy, but being the youngest one walking around he was slower than the rest, by the time he would reach the foot of the stairs at each house the older kids would be coming back down so he would turn around, sigh and start to walk back to us. We kept telling him it was ok, that he could still go up and get his candy, he refused at the first few houses, once we took him by the hand and brought him up he was fine, then there was no stopping him. The kids all started out at full steam, racing house to house (Cheeseburger Boy was making the noise of an engine revving while he was racing around), after about 45 minutes the sprints had slowed to a walk and after about an hour and a half the walk slowed to dragging feet and cries of "I need to go potty." After we got back to the house and they started checking their bags they began coming back to life, it was as if they absorbed the sugar through their finger tips, kids who were just minutes before completely drained suddenly had so much energy that they were running, jumping, wrestling and practically flying through the air. The only one who didn't go crazy with all of the Halloween hoopla was The Babe with the Power, as you see in the picture, he wasn't all that impressed so he decided to take a nap. Ah, the magic of Halloween!

Getting in the spirit

Since fall is upon us and our favorite holidays Halloween and Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) are almost here we are starting to get in the spirit. We bought our pumpkins over the weekend and hopefully will be able to paint them tomorrow. This year for Dia de los Muertos we are making traditional Mexican sugar skulls. I made the skulls themselves this weekend and tonight we decorated them with brightly colored royal icing and sequins. In Mexico they make these sugar skulls in honor of a family member or friend who has passed, usually they write the name of the person on the skull and will adorn them with colored foils and jewelry, anything that would represent the person who passed. Generally after they are dried the skulls would be placed on the family altar that would be piled with all of the favorite foods of the beloved dead. I don't usually go as far as making lots of food to leave out as my cats and of course the kids would have it strewn all over the house, that is if the dog didn't get to it first. We do what we call a "dumb supper," we set an extra plate at the table and fill it with all the foods we are eating for dinner.

The kids as you can see had a blast. Super Why decorated his and then picked it up and licked it, I guess you have to expect that when you are using edible stuff to decorate with.