Fall Festivities

As a teacher, I don't care for Halloween.  At our school, Halloween parties are supposed to last an hour, and the students must bring their costumes to change into. So, if you want them to get changed at school, you need thirty minutes just to allow students to run back and forth from the bathroom to change (with every other fifth grade class).  Needless to say, it's just a hassle.  So, I tried to ease my frustration by just watching a simple movie, allowing them to pass out candy, and I brought in my favorite fall treat: apple cider.  I couldn't believe that so many kids had never had it before.

Other teachers went crazy. Susan, if you're reading, this is for you. Black lights, scary costumes, even scarier contacts (I hate those...), spider webs everywhere, etc. Something that screams, "You're the coolest teacher ever!" ..So, in my shame of disappointing the kids, I promised to at least put a little effort into decorating Christmas.  Besides, Christmas is 10x cooler.... minus the snow.  I'm dreading winter.  I'm sure I'll post more on that later.

Anyway, as a kid, I loved Halloween.  I think I was fairly creative too... looking back I've been a genie, duck, cowgirl, TY Beanie Baby, Oompa Loompa, Cinderella, and many more that I can't remember right now.  I was always determined to never repeat a costume, and not buy one from whatever store was mass producing Halloween costumes.  In fact, all of my costumes were homemade.  Though, I'm disappointed as I go through my collection of pictures and not finding a single digital proof of any of what was said above. :(

I was excited to pass out candy this past year. I've never lived on a street that actually had houses close enough together to go Trick or Treating. I wanted to guess the costumes and see kids. Rather, I saw repeat costumes, a lack of creativity, and greedy kids.  It was very disappointing. This year, however, I'll be at school... probably.. grading papers into the night.  Scary, right?

Anyway, back to the point of the blog... Kyle, our hometown friend (and one of Scott's best men), came up here this weekend, and we participated in my favorite Halloween tradition: carving pumpkins. This year, I tried a new technique where you scrape off the skin.  It was difficult and I cut my finger, but I was proud of the result.  Kyle and Scott had great pumpkins too.

As a side note, Scott doesn't care for Halloween at all.  I was slightly appalled that he had never even carved a pumpkin.  I don't care if he doesn't like Trick or Treating, but I was determined to start this tradition with him. :)

My husband is slightly obsessed with time lapses. We're still in the beginning stages, but now you get to see us carving our super awesome pumpkins.

I completely forgot to do a kitty blog (but Scott beat me to putting pictures on facebook)... but you can see them being hilarious in the video above.

And, the final result: