Halloween

This year, I told the kids two weeks before Halloween that they needed to nail down their costume ideas THEN. This was mostly a message to Finn. He is one of the least decisive people I've ever met; always flip-flopping between one idea and another until the day before. He struggles to even pin down what he wants for breakfast on a week day when the options rarely vary: toast, bread, oatmeal, or eggs. Holy moly.

This year, Petya wanted to go as Fireman Sam. It is her absolute favorite show. Every day she asks to watch Fireman Sam. Every day she asks for me to sing her the theme song. Every day leading up to Halloween she told people, "I'm going as Fireman Sam." 

And of course, the week before Halloween we completely lost the fireman helmet we have had for three years. The morning of the Halloween party at church (the Wednesday before Halloween this year), we stopped at the fire station dispatch in town and asked if they had any on hand--that's where we had gotten our other one--but they just happened to all be away on a call that came in literally minutes before. So, Petya went as a cow girl and rode the hobby horse Finn made her for her birthday.

Just relaxing between cattle runs.

Of course, I never got back to the fire station--our town being so large and sprawled out--so she went without the hat for trick-or-treating too, but she didn't seem to mind. Here they all are just before we started out--and before it was too dark for a picture:

L-R: Hermione Granger, a tiger, and Fireman Sam.

The Friday before Halloween, there is big party at the Dorr Museum. Apparently this happens every year, but this was our first to hear about it. They had a table of cricket foods--fried crickets, caramel popcorn balls with crickets, chocolate cricket fudge, General Tsao cricket skewers. Aside from the legs getting stuck between your teeth, they weren't bad. Especially the skewers. I would definitely be down with those again. Upstairs they had a dim and quiet room with a man who cares for owls. He held them and talked about them and answered questions. Downstairs they had some crafts and some hands-on activities like holding snakes and scavenging. The scavenging was so clever: they took the hide of an animal--I can't remember which, beaver I think--folded it in half and hid candy in the fold. The kids had to stick their hands in to pull out the candy. 

I told Madie that we might get Petya a snake sometime, since she seemed so taken with  them. She shuddered and protested. I told her they make great pets, and can mouse just as well as any cat, making them useful, but she didn't seem to think that was justification for getting one.