MOM, INTERRUPTED: Double Whammy

My kids ALMOST got the shaft this year--almost. The "double whammy" that I refer to in the title of this post is the fact that #1 "Beggar's Night" in Grove City is on Wednesday night this year (yes, I know Wednesday is actually Halloween, but Grove City does not always act logically) which means that instead of going trick-or-treating, my kids will be going to Wednesday night Bible study; and #2 Randy and I aren't even going to be in town on Halloween so even if we wanted to figure out some alternative way to trick-or-treat (say, going for an hour before church), we couldn't! So this year we had to get a little creative. I Googled "Halloween events in Grove City" a few weeks back and discovered that there were several events going on this weekend that would give my kids their candy "fix," and would also serve as a birthday celebration for Sawyer, who turns FOUR today!!

Our weekend celebration began last night with a trip to The Mall at Tuttle Crossing, where for three hours the kids were able to trick-or-treat the mall merchants, listen to live entertainment, see The Great Eldini (I think that was his name) and even hold a boa constrictor! Following my post are all the pictures from last evening.

Today we will be going to "Boo at the Zoo" at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. This is the part that is serving as Sawyer's birthday celebration because he LOVES the zoo! I'm afraid it might be too cold for the girls to wear their filmy costumes unless they have a full set of clothes on underneath, but they'll still have fun! I'll post those pictures as I have time.

Last night the mall was very crowded, of course, but all the kids seemed to enjoy themselves--they always like being able to see the different costumes that children wear. Tyler was offended that everyone would greet Sawyer by saying, "Ooh, Darth Vader!" but then they would look at Tyler and say, "Umm, and someone else from Star Wars." Come on, people--who hasn't heard of a clone trooper??? Peyton was supposed to be someone from Fairytopia (Darcy's costume from last year) but since it turned out cool, she wore a plain Barbie princess costume (Darcy's costume from TWO years ago--poor Peyton, will she never get to choose her own costume?) And Darcy, in a surprising move, opted to be, not Tinkerbell, but Silver Mist, another Disney Fairy (she liked her costume better, and it did have better coverage than Tink's little pixie dress!).

So last night as I was tucking Sawyer in bed, he was evidently feeling very charitable toward me because he got very serious (he had previously been rattling on at ninety to nothing) and with a solemn face said, "Mom, you . . . are . . . beautiful." Awwwwww!

The fairy and the princess

Clone trooper and Darth Vader

Adjusting Darth's mask

Trick or treat!

Posing with creepy man in background

Ewww, what was that???

Randy got a lot of pictures of the tops of the kids' heads because they had to dig in their baskets after every merchant visit to see what they got!

Spotting the boa constrictor from the second floor

Spooky skull

Sawyer was nervous about catching the tail of his cape in the escalator--Darcy held it out of the way for him

Eek, it's Darth Vader!

Touching a boa constrictor

Sawyer did not want to drape the snake around his neck, but he did get to hold it (even though you can't see his hands underneath)

Darcy opted to simply hold the snake as well

No, Tyler's not drunk on Kool-aid--this is one of those awkward about-to-blink photos, but I know he'd want you to see him with the snake wrapped around his neck!

Does this look like a child even remotely afraid of a snake? You wouldn't believe that only seconds after snapping this photo, Peyton got all teary-eyed because she had not wanted the snake to be around her neck--she is my trooper!

Are we having fun yet?

This is Sawyer asking, "Mommy, may I ride just one more?" I use the term "ride" loosely because I wouldn't cough up the change it required to actually make the vehicles move!