Happy Halloween!

Halloween is fun. It's just fun.

I wonder who doesn't have fun memories of Halloween as a child?

Dad taking us out trick-or-treating. A big THANKS to my mom, as this has carried on to my kids - and I've stayed nice and toasty warm because of this "tradition". Plus? My kids love that this is a "tradition" in our family. In this day and age, when cultures have mixed and family traditions are few and far between we grasp on to our own families "traditions". I have no doubt that my daughters' children will trick-or-treat with their dads, too.

Planning costumes and changing costumes the day of Halloween itself. Who didn't decide at that last minute that being a hobo would be more fun than being an M&M... only to discover that coffee ground were itchy when stuck to the face with Vaseline? (Not at first, mind you, but once you had been out about half and hour you were an itchy, gooey, slimy mess. Fun!)

Your mom MAKING your costume - as the only costumes you could buy were those plastic apron and mask combinations. (Where the back of that plastic mask got wet from all that pesky breathing you had to do?) Oh, didn't we feel sorry for the kid in the store bought Batman costume the day of the school parade? His mom didn't even make him a costume! (For the record, I've made only one costume for my kids. Not even one each, just one. Julia was a "peach" for her first Halloween. Now you can buy fairly elaborate costumes for less than the cost of making them - which doesn't seem right.)

Planning our routes once we got older to maximize our candy haul. Because in the 'olden days' we could trick-or-treat unattended by 3rd or 4th grade, and end up miles from home... with no cell phone to keep in contact. Mom didn't worry - it was Halloween!

That one scary house in every neighborhood that you stayed away from?

Cleaning out and carving pumpkins? Well, cleaning out pumpkins and then drawing the faces that your parents would carve with huge knives. I don't think I carved my own pumpkin until 7th grade.

Remember the parade at school? With the other grades marching before you, and your class joined on the end, and then once around the outside of the school (or gymnasium in bad weather) so the moms could get pictures? Cookies and apple cider provided by the room mothers afterwards, maybe some candy corn. I hear that still happens in some schools, but my daughters' school doesn't do that anymore.

Wearing costumes under winter coats, hats, mittens, and snow boots. The age old question of "who do we have here?" literally needed to be answered... NOBODY could tell I was Raggedy Ann under all those layers!

I remember the last time I went out Trick-or-Treating was with my neighborhood friend Christine. We planned our route for weeks in advance, and had a blast. It was all about quantity - and carrying your candy in a pillowcase because other containers would fill up too fast! I think we each got half a pillowcase full that night. We didn't eat all of it, though, as some of it was thrown out because it was candy we didn't like, and it was raided by our older brothers and sisters (we were both the youngest kids in the family), because going trick-or-treating was, for them, too babyish.

When my youngest daughter woke up today she shouted, "It's Halloween!"
Yes. It is!

Not Martha Stewart

Suppose ole Martha ever suffered a blistered finger from boiling caramel just to see her daughter smile? I have it in my head that she is above that... not that she wouldn't make a caramel apple to see her daughter smile - quite the opposite. I'm betting her daughter practically got sick on all the goodies her mom made for her. No, I'm betting she never ended up with a blister from that stupid, sticky, hot caramel that leaps out at you as you are dipping the apples.

It really is much trickier than you might think.

Also, Martha's apples look like this:



Ours? Well, these are ours:

To quote a famous fun loving chef - Bon Appétit!

SMA Friday

Almost forgot again... I keep seeing the same Hugh pictures over and over and over again, and frankly I've forgotten half of what I've posted already! Enjoy this candid Hugh.

Cougar Crush

See? All it took was one really good snarky post and I feel like I'm back on the blogging wagon. Lindsay might be a train wreck, but it's like she's a go to girl when I'm feeling a little mean coming on. Is that wrong? (Don't answer that.)

Anyway, lets talk about Cougars for a moment. Not the animal, the women. I personally find this to be a ridiculous moniker - and so embarrassing for those to whom the word is applied. Finding out that you are attracted to a someone 10-15 years younger than yourself certainly isn't new. And it certainly shouldn't be NEWS. Do you know what they call a men who are attracted to someone significantly younger than themselves? Men. Women deserve better.

That said, even though I loathe the term "Cougar", I have to admit that I have a "Cougar Crush". I generally mock my friends who develop these crushes on young men - and now I shamefully join their ranks.

Do you watch GLEE? (If you are a facebook friend you already know how I adore this show.) There is a young man on that show that is so darling. His name is Mark Salling, and he plays Puck. A mean bully who has knocked up the head cheerleader - who also happens to be his best friend's girl. (Yes, I too had thought these story lines had been done to death, until I watched this show. Comes off as totally original, go figure.) LOVE this character.

To my friends, who I have mocked endlessly for their love of Zac and Corbin...well, I will never apologize for that - because I still find those crushes to be completely ridiculous. But now you can openly mock me in return. I GLEEfully acquiesce.

Ahhh, so I do remember how to blog after all!

But only because I saw THIS today, and had to comment:

If those scary Meth commercials on late night television don't scare your kids? Show them this photo.

Then remind them that this girl is 23 years old.

Twenty three.

This? Would have scared the crap out of me. It's taken Donatella Versace a lifetime of cigarettes and celebrity drug culture to achieve this look - and Linds did it by the time she was only 23. Bravo child stardom and the life of fame. Isn't it beautiful?

We're BAAACCCKKKKKK!

I posted these on Facebook, but wanted to share them on the blog also. Some of my friends don't use facebook! We are back from WDW, the Happiest Place on Earth! Our time there was magical... I'd go back in a heartbeat! I have to get the pictures all in order, but here are some from the day the girls visited the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. DD1 was Rosetta (a flower fairy friend of Tinkerbelle's), and DD2 was - naturally - Minnie Mouse. They LOVED the special attention they got from everyone that day - but especially from Minnie herself, and Rosetta doesn't get too many other Rosetta's in to visit her. She was wonderful.

DD1 and her twin:
DD2 posing in the entry to Fairyland:

She really did look magical and glittery:

Minnie, showing her best friend how to pose for a picture. Pure happiness for DD2:

We are so happy to have taken the girls to someplace so magical. They had a great time, we had a great time... and the memories will make us smile for a lifetime! (Can't wait to go back!)

SMA Friday

Ha Ha Ha! Don't I WISH!!

Happy Friday from the Happiest Place on Earth!