Despite my late blog posts (ugh, man cold took me down hard) Gracie had a pretty awesome Halloween this year. We sent her off to daycare on Friday morning with her costume packed in a bag, ready for the daycare trick or treating and party. We had initially planned on leaving early but when we were hit with weather so extreme it made the national news (30 mile an hour winds with 60 mile an hour gusts and intermittent rain/ice/snow flurries) we decided we should stick around longer than planned. I got hit with a parenting milestone when I got my first “please bring a nut-free, pre-packaged treat” note and decided to be an over achieving Pinterest-Mom by drawing pumpkin faces on a bag of clementines. Gracie thought they were awesome, which is all that mattered. This is where a good blogger would show you a Pinterest worthy photo of said clementines. Instead, I present my child:
B and I were there promptly at 5 and the kids were adorable. The babies in the nursery were all perfect meatloves in their various costumes, the older kids had strong ownership of their choices, and Gracie’s classroom was the most “huh, so explain this please?” in the festivities. Gracie was an owl (I’m sure you noticed). She wasn’t pleased with her costume earlier in the week, but when she saw everyone else in costume, she was accepting of the idea.
Pink pumpkin candy bucket purchased at Target (like the rest of the free world), marked down to 50 cents and combined with my coupon, I paid a grand total of one quarter for it. Twenty five cents for a bucket she was OBSESSED WITH, carried all night and was generally smitten with. Mom-win.
We had a lot of fun at the party- she goes to daycare with a nice group of kids with equally nice parents, so the kids ran around eating snacks and playing on the little indoor jungle gym in various states of undress. When we sensed Gracie was at the point of overheating we headed out for some trick or treating. The weather was…intense to say the least….so we opted to walk to a street near us with a gorgeous stretch of single family homes. Only a few homes had their lights on, but thanks to the weather + the group of teenagers not in costume behaving like jerks (egg tossing, screaming obscenities, demanding candy) Gracie was given a really warm welcome at every house we visited. She was encouraged to pick her own candy and hoot like an owl, which she happily did. She wasn’t quite sure why we were not going inside, but had a lot of fun before coming home and passing out in an exhausted heap.
Don’t worry hoot owl, we all need our rest. The next morning I thought I’d teach her about the next holiday and asked her what a turkey says, and without missing a beat she smiled and yelled “GOBBLE GOBBLE” so, daycare, your tuition is worth it.