Master Carvers, A Masquerade, and Some Minor Mishaps…

It’s been a rather busy weekend in Hammond River with Halloween festivities.  The kids each carved a pumpkin from the garden:

Brianna's, Anna's, Devin's and Hope's Pumpkins...

On Friday night, we were invited to a Halloween party at Jim’s sister and brother-in-law’s house.  We were informed that we had to come in costume.  It took me a while to come up with a costume idea (not being a big Halloween fan), but I finally did:

Wendy and Jim: A Pair of Blue Jeans...

The kids were a lot more excited about the costumes:

Anna is a '50's Girl; Hope is Lola from Hannah Montana; Brianna is a Fairy...

Devin the Zombie (with Jim's sister, Tracy, behind him)...

Our hosts, Jim’s sister, Kim, and her husband, Chris, were in the spirit…even their standard poodle, Bella, had a costume!

Kim the Cowgirl, Chris and Bella the Pirates...

Jim’s other sister, Tracy, was a vampire, but had trouble getting her fangs to stay in (I hate when that happens!):

Tracy the Defanged Vampire with her Witch's Fingers...

 Jim’s parents looked quite cute in their outfits:

Gordon the Geek and Shirley the Tourist...

There was lots of food at the party: punch, Tracy’s “witch’s fingers” cookies, Shirley’s cupcakes, a veggie plate, and toasted pita bread to dip. 

Kim had some games for us to play too:  “Pin the Stake on the Vampire” was won by Chris’ mom. 

“Hot Potato” involved passing a multi-layered wrapped package around to music – when the music stopped, the person holding it could unwrap it, until the music started again.  The one who finished unwrapping the package got the prize.  It was particularly frustrating, because when Tracy wrapped it, she went a little nuts with the duct tape!  Devin won that one.

The third game was rather gruesome.  We passed four brown paper bags around.  Each person had to put their hand in the bag and guess which “body part” was in the bag (thank goodness we had paper towels to wipe our hands on).  Jim’s dad and I tied for the win with three correct answers out of four: eyeballs, brains, ears, and intestines.  I won a bar of pretty-smelling soap.

Then it was time for some Musical Chairs…that’s where things got a little wild.  We started with eleven players:

That's me clinging with half a butt cheek to the chair just before I fell on the floor...

Devin won that one too…no surprise after hip-checking me off the chair!

Brianna started having some serious allergy issues, and we soon realized that the feathers on her fairy wings were real…we took them out of her immediate vicinity, and she started to feel better.  Chris had some fun with the wings though:

Chris the Cherub...

We all had a great time!

On Saturday, I had promised to look after Elise while Kaylee and Scott went to a wedding: the wedding was at one, and the reception was at five.  Elise is almost fourteen months old, and I’ve only looked after her one other time.  I had told Kaylee to give me a detailed list of instructions…it had been 11 years since I’d had a kid that age!  Hope immediately volunteered to be in charge of diaper changes…Kaylee uses cloth diapers for the baby. 

Elise arrived, with her playpen and a big bag full of stuff.  Kaylee and Scott both looked very nice – Kaylee in a skirt, and Scott wearing a suit.  We had lunch and put Elise in the playpen for a nap.  Anna and Hope lay down with her in the family room and she finally fell asleep after about an hour.  She only slept for about an hour-and-a-half, and she was up again.

I was quite proud of myself that I managed to get Elise to sit still for an entire reading of Helen Lester’s Score One for the Sloths…Helen Lester has been one of the kids’ favourite children’s authors since we discovered her Tacky the Penguin book at the library when Anna was little.

"Tacky the Penguin book" by Helen Lester...

After a supper where Elise sampled a little bit of Jim’s delicious chicken stew (made with rutabagas and carrots from the garden, as well as potatoes, onions, corn and peas), we played a little more, and then got her ready for bed.  She was still awake when Kaylee called about 8:00 and said they were getting ready to leave the reception.  Fifteen minutes later, Scott called in a bit of a panic: “I need the number for the police.  I just hit a deer!”  After determining that he and Kaylee were okay, I gave him the number for the Rothesay Regional Police.  He was feeling terrible – the deer was still on the side of the road.  At least the car wasn’t too badly damaged.

Kaylee and Scott arrived a few minutes after that.  We packed up Elise’s stuff and they went home.

This afternoon, they came back to show us Elise’s Halloween costume.  She was an adorable Snow White:

Elise as Snow White...