Happy Halloween!
We’ve had so much happening today, I’d
better just start at the beginning and work my way through it all.
It was way too close to freezing this
morning for outdoor Tai Chi comfort; so we were indoors for that; and then it
was crazy-busy time from then until I headed for school. In addition to the usual daily routine, I had
to get my costume and a few other things packed up; and I helped Mom with
getting Ethan and Ehlana ready for their KidZone Halloween party – which they
did this morning so that afternoon nap time was an option for the younger kids
before going trick-or-treating tonight.
That included turning Ethan into a dragon and Ehlana into a witch, and
while that was fun and entertaining; I was rushed getting to school on time.
The biggest change for Halloween at school
this year is that we got to be part of the set-up crew for the Haunted House in
the gym for the first time. The
no-classes thing was the selling point for that with most of my friends and
classmates; but I was just in it for the fun – especially when I got to do that
work with Michael, Rowen, and Tim. It’s
amazing how quickly a maze of curtains can be set up, and while that was
probably the single biggest job; decorating and getting the props in place was
more fun. The ‘scare stations’ in the
maze were where the live action parts of the Haunted House were located; and
the senior teens make sure that it’s different every year. It took all morning to get everything ready;
and then it was time to have lunch and get dressed up for the party – which for
us meant helping to run the Haunted House all afternoon.
Michael and Tim got to be roving Zombies in
the Haunted House; but Rowen and I ended up being put on guide duty for the
younger kids at the start of the afternoon thanks in part to our comparatively
mild choice of costumes. Being a pair of
Monster High Ghouls – girls – was a hit with those kids, and we had fun leading
small groups of them through the Haunted House; but the scare level was toned
down quite a bit for all of the Kindergarten to Grade Three students. Since they were taken through the gym first,
once we’d finished doing that; Rowen and I were given other random jobs for the
rest of the afternoon. We did get to do
a couple of break-relief stints at a few of the scare stations, so that was
great; but mostly we worked in the background to keep everything moving
smoothly.
Working the Haunted House meant no class
party or much time to even take a snack break; and then we had to transition
straight from scare-mode to clean-up duty.
That was a tougher job for those of us who stayed to do that because
most of the ‘farm kids’ headed home on the buses; and there weren’t that many
teens willing to hang around for an hour or so after school to do those jobs. After two months of weekly Friday night
football action, that actually felt strange to not be doing that; but the
crazy-busy just kept on coming after that.
While it wasn’t very warm out today,
Michael, Rowen, Tim, and I decided to go ahead with our Halloween Haunt at my
house, so by the time we finished up at the school; we didn’t have much time to
get ready for that. While we had a few
tricks planned for that, there wasn’t anything too tough to do to get ready;
but we still were on the go straight through until Mom and Dad left to take
Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden trick-or-treating. We managed to have dinner by then too; though
that was mostly grabbing slices of pizza and continuing to work while Mom and
Dad had dinner in the kitchen with the four younger kids.
We wouldn’t have won any National scare
prizes for our Halloween Haunt, but we had a lot of fun tonight; and so did all
of the kids. Zombie Michael and Tim were
a hit – especially when they either sat in chairs with the two scarecrows we’d
made up or lay on the ground in our ‘cemetery’ and then jumped up to scare the
trick-or-treaters. Using a few Bluetooth
speakers also allowed us to make those scarecrows ‘talk’ when we wanted to do
that; which worked out best when we did that first; and then had Michael or Tim
jump out of their chairs after the kids and parents thought that they were only
talking to dummies. Rowen and I were
handing out the candy, but we also took turns being the voices of the scarecrows
and keeping the other tech support going – like the scary music and a couple of
lower-tech gags – like a spider that dropped down from the porch roof to hang
around with our guests for a while.
That few hours of play time was a blast,
and though I missed taking Ethan and Ehlana out trick-or-treating this year;
Mom and Dad loved getting to do that with them.
One thing that the cold night did do was have pretty much all of the
kids and teens wrapping up their Halloween adventures early. We still had the same number of kids as every
year because our street is a must-do for every trick-or-treater. It did mean that we were able to wrap up our
Halloween Haunt shortly after Mom and Dad got back home again with their
witches, knight, and dragon. They’d also
picked up Sophia Bassett along the way, and she fit right in with our good
little witches because she’d gone with the obvious, but still adorable,
Princess Sofia the First costume choice.
There were still more candy-hunting monsters stopping by after that, but
Mom and Dad took care of them while Rowen and I juggled taking care of the five
younger kids and transformed back from teen ghouls to girls again.
Michael and Tim went home then to get
cleaned up and changed too; but they came back again and had overnight bags
with them because the four of us were booked for babysitting duty so that Mom,
Dad, and some of their friends could go out to the Halloween party at Sheldon’s
pub after the kids were finished with their fun for the night. Our group of junior overnight guests began
arriving before Michael and Tim got back, starting with Zack and Leah; and ending
with Patrick and Scott. We also had
Jessica and Ryan Bassett; and Jessica got to have her best friends, Lindsay
Faulkner and Geraldine Sheldon, with her for the night. Having thirteen kids and tweens is a
Halloween-worthy scary number for four babysitters; but it really wasn’t a big deal.
Zack and Leah were ready for bed by then,
so getting them off to sleep wasn’t a big deal.
Jessica, Lindsay, and Geraldine helped Rowen and I with Ehlana, Naomi,
and Sophia; and the boys were easily kept amused with video gaming in the
lounge. Mom and Dad were able to leave
for the pub by nine-thirty; and then it was play time until a little after
midnight. All of the younger kids were
either sleeping or ready to drop by then, so there was another rush of action
while Michael and I took care of most of that work with some junior babysitting
support from Jessica and Scott while Rowen and Tim continued to hang out with
the other kids in the lounge and my room.
It was after one by the time we were able
to get the older kids and tweens to head for bed too; though not all of them
are sleeping even as I write this now.
By the time we cleaned up after that, Mom and Dad were home and checking
in with us on their way to bed. Michael,
Tim, Rowen, and I were pretty much ready to go and get some sleep by then too;
but wanted some cuddle and wind-down time first before going there.
Which brings us to scary story time – for Rowen
and me.
I don’t need to guess to know that it was
Tim’s idea to use Halloween night to tell us the story that he and Michael have
been avoiding talking to us about since their college football weekend
getaway. It worked for them, and Rowen
and I had fun with it; but they didn’t really have anything to worry about. As far as we’re concerned; our boys earned
bonus points for how they handled themselves – and for telling us about it.
On the other hand, we’re not positive how
we feel about the fact that a pair of college girls thought that our boyfriends
were hot enough to proposition them despite the fact that they’re only
fourteen.
Two hot, probably inebriated college girls.
Offering Michael and Tim an ‘education’
that they’d never forget.
Since Rowen and I think that our guys are
hot, we can’t really fault other girls from agreeing with us about that; but it’s
also still very strange to us too. I’m
trying to imagine myself in five or six years being on the girl side of that
situation and just can’t imagine finding boys our age as interesting in that
way – any more than I’d be interested in boys four or five years younger than I
am now. Then again, there’s also no way
that I’ll ever be intoxicated to anywhere near the extent that Michael and Tim
implied that these girls were.
That incident, by the way, happened at their
hotel on Saturday night. They were
hanging out there on their own while Tim’s father and uncle were at a football
team party with Kyle. The girls were
from the college of the team Kyle had played against; and they met up with Michael
and Tim at the hotel pool. I’m not going
to take that mental picture any farther tonight; but I’m sure you’ve got enough
information to have a good image of the scene they were dealing with.
By the way, Michael and Tim have not told
anyone else about this, and are probably more afraid of telling their football
buddies than Rowen and me. I can
definitely see Jason Johnson and some of the other guys razzing them about
being stupid for turning the girls down.
Coincidentally, those comments would be coming from the same guys who
are generally clueless to dealing with girls in general and girlfriends in
particular. Rowen and I wouldn’t dream
of messing up their reps by saying anything either; but it is stupid that any
guys would think that Michael and Tim would be nuts to turn down a one night
stand that would definitely have messed things up with their girlfriends.
If there are any Magi men reading this in
the future and thinking that exact same thing; get a clue, dude!
Scary college girl story time was the last
entertainment part of the night, but I walked Michael to his room when we were
ready to get some sleep so that Rowen and Tim could do their goodnight hugs and
kisses in the lounge. We managed to keep
ourselves entertained for twenty minutes in his room, and then I went upstairs
again; making sure that I didn’t walk in on anything I shouldn’t in the lounge
by going into my room – and on to the bathroom to get changed and ready for
bed. Tim had gone down to his room by
the time I was in my night dress and ready to climb into bed with Mandy; and
Rowen took her turn in the bathroom after that.
I’ve done a bit of family business work
that came up while doing my bedtime computing, but Rowen and I have mostly
stayed up to have some girl chat time that mostly involved discussing the boys’
scary story news. We’ve decided that
locking them up and keeping them all to ourselves for the next ten or twenty
years isn’t an option; but we are seriously going to think about getting
invited to future college football weekends and stay close to them if they’re
going to attract that kind of attention from other girls every time we let them
out of our sight.
Let’s move this along; since we really
should be getting to sleep soon. While
we weren’t involved in the work at the Inn, it was a busy night there with lots
of business from the parents of farm kids and teens going there for dinner
while the kids were out trick-or-treating – or taking them to dinner first
before doing that together. Rebecca had
the night off too so that she could be at home to hand out candy, and while he
isn’t spending the night in town; Lucas spent the evening with Rebecca and then
got a ride home with his parents after the party at the pub. Jenny was hanging out with Lance tonight; but
I haven’t even heard yet for sure what they ended up doing tonight – because Jenny
didn’t know what they were going to do as of the last time I talked to her at
school.
There’s other news from around town and
stories that Mom and Dad told us from their party, but we are going to be very
busy starting in just a few hours with a gang to feed and get ready to send
back home to their families; so I’d better wrap this up and get started on that
nap time.
I’ve had some really great Halloweens since
moving here, so I’m not going to rate this a best-ever-so-far day; but it has
been really great – even the scary college girl story part of the night. It’s the first of November now, and though
October ended with a blast of fun; we won’t be able to say the same thing about
the start of the new month. I have
another yard clean-up day scheduled; Michael’s going to be busy at the Inn all
day; and I might help out there too if I get my work at home done early enough
to go and help with the dinner rush.
Remind me again why I’m still awake right
now?
That’s what I thought, and you’re right
about that; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
