Weekend 3-Ways: Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

It’s certainly a festive holiday for the young ‘uns, but as we’ve seen time and again at Me, You, and Ellie; the adults around here aren’t exactly the image of decorum or restraint. I think a run-down of the weekend activities from this blogging trio would be quite entertaining! So tell me, my little pretties,

What are you up to this weekend? (photos encouraged)

Jacquie:

The pumpkins were carved last night, which is a task that always seems like so much more fun than it actually ends up being. One year Ellie and Bill were here for Halloween, and I asked my big sister to do the honors. She agreed, but warned that she was only capable of creating one expression on a jack-o-lantern: the goofy gap-toothed happy face that our dad carved every year ad infinitum. Without Ellie, this gruesome tasks falls to me, but not without the helpful suggestions of my two favorite ghouls
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Today, our schedule is packed. First, I’m going to the gym, because I plan to eat a lot of candy. Then I’ll have a couple of hours to transform my peeps into their demented alter egos. Last week my sister Jane commented that the photo of our siblings in goofy Korean costume: “is the Halloween I love, not the ghoul-infested death crap that takes over nowadays.”

Um, my kids are dressing up as ghoul-infested death crap.

But fear not, there is at least one goofy costume in this household:

The karate costume parade and contest begins at 1:00, the school festival begins at 2:30, then we refresh the gore and head out into the ‘hood for a group dinner and trick-or-treat extravaganza, with roadies. We may or may not end the night with a stop at an actual party, but that seems mighty ambitious at this particular moment. Thank goodness we get an extra hour of sleep tonight, because tomorrow we’re going to roll our bad asses down the hill to watch the Chargers face the Raiders. Those menacing Raider fans can just sleep in their death mask costumes!

Ellie:

Wow, Jacquie! That is jam-packed! Impressive. And Mr. Can-O-Bean's costume? My favorite ever.

Our jolly little cul-de-sac neighborhood is getting together again at the end of the street, as we did last year (and, presumably, as they all did all the years before we arrived, but who cares about that??). We all bring our bowls of candy outside, have a campfire, and lure all the children down the long dark road toward us with promises of candy (and booze for their parents). Several non-neighborhood friends are expected to show up, too, including Tommy and Dawn, with their fine fine campfire wood. And that's it. I consider driving around on a Halloween Saturday night akin to driving around on New Year's Eve or Valentine's Day: amateur night. Except it's even worse because of all the children running around in their candy-crazed states, darting into the street wearing black. No, I'm staying on my dead-end street.

Sadly, I did not carve a pumpkin into my signature jack-o-lantern this year, but I did see this guy driving through Niantic the other day:

I think he's pretty cool, but he's got nothing on my old-school design.

And now? I'm off to buy candy. And booze.

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Beth:

For some reason I thought this 3-way was about the best jack-o-lantern you've seen, and well, I've not seen any but ours yet, and while they're perfect for a 5 and 8 year old, there not anything like Ellie's guy above. SO, I was holding off adding my 2 cents until I actually saw some jack-o-lanterns.

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However, I was wrong. So, here's what we're up to. I'm happy to report that we survived yesterday's kinder Halloween carnival, followed by school-wide k-8 Halloween parade, and 3rd grade classroom party, which were then followed by short candy gorging in each child's respective dance class, and an in-the-dark performance of Thriller moves by the hip hop class with glow sticks around their wrists, which was actually quite cool.

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Today, we set out early, to procure the last details for our sorted assorted costumes. We ended up with 4 more bags of candy, 8 pseudo nose rings, a spider choker, two white pillow cases, and a stethoscope. The pillowcases were promptly decorated for tonight's candy collecting, because supposedly, store-bought candy bags, are JUST NOT BIG ENOUGH.

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At 5 PM there is a neighborhood parade for the kids, a trick-or-treating parade that covers a zig-zag pattern of blocks, those offering the best candy, of course.

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The older girls are then off to do the rest of the 'hood with their step-dad, while I man the door with the baby.

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THEN, our across-the-street neighbors have an annual Halloween party that promises home-made chili and plenty of booze. It's packed, and costumes, for all, are if not required, then strongly suggested. We'll be gracing the scene with a small, pink bunny, a slightly bigger cheetah, a zombie bride (?), bloody surgeon, and demented witch-like something-or-other.