A Witch, Football Star, and Blonde Bombshell

I'm not one to really get into the whole Halloween thing. 

It doesn't help that Jeff considers this a ridiculous "holiday" because in his mind, it's not a real holiday if he doesn't get the day off.

But with the lure of candy, candy, candy, it's kind of hard to totally ignore. And the fact that Halloween is our neighbor's most favorite day of the year... you can't really ignore a 16 foot Grim Reaper next door. Or the "Ditto" sign they hang on your fence with an arrow pointing to their house.

The kids love Halloween though. Especially Pearl. She's more like me when it comes to holidays. The more traditions, decorations, and stressed out parents the better! Fern? He could care less. Thankfully though, neither seem to be too impressionable yet with their peers in terms of high expectations for their costumes. In fact, Pearl didn't even know what she wanted to be until about a week before Halloween. Even then my sister and mom were the ones who bought her costume! 

Oh was Pearl mad at me! She was so ready to go trick-or-treating. I told her to make a mean witch face at me so she's stop whining and I'd laugh instead of ground her for life.

Cole was happy to find an excuse to wear his USU football uniform to school. Which means Jeff can assume the role as "coach" to participate in the festivities without really participating.

And me? Well, working for the Violence and Injury Prevention Program, Halloween has sort of become our thing at the office. We tend to think, laugh at, and act irreverent because we forget that 99% of the rest of the world doesn't actually see the things we do. After awhile all the gore and sadness becomes almost funny... it's a coping mechanism for us. Last year you might remember we did a Zombie Apocalypse complete with Michael Jackson's Thriller dance moves. This year we took it up a notch and did something a bit more educational. We each dressed up as a celebrity who had been injured or killed by one of the areas we work in. You know, drug overdoses, domestic violence, falls, car crashes, suicides, those sort of things. We had celebrity appearances by Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Abraham Lincoln, Vincent van Gogh, Pink, Isadora Duncan, Chris Farley, Natalie Wood, and Idina Menzel. You can see all of our pictures on our Facebook page {like us too... wink wink}.

 

I decided to be 50s/60s actress Jayne Mansfield who was killed in a horrific car crash where the entire top of her head was basically scalped off. Sweet. 

Let's face it, I wanted to be a big boobed {and busty she was indeed!}, blonde bombshell once in my life! I borrowed a wig, found my perkiest bra {and stuffed it just a little}, and slabbed a grundle of makeup - including the brightest red lipstick I could find - on my face. When I was finished dolling up, Cole took one look at me and said, "You ugly Mom." 

Nice.

I felt like a total idiot until my coworkers started walking the red carpet {oh yes, we did line the hallways with red paper, Hollywood stars, autographs, and a description of who we were and how we died} and telling me how awesome I looked and how much fun our program is. I even had a few people humor me and say I actually looked like Jayne Mansfield in my blonde wig, suggesting that when I hit my mid-life crisis I dye my hair blonde and get a boob job.

I will have you know, I did not scare my entire neighborhood by keeping in character trick-or-treating. Although I did have to go upstairs to the Executive Director's office for something and he got a huge kick out of my costume.... that wasn't embarrassing. 

I'll admit I was kind of hoping Jeff would've found me as a blonde with bright red lipstick intriguing but he didn't care. So off went the wig and gobs of makeup. 

There are two other families in our neighborhood with girls Pearl's age so we went trick-or-treating with them. It was a nice evening and fun to go with other families. Especially because they weren't as stingy with the glow sticks as I was and gave Pearl and Cole an entire collection of them to wear. 

And we scored on the Reese's peanut butter cups!

You can't beat that.

She's a Natural

Pearl begged us to put her in gymnastics all summer. But gymnastics is ridiculously expensive and really, out of my realm of knowledge. So as much as it pained me, I put her back in dance and added a tumbling class for her. 

Will she ever like soccer?

She is really, really, I mean REALLY good at dance. She is able to memorize the dance steps quickly and as shy as she acts at times, shines on stage. Maybe the fumes from a gallon of hairspray required to get her hair to curl and stay curled for her recitals have something to do with it? She's not quite as good at tumbling yet, but she sure loves her class and is learning a lot. I'm calling it a success if she can do a cartwheel at the end of the year... she'd be ahead of me! She has a great tumbling teacher who is super cute and Pearl is always telling me Miss Cecily is like Aunt Kimmy. I'm guessing it's because she is fun and a teeny tiny thing because they really don't look that much alike.

Her dance company performed at the Spooktacular Halloween Carnival at our Rec Center. Her class danced to "The Monster Mash." They wore these cute purple striped tights with a purple skirt. She looked B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. Yes, beautiful in all caps! I think she really liked getting all dolled up with curls, a ribbon, and of course makeup.

Not too shabby for a mom who looks like a frumpy wet noodle most days. Pearl was pleasantly surprised with my dance performance hair/makeup skills. Even if she was totally annoyed with me when I tried to get a few pictures of her before her big performance. 

While I {and by I, I mean Jeff, myself, and Cole} dread sitting through dance routine after dance routine, it sure is fun watching Pearl. And the moms who obviously danced themselves growing up because they were doing these crazy faces and wiggling their arms and hips and doing mini toe reaches while their kids danced. I was pretty proud because she was the only one in her class who did all the steps when they were supposed to be done. And as Pearl told me afterward, "with a smile on her face just like Miss Catie told her to!"

Her pose kills me!

She was so excited to swing her hair around! Look at that ponytail flip!

It might look like she jumped early, but I can assure you the rest of her class was one step behind most of the dance. 

I guess I can't complain about how ridiculously expensive this "sport" is. Pearl loves it and she's a natural.

After sitting in the stands for more than hour {you have to get their early for warm ups and to get a seat}, we decided to let the kids do a few of the Spooktacular games. There was only about 500 gazillion people crammed in there, in full costume. Luckily for us, two hungry kids {and one hungry dad} found the Krispy Kreme doughnut-on-a-string contest. 

Again, Pearl is a natural. If she ever wants to quit dance, I'm going to get her a job at the doughnut store.

Pies, Pies, Pies

We've been given a lot of apples lately.

And what do you do with a whole bunch of apples? 

You make pies.

Lots and lots of flaky, buttery, cinnamon-nutmeg sugary apple pies.

Anyone want to trade a piece for some vanilla ice cream? Or a sink full of dishes?

{Thank you Our Best Bites for the fail-proof, easy pie crust and apple pie filling recipe! Works every time.}