Nailed It!

It is no secret that I am no Pinterest Wiz.
Last year I wasted an entire day off making these "simple" cake pops that nearly drove me to the looney farm.

None the less, we took a stab at a few creepy crafts and spooky treats. What do you think?

Pinterest Mummies!

Our Mummies!

Pinterest Skeletons!

Our Skeletons!

Pinterest Ghosts!

Our Ghosts!

Pinterest Monster!

Our Baby Eating Monster!

Bats! ...you'll have to take my word, this is our's and we nailed it!

And actually a Missletoes original wreath!

The Toad Family Anthem

We were driving to swimming lessons on Saturday when Superkid and Abizella spontaneously burst into singing, “There’s a Hole In My Bucket”. We sing a lot of songs as we run our Saturday errands, and tend to favor the really long monotonous songs (think, “Ants Go Marching”). Usually the singing goes on until some unhappy camper flips out. This day it was Tadpole. Abz and Sam were about half way through the song when Tadpole burst out, “For crying out loud! How long does it take to fix a bucket!” I snickered in the front seat, the big kids gained a new appreciation for their song as they saw it was creeping under their brother’s skin. They continued with new vigor. As they approached the climax of the song, Tadpole beat them to the punch. In desperation he shouted, “But he can’t use the bucket, it has a hole in it!” Later that night at dinner, seemingly out of nowhere, Tadpole calmly and rashly stated to Pops, “Did you know that you need two buckets to fix a hole in one of them?”

This statement was much to Pops’ delight. He has been pushing this song on the family long before the kiddos were on the scene. He has a deep and abiding appreciation for both the long drawn out affair of the bucket repair and also the irony of the bucket being unfixable. This was probably the earliest clue that Pops should pursue a career in law. Early in our marriage I have to admit the song drove me bananas. And seeing my angst, Pops delighted in persisting with the song. As we added babies to the family Pops added the song to his daddy toolbox. He has walked the floors soothing each of our five babies to sleep with the quiet repetitions of the song. There is no better cure to a bad dream than a hole in the bucket. He will sit and sit stroking a distraught toddler’s forehead as he marches steadily through the verses until the child drifts peacefully to sleep. Over the years the song has gone from being burr to a love for me.

Now we sing it all the time. We rowdily sing it on road trips, we sing it as a lullaby, we watch You Tube renditions of it. When we are thinking of nothing else we are thinking of that hole in that bucket. We sing it to bug each other and we sing it as the deepest expression of love for each other. It is the Toad Family Anthem.

Emerging Economies

Since the candy began pouring into the house, the kids have set up their own little economy. This is new this year. Previously their Halloween bags have haunted to counters and tables of the house for passer-bys to partake of. Eventually it all got dumped into a huge communal bowl until the last piece was consumed. Not this year. Every piece was organized, cataloged, ranked, and counted. Then it was all squirreled away.

Well except for the "tax". They shoved 3 Almond Joy bars into my hand before bedtime. Pops found 2 bags of Snickers bars at his desk, only because the kids don't like them and they knew we would come after them.

Then, poof! All the candy disappeared. The only evidence that it exists is the nearly constant lip smacking of the children. They protect their candy like hawks and move it to new hiding places regularly. You can't find it. Pops and I had to break down and buy our own bag. But, everybody has a fav, and we all know it. Tad LOVES those "sweet and juicy" Nerds. Superkid LOVES Twix. Little Chief is a sucker for a lollipop. Abizella loves the toys, particularly bat rings. So, if you want something done, you just pull out some one's fav and corner them. 

When I was a kid, the Phrogbottom currency was Ramen noodles. My mom bought a case of them pretty regularly. We were all given a ration, which we would squirrel away. You could never get anyone to do your dishes for you for a couple of dollars, but absolutely could pay someone with a package of Ramen noodles for the job. I didn't even like Ramen noodles, but always made sure to take a portion so I would have something to barter with!

We Are Here To Scare You!

Hey! What about one more round of Halloween parties?! 

All of the kids had them the last hour of school. Pops hit the Pre-school Halloween parade. In case you missed it, Little Chief did not go as a dragon, contrary to the picture taken below before he left for pre-school. He did not dig the dress-up aspect of Halloween.

I helped out at Superkid's classroom party. I was a little nervous that I may have missed the window of it being cool to have your mom show up in your classroom. I was pleasantly surprised to get a huge squeeze when he saw me in his class. What a sweety we've got! We made some creepy finger pens, decorated cupcakes and played Halloween BINGO. Super fun!

And then, Halloween Night! Finally.

Here is the final cut.
Check out this scary hunter!

Abizella remained faithful to the bat costume all season!

Batman made a re-appearance.

And LC chose the wolf, for about a second. By the time the camera got pulled out the game was over.

And Jaws turned skunk.

How can you stand it?!

In the end, Little Chief decided to stay back and pass out the candy. He had Jaws, myself and Abi A. for back-up. Pops took Tadpole out. And, as promised, Pops allowed Superkid and Abizella to go out on their own. Well... kind of. Pops gave them a list of rules and shoved my cell phone in Superkid's pocket so he could track them. After about half an hour, Pops dropped Tad off and tailed Superkid and Abizella. In the end, he just grabbed them and took them "out of bounds" to a really awesome previously undiscovered neighborhood and scored HUGE. 

Pumpkin Patch

Guess which little pumpkin I picked?

We all had a great time picking out the perfect pumpkin!

It was back breaking labor...

But a labor of love!

And if you think picking them was fun, 

putting them in a wagon and hauling them around was the bomb!

And the MORE the BETTER!

What do you think of our Jack-o-Lanterns?

What a great way to light up the night!

Party Time!

Halloween is also a great time for PARTIES! We enjoyed a weekend full of festivities leading up to the big day. First, the school Halloween Dance! 

Abizella freaked out the student body as a blood thirsty bat!

Sam exercised *The Force* to claim his share of pizza

And don't let this little tough guy fool you, he is all ladies man. This little Batman probably had more fun than any other kid at school, running around with his little flock of ladies.

The next night it was time to prime our Trick-or-Treat skills with the church Trunk-or-Treat. 

This is where Little Chief Shined. He built quite the reputation for himself at the event. He was absolutely the cutest dinosaur of all time. He melted the hearts of every candy-giver with his cute little, "Twick-or-Tweet!" and enthusiastic signature, "Oh Banks!" to show his gratitude for each piece of candy. But probably it was when he dropped the dinosaur around his ankles to relieve himself in the parking lot that will go down in Hingham-ward fame. He couldn't have had more impeccable timing either. He was about half-way into it when Diane Nielsen came walking towards us shaking her head and laughing. She expected nothing less from the family who walked to her house a few years back and both young tykes, Abizella and Superkid, peed in her yard. ugh.

Tadpole swooped in as a fighter pilot!

 Abi A. came to help me out and she brought her trusty steed too!

But it was Jaws and I that brought down the house in a costume that I like to call, 

"New England Dinner"

Quick! Grab a fork, my supper is crawling away!

Poetry Slam

Halloween is a major favorite around here. We talk about it all year long. There are so many wonderful things to think about and do. This holiday is all about imagination. About 12 Halloweens ago, our friends the Gillespie's invited us to their house for a Halloween party. They invited about 5 other couples and everyone wrote a poem to share. It was the best idea ever. There are so many great things to write about- witches, goblins, mummies, zombies, cats, bats, skeletons... the list goes on and on and on. So this year I started a tradition. The annual Halloween Poetry Slam. You simply write a spooky poem and slam it on the window for all to enjoy. We spent 2 solid hours the second weekend in October cranking out the creepiest literature of all time. Across the month we filled the windows with some seriously great work. Abizella was particularly productive turning out 28! Every poem was adorned with some down right spectacular art work. We've decided to compile our work in a collection that we can pull out every year and read and add another year of spine chilling poems. Love it!