Halloween

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Halloween was

fun!

and exhausting!

...I gotta stop signing myself up for so many things.

Cameron was a robot. It was a homemade thing and I thought it did look cool, but I was a little surprised at how COOL everybody else thought it was. Brian was on the production and I was on design. Most of the parts were from Brian's lab. And he found LED lights for the eyes... so yep, they really lit up. Those homemade costumes= extra points.

Liesel was a black cat and Ivy was a mouse. That Ivy...she loves her candy. She was getting mad at me because the ward Halloween party couldn't come soon enough and then trick-or-treating couldn't come soon enough. I believe the words were, "I want trick-or-treating NOW!!" There were some tears.

Brian told me that Cameron thanked Heavenly Father the other night that "mom signed me up for the switch witch."  Glad (and relieved) he approves. In case you don't know, the "Switch Witch" is a lovely idea where kids give away all but a certain number of pieces of candy (our kids keep 10 pieces) to the switch witch and she comes and trades the candy for toys. Ivy received toy boats for the tub, Liesel got a dancing ribbon, and Cameron got a Lego Creator set.

At Liesel's preschool Halloween parade and party. Cam and Ivy were invited too.

Tonight at dinner she said the prayer by herself and said, "Thank you for mouse costume and... trick-or-treating! ...Yes." If you could only have been there to hear it. She has such a little voice and she is always speaking with such enthusiasm. It makes me giggle all day.

One thing I love about having little children is how excited and delighted they are with holidays. So it was fun to have them dress up, go to fun parties, and trick-or-treat. I've been wondering this year, though, is it strange to anyone else that we have this holiday with underlying themes of violence and fear? I've never been able to stomach horror stories or movies, but then I don't really understand why it's "entertainment" in the first place.

Speaking of fear...the other night, we woke up to screaming at 2:30 in the morning. It wasn't the kids; it was coming from outside. It sounded like someone was being murdered or their arm was being cut off! Scared me to death. But then I remembered a similar incident in Boulder. We woke up to a similar bark/yell there in the University Family Housing and I looked out the window and saw a little dachshund dog (wearing a sweater!) trotting along through the courtyard and a fox following behind also at a walk-trot barking/yelling at the dog. Most bizarre thing ever.

Have you ever heard a fox call/bark/scream? I think it is the ugliest animal sound.

The "vixen scream" was what we were hearing.