The boys had a great day yesterday! Ethan was a knight, and he looked really good. Smart kid, too, since there were about 10 princesses in his class. He just needed a white horse and he could have swept them all away.
Jack was an adorable Peter Pan, and all the preschool moms raved about his costume (Value Village finds, all assembled together).
More on our Halloween activities later.
Ah, glitter. I banished glitter in our house a long time ago. Sandy laughed at me when we went to her house to do Christmas crafts a couple of years ago – my boys were the only ones who didn’t use glitter. She asked them why and their little heads snapped around to stare me down. Without saying a word, it was pretty obvious that the OCD Glitter Nazi was the reason why they didn’t reach for the small bottle of Instant Mess. I am so glad I have boys and glitter is not part of our daily lives.
However, in honour of Ethan’s recent loss of his first tooth, I decided to be the Tooth Fairy for Halloween. I kept it a secret from the boys and rushed home after dropping them at school on Halloween. I got into my costume, and honestly, since any fairy worth her salt needs to be glittery, I got glittery. I only glittered my arms and neck, then did pink shimmery eye shadow with silver glitter makeup around, and applied pink crystals to my eyelids.
Then I drove to pick Jack up. I hadn’t even gone 1 block before the whole driver’s seat was covered in glitter. The armrest too. (Sorry Mike) Throughout the day, I was like Pigpen from the Peanuts comic, floating around in a cloud of glitter. I shed everywhere. In fact, I bet you could easily track my day’s activities throughout the city just by following the silver trail. (Oh look, she ate lunch at Taco Del Mar – see?)
After we tucked the kids into bed, I could not get into the shower fast enough. The glitter had spread everywhere. It was absolutely unreal. Because I’m pretty sure I did not apply glitter to my armpits. Yet there it was. So now my house is, once again, declared a glitter-free zone. Just as an FYI, pick your Christmas cards to me VERY carefully. One sign of fake glitter snow and your card gets trashed. Sorry; it’s just the way it has to be.
But back to Halloween. I definitely surprised Jack with my costume; he was pretty thrilled to see the Tooth Fairy picking him up. Then we went on to Ethan’s school to hand out the Hot Lunch. (The kids got glittery hot dogs this week; not so Food Safe, sorry) I had kids coming up to me to ask if I could take their loose ones now. And I had to admit I never found the tooth that Declan lost on the soccer field. Ethan’s reaction when he first saw me was so cute – your classic double-take.
Then I sped Jack to inhale tacos for our lunch before returning to Ethan’s school in time for the Costume Parade assembly. I would venture a guess that 100% of the kids and teachers were in costume. I didn’t see one person (besides the uncool parents watching – us cool ones were in costume, obviously) who was NOT in costume. It was actually pretty great to see the participation and how much fun all the kids were having.
After school, we dropped by the kids’ daycare to drop off some goody bags for the kids’ friends. Then home, where I still had two of the seven pumpkins to carve (I had finished the other five at 1 am the night before) and my giant toothbrush to repair before making dinner for 7 people prior to trick-or-treating.
The kids were wired and ran out the door as soon as we said GO. We just stayed in our complex again, which was great. Lucky we were close to home, too, when we heard our first firecracker of the night, because Ethan sprinted for home as soon as he heard the crack-boom! I ran after him and managed to calm him into two more trick-or-treats, then he was content with handing out candy at our own house. Jack was just about done as well, so we came in for them to check out their loot. Good haul, even after we weeded out all the nut ones.
It was such a busy week – took Ethan and a friend to their first Lego Builders class on Monday, I worked Tuesday and Thursday, went to a friend’s play on Wednesday night (an Agatha Christie, and it was great!) and hosted a Diwali dinner here for Aaron and Marzia on Thursday night. And in between I got all our costumes ready and did all the other Halloweeny stuff. So it was exhausting and I’m glad today was calm.
But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our lovely 25 Club Girleez Road Trip to Seattle last weekend.
I escaped with Chantal, Marzia and Kim on Friday afternoon and we got to our hotel by dinner. Kim’s sister-in-law works at the Fairmont chain so we got the Friends and Family discount, with an upgrade thrown in to boot, and so ended up staying at the nicest hotel in Seattle, walking distance to everything, for about the same price per room that we would pay at a Comfort Inn.
We dined at the swanky restaurants in the area – seafood one night, French the next – and shopped during the day.
Now I’m not much of a shopper, but I enjoyed myself! Pike Place Market was great and visiting the first Starbucks ever was also an experience. We enjoyed our wine and cheese in our rooms before dinner,
and simply having a whole weekend of relaxation, good conversation, and excellent company was an amazing escape. Thanks to my fellow 25 clubbers for a fantastic weekend. It was just what I needed!
Happy November everyone...
