A Trick Or Treating Alternative

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For several years now, I have been wishing for an alternative to trick or treating on Halloween. Most of the houses in our area don't participate, so it ends up being more walking and freezing than actually candy acquiring. So I found a local mall that was doing an inside event this year.

I was amazed at how crowded it was. The employees at the mall that I talked to were surprised too. The event was supposed to run from 4-6. We got there right around 4:00. The line for the jump inflatables was already down the mall, so we started out with trick or treating.

The majority of stores had an employee right at the door handing out candy, but a few were sticklers for trying to get people to actually come into their stores, probably in the hopes of buying something. I also thought this sign was funny because we noticed last year that the trick or treaters generally don't even say "trick or treat" anymore. They just stand there with their bags open. I made every kid say it before I gave them candy this year. It's the principal of the matter :)




After we had been around two of the four wings, the kids were starting to get restless because of some of the lineups. So we skipped the biggest lines to keep them moving, which they were thankful for.

Before we were even halfway around, another type of sign started appearing. Apparently, everybody in the mall had not anticipated the crowds that would turn out for the event. The boys weren't disappointed though, because they just wanted to get to the play area anyway.








Noah was less enthusiastic about the whole event until we got to the table that was giving away old beanie babies instead of candy. His new "buddy" has slept on his pillow every night since and has even made a trip to school.















Aaron's favorite, as always, was hugging the walking characters that were there. I wonder how old he will be when he grows out of it. It's still cute for now.
















Unfortunately, the play area and the inflatables were still WAY too crowded, so we headed over to the brand new Barnes and Noble in the mall to browse instead. The kids loved that it was a bookstore "with two floors" so they were content to sit and read for quite awhile before we headed out for dinner.













After dinner, trick or treating was still in full swing and the kids were happy to just give out candy to those coming to our house before turning in for bed.










Even though it was crowded, Steve and I both agreed that we liked this better than what we've done in the past and I hope the event continues for years to come.

Wordless Wednesday: The Catalogs Have Arrived

Tackle It Tuesday: How Many Bags?

Just like most of the population around here, we took advantage of a BEAUTIFUL Sunday afternoon this weekend and got our yard raked up. We always have to do two attempts, since our tree dumps leaves so late, but the first is always the major job.

We got the kids outside by bribing them with permission to jump in them as we were doing the majority of raking. At first there weren't very many leaves, so the boys found other ways to amuse them selves. It resulted in pulling out the now unused stroller, and taking turns racing each other down the sidewalk. After awhile, Aaron grabbed the doll stroller and it turned into "races" until Aaron, as was the case all weekend long, started whining about it. So Noah decided to "drive" his stroller through the sidewalk where we were working, and loved the leaf attacks from Daddy that resulted.


After the pile got bigger, we decided to do the same as last year and make predictions about how many bags of leaves we would fill before the job was done. Everyone made a prediction:
Aaron said
Noah saidDaddy saidand I saidStay tuned at the end for the winner

So seeing the piles , the boys finally got to jump. I was all motivated to try to get an artsy shot of two happy little boys jumping into leaves together.Howeeevrer, in reality, it didn't really come to fruition. I had the camera on the wrong setting, and as I stated earlier, Aaron was not being the most agreeable that day. But it was still cute, albeit a little blurry.






After the fun, we really needed to get down to business. After a run to the store for heavier garbage bags, and a little bit of unpleasant coaxing to the children that they needed to help, we made a lot of progress. Noah helped with raking and both boys got the hang of BIG armfuls of leaves going into the bags.













We did finally get the work done, and I even got started on hanging lights around the windows for Christmas. No, I'm not going to light them yet, but in Michigan, you have to take advantage of warm weather when you get it, or your fingers freeze when you're setting stuff up. I'll work on it more when we get another stretch of warm weather.






Last year, the winner of the bag prediction game was Noah. Guess who the winner was this year?
That's right, me. The leaves are now in the back of Steve's truck and on their way to the city. And we have a string of four houses with very nice looking lawns. Bring on the snow!

Wweekend Top Five 11/2/09

Yup, I'm bringing it back this week. We kept pretty busy this weekend, even though as I sit here, I have no idea what we did. Several of these I will be elaborating on later, but here's our weekend in a nutshell:





5. Aaron Class Party
After much work (and more cash than comfortable), I planned a pretty good little party for Aaron's class. They don't wear costumes at his school, and dub it a "Harvest Party", but we all know what we really were doing. I had the class do two crafts, decorate cookies, and had also made a little Bingo game. Then they had their treats and it was time to go.

Everyone had a good time, but a strange phenonmenon happened. While all the other kids were hyped on sugar getting ready to go, Aaron went the opposite way. He got VERY sullen and grumpy, refusing to even look at the camera for pictures. The teachers were both completely shocked, saying they had never seen him like that. It opened my eyes up to the possibility of having food issues of some sort with Aaron as well. We'll definitely be keeping an eye on it as time goes on. He actually stayed grumpy the entire remainder of the weekend, though, so who knows.


4. Friday Night Out
Steve had his long driving day so I knew it would just be me and the boys for the afternoon and evening. We came home from school and played for awhile, then decided to go out to Noodles for dinner (our favorite eatery, even though there is something in the pasta that makes the kids go psycho shortly thereafter). Afterward, I took them to Toys R Us to get a head start on their Christmas lists.

I wanted to know what to plan ahead for as I was searching the ads. I was glad I did though, because especially Noah became focused on one kind of lego toy he wanted, and now I won't have to guess. I was a fun night out but both boys were happy at bedtime when I told them that Daddy would be home on Saturday and we could have a full family day.





3. Saturday Halloween
Since it was supposed to rain, and our neighborhood sees fewer and fewer houses offering treats each year, we decided to forgo neighborhood trick or treating and take the kids to the mall instead. The crowd was bigger than they had ever had before. I am actually going to post about it later this week, since I got some fun pictures. Afterward, we took the boys out for dinner (kids ate free for Halloween) at a local burrito place, and were treated to smoke inhalation as the fans in the restaurant were broken. Hubby still has a headache from it as I write this Sunday night.

We came home just as kids started trick or treating and the kids were thrilled to be handing out candy. I was happy to be getting rid of all of the candy that we had just acquired at the mall anyway.




2. Sunday Time Change
I was pretty excited about the chance at an extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning. But, alas, it was not to be. Noah, my usually good sleeper, was up at 5:00 using the bathroom, and proceeded to visit that room several times again over the next couple of hours, and nobody (except Steve) went back to sleep. However, both boys were in bed and asleep before 7:30 on Sunday night, so I guess it will be a good thing after all.






1. Sunday Afternoon in the Leaves
I am so weird. I actually enjoy raking leaves. It is one of those jobs that you work your tail off, and you can actually see an obvious result when you're done. Like so many years in the past, I failed to take a before picture. I have a fun little post written about it later this week so I won't share too many pictures of our acventure. I love that the boys are able to help with the task now, even though it took some coaxing after jumping in the huge piles for awhile.

I know we will probably have to rake one more time, but while we were working, apparently the other families around us got motivated as well and we had four houses all out raking and cleaning up their yards for the winter together.






Thwe Week Ahead:
We're still waiting for the flu to hit, as I'm sure it has to, since it's hit everyone else we know. I decided against the H1N1 vaccine for the boys last week at the doctor, and I'm hoping that I'm not sorry. This week will be a short week, since Noah has a three day week of school and Aaron a four day, due to conferences. I am starting to worry about Noah's conference on Thursday, since he seems to be slipping lately in behvaior both at home and school.

Hope you had a great weekend and I look forward to visiting you and seeing your Halloween pictures too.

Wordless Wednesday: A Chuck E Cheese Birthday

Conflict Between Picture and Words

At first glance, one would read this sweet little note from Noah and say "AWWWW!"



"My mom is so cool that I want to hug her. She is awesome. The end."










But, now, look again and see if you can figure out why I started laughing hysterically when I saw at the picture















Notice at the bottom of this nice note ALL ABOUT MOM, the picture has Noah on one side, mommy on the other, and "girlfriend" Kylie in the middle.

It's clear that I am no longer the most important woman in my seven year old's life :(

Aaron and Mommy's Adventure to A Show

It's likely to take the entire week to share our weekend. I don't know when October became an entire month of birthday festivities for Aaron, but he sure did love every moment of it. And showed so much happiness during each moment that every bit of work or weariness was totally worth it.

Last week on Tuesday, I entered a contest of Toni's at The Shopping Adventures of Cheapo McFrugalpants (I love this blog name). It was for 4 tickets to a Disney Live show in Chicago. Since we travel back to that area somewhat often, it seemed easy to work into our schedule, especially since school got cancelled for the rest of the week for the flu.

Hubby and I had discussed the possibility of winning, just in case, since there were only a couple of other names when I entered. Then came the email Friday morning...I won!!! Let the logistics discussions begin.

After quite a few back and forth calls between hubby and my SIL, we decided that Aaron and I would make the 3 hour drive to Chicago for the evening and go to the show with my SIL and her 4 year old daughter. Aaron and Kira are such good friends, and they are our Disney fans. Steve stayed home with Noah and they had their own boys night.

So at about 2:30 in the afternoon, Aaron and I loaded up the car to head out. I looked up the address online for my GPS and we were on our way. After a short stop for dinner, we were about 45 minutes from our destination when we got a to traffic jam BIG TIME outside O'HAre. Aaron was such an awesome trooper in the car and we were finally at our destination, 4 hours after we left.

Or so we thought...

After paying the money for parking, we parked and we started getting excited. But then, entering the arena, we noticed that the only people we saw were dads and boys in hockey jerseys. Realizing right away that we were at the wrong place, I threw Aaron on my back and we RAN to the car, pretty much in a panic knowing that my SIL and niece were at the RIGHT place, waiting at will call since they couldn't get the tickets without us.

A call to them to get the CORRECT address and we FINALLY got there, two minutes before the curtain rose.

Aside: I won't go into detail about how I got the address wrong, but it was kind of legit)

The kids were definitely excited to finally see the show. The first half was fun for them, and nice and short so it kept their attention pretty well.











When the first half was over, the kids were VERY bouncy, especially after just having bounced with Tigger, and they walked off into the lobby for popcorn holding hands.










After taking a break to get popcorn and souvenir cups, it was time to head back in for the second half.

















Aaron was a little more drained the second half, since it was an hour past his bedtime at this point, and spent much of the time nestled into my lap, which I always love since it happens rarely.















But the very last thing of the entire show was one last moment of bouncing with Tigger, and while the entire audience was full of bouncing preschoolers, Aaron finally perked up and joined into the bounce.















What did you think of the show kids?














After discovering that it would cost $12 to pose by the big posters of Disney characters, we settled for a nice picture posing next to the table skirt with characters, and we were on our way home.










Getting to the car, I got Aaron's jammies on and it took him less than ten minutes until he was sound asleep for the entire ride home, which was about 4 hours with Chicago traffic.




So after 9 hours total of driving for a 90 minute show, I was finally home in bed with memories of two very excited cousins having the time of their lives.


Was it worth it, you may ask.


You Betcha!!