Little Halloween 2023 is in October this year!

[Andybev01]

Adopt me.

[Murfreesboro]

Andy,

That party sounds way more awesome than I'd ever imagined it could be. You all made a huge commitment to those kids' holiday fun. I bet none of them ever forgets it!

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Well, I've always wanted a son, and the girls want a baby brother, and I already know that you like Halloween and The 4th Doctor, so you would fit right in around here. Now if we can get my wife to agree to it then we can get started on the paperwork.

While we were at Spirit Halloween, one of the parents that was with us told me that I was spoiling the kids by buying them costumes and stuff, and for everything else that I covered that day, but I don't look at it that way, as I just wanted to do something that would make the kids happy. My wife and I are doing well for ourselves, and we know that some of the families can't get certain things for their kids when they want something slightly pricey, so I didn't mind treating them to something they wouldn't usually be able to get. I didn't ask any of the parents to reimburse me for anything that I got for the kids, and regardless of what I spent that day, the only thing that matters is that the kids had fun.

We had a busy weekend, on Sat. it was a family Halloween celebration, as it was my family, my sister and her kids along with her in-laws and their kids, my cousin and her family, my wife's parents, her brother and his family, and my mother getting together to have some Halloween fun. I apologize if that was confusing, it makes more sense if you're actually saying it and not reading it.

We went to do some Halloween shopping first, and then we went to a apple orchard where the kids had fun on the rides, playing with the animals, and trying the different ciders. Then we went to a couple of haunts, the first one was aimed more at kids, so the younger kids enjoyed it, the second haunt we went to was scary for some of the kids, but everyone still had fun.

After that we went to a Halloween festival that they are doing every night until Halloween, where they have people that dress up and put on performances and hand out candy to everyone. There was some great costumes there, and the place was beautifully decorated, with a stunning 40 foot tall Jack O' Lantern that had smoke coming from it. There was a haunted house there, but there wasn't any performers inside, it was just animatronics and scary sounds.

We ended the day with a huge dinner party, and telling ghost stories. It was great to get together with that much family for the first time in years. It took about 2 hours just to drive home, and we got back around 1am, everyone was tired, but the fun wasn't done yet.

On Sun. we got together with 8 of the kids that were with us on Little Halloween, and we were on a mission for fun. We went to a play center first, where they have a Halloween theme right now, they have indoor laser tag, paintball, rock climbing, video games, and other activities for kids. We were there for a few hours, and the kids had a lot of fun. Then we went to do some more Halloween shopping, hey, you can't ever do enough Halloween shopping.

After that we headed to a few of the day haunts in our area, each one offered something different, some of them were family friendly, and others were a bit too scary for the younger kids, we went to 5 haunts in total and it was fun. We went to get something to eat and on our way we stopped at a yard sale and I found something interesting that I'll post later, we went to McDonald's and found another treat there as well, more on that later.

Then we went to play one of those murder mystery games, where you try to figure out who did it. this was the first time we ever played one, and it was great. The game we played was for families so that kids can follow along and solve the clues, everyone had fun, but my wife and I really enjoyed it. After that we dropped everyone home, and came back here.

There is still more Halloween fun coming this week, as there is going to be a school party on Tues. evening, and then on Fri. we will be going to the theater, and I'm sure we will find more to do next weekend as well, and then it's HALLOWEEN! So there's a lot more fun to come.

[Murfreesboro]

What a fabulous weekend! I'm a little envious, honestly. But great for you and your extended family! What wonderful memories you're making!

[Andybev01]

Just...wow.

Adopt me. Again.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I hadn't seen some of those family members in years, like my cousin, the last time I saw her was about 10 years ago, and now she has 3 kids. It was awesome meeting some of the younger members of the family for the first time, as there were a few babies born since the last time most of us were together, so my kids were happy to be with their growing army of cousins. I know that I said this before, but I really miss having a baby in the house.

By the way Murf, I just want to wish you and your husband a happy anniversary, I hope you both have a great day!

[Murfreesboro]

How sweet of you to remember that!

Actually, he is in TN and I am in OH this morning. We have wished each other a happy anniversary via text message. Coming up here at this time was not my idea. My second son usually comes up to visit his brother in Nov, and I usually accompany him. But this year he set his vacation earlier and didn't consult me. I was a little put out that he set it before Halloween. I could have told him to come alone, but we are a little chary about that since he had his mental health issues a few years ago. Also, he doesn't own a car, so he'd have had to rent one or use public transport. Both options increase anxiety for him. So I agreed this once and will tell him, never again at this time. I let him drive the whole way yesterday, which was nice for me. Also, this is likely my last trip to Columbus, as our older son is most likely moving to Chicago in the new year. We plan to visit the zoo here tomorrow, which I've never seen. I'm hoping it's got some Halloween going on.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Well, I hope that you and your boys have fun while you are there. Will you be back home by Halloween?

Chicago is a great place, I have very fond memories of going there when I was a kid to visit family. I'm sure that if your older son moves there he's going to love it there.

I'm usually good with remembering important dates, like birthdays and anniversaries. I'm the only person in my family that does, so they always look to me to remind them. Sometimes it can be hard for me to remember everyone, especially in July, when there are about 20 birthdays for me to remember, including my mother, my sister, both my girls, a few aunts, uncles, and cousins, and some friends, even here with Mike's birthday, but once I learn that information it sticks with me.

[Murfreesboro]

That's a gift, being able to recall details like that.

The plan is for us to drive home on Saturday. Sunday is my husband's birthday. It's also Reformation Day at the Lutheran church we attend, so the choir is on big time (two anthems at both services). The choir mistress would be unhappy with me if I were to cut it. My older son won't mind our leaving, as he is heading out on Sunday with a group to explore the lab set up at Univ of Chicago (it's a whole group of them moving, the team that works under some prof who got a position there). On Sat, the day of our departure, he has Halloween party plans with friends here. At his request, I made pumpkin pies from scratch yesterday. He'll take one of them to the party with him.

We went to a city park with an elaborate rose garden yesterday. I was surprised that some of the roses were still blooming. And the trees bordering it were spectacular. Middle TN wasn't showing much color when we left.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Well, even though he doesn't know me, I want to wish your husband a happy birthday as well.

It's great that you made pies for your son, I'm sure that he appreciates having a little taste of home there with him, I know that I still love to eat my mother's cooking when I get the chance to. My mother actually refuses to use anyone else's kitchen to cook, if she is away from home then she just won't cook anything, she says that she is only comfortable at home in her own kitchen, and it just feels wrong to cook in another kitchen, she won't even cook when she visits me, but she will make things at home and bring them for family.

The Halloween party at school was exactly what you would expect it to be, they had games and activities, and they put on a play. There was also a costume contest without a actual winner, you know how it is these days, they don't want any kids to feel bad so they say that everyone is a winner and just give everyone a prize, which was bags of candy. It seems stupid to me, and a few of the other parents thought the same thing, but it is what it is, at least the kids had fun with their friends.

[Murfreesboro]

When my kids were in grade school, they weren't technically allowed to celebrate Halloween (lots of fundamentalists in this area). They got around it by doing fall parties and having "book parades," in which everyone had to carry a book with the character they were portraying. The administration was very permissive about it, though. One year my daughter wore a generic witch costume and carried a Harry Potter book with no problem. Nobody got any prizes for it. They just got to show off their costumes. Even the administrators would costume, and I think people were most interested to see what they wore. I recall one year they all did an Alice in Wonderland motif.

[Murfreesboro]

Thanks also for wishing my husband a happy birthday!

Cooking for adult kids: your mom probably has the right idea. When a parent visits an adult child, the child will revert to childhood and let the parent do the domestic tasks. At least, that's the way it's been for me with my still-single adult kids. I can imagine, if I had a DIL, I wouldn't want to intrude on her kitchen without a specific invitation. Before I came up this week, my son said he wanted us to make a pumpkin pie from scratch. So the first night he bought a small sugar pumpkin. From then on, it became my show. The pumpkin produced way more than we needed for one pie, so I made two. There is even some left over custard I'm cooking simply as a crustless custard. And I still have half the cooked pumpkin left! So I'm going to make a pumpkin apple bread today, then finish the pumpkin tomorrow by making a pumpkin harvest soup (basically a chicken vegetable soup with a pumpkin base). Fortunately, I like all these recipes and don't mind cooking. Seasonal/holiday breads are kind of my thing. I don't do Christmas cookies, but I do cranberry orange bread. In the spring it's blueberry lemon, in the summer zucchini, in the fall, apple pumpkin.

My son is the Instapot king and has made us some yummy, slightly exotic meals. He made us a chicken tagine that was to die for, and I think he's planning beef tacos tonight. So he's not totally useless, lol. But I always know I'm going to be on kitchen duty a lot when I come to visit.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Great, you just got me hungry listing those yummy recipes.

I think that some adult kids want their parents to still do things for them, as I've seen that happen with people that I know, but I have also seen the opposite, where a parent will come over and do everything for their adult kid, and still baby them even though the kids just want their independence. Some parents want to still do everything for their kids and they push their way into their lives because they think that they are still needed, or there are others that do it because they are lonely and want to still feel useful. So I guess it just depends on the situation and the people involved.

My mother loves being around us, but she has made it very clear to us that we are adults, and we better take care of ourselves, and thankfully we agree with her, as my siblings and I are the independent type, and don't want to be babied anymore. Actually, we are always checking on her, because she is older now, so we worry about her, we want to make sure that she is comfortable, or that she doesn't get hurt by overexerting herself, but she just laughs in our faces because she is still independent, strong and healthy.

She is still social with friends, and she loves being around her family, particularly her 8 grandkids, and she stays active by going for walks with her dogs every day, I don't know if she walks as far as you do every day, but she loves to go on her walks. Oh yeah, my mother still loves to cook for her family, and she always makes wayyyyy more Christmas cookies than we can actually eat, so we usually still have some of her cookies until Feb.

As for the Halloween party at school, the reason the other parents and myself were upset was because it was a costume contest, and there should always be a winner in a contest, regardless of what any of the PC millennials say. If you were just having a Halloween party and everyone there was dressed up and having fun that would be fine, but the moment that you say that there is a costume contest, then it's a competition, and the people want a actual winner. So to say that everyone is a winner just so some people don't get their feelings hurt is unfair to the people that actually worked on their costumes and deserved to win. I think that they just should have had a Halloween party without a costume contest.

[Murfreesboro]

I think you're right about the competition. My kids were doing sports teams at the height of that "everybody gets a trophy" thing. Once my second son was in a children's bowling group where they didn't do that. My son was upset not to get a trophy, but I explained to him that trophies don't mean anything unless you actually earn them. And I can see that those old trophies my boys received mean nothing to them now, because they never signified anything other than participation. (My daughter never wanted to do sports, although I offered that option. Not an athlete. Neither was I, so I didn't push her.)

The teachers could give out two or three prizes, like, one for funniest, one for most creative, one for best executed character, etc. (I would say one for scariest, but I'm sure scary costumes are discouraged.) But really your idea-- just let the kids have a party--is the best one.

[Andybev01]

I don't know if I would ever have made it as a parent.

I have little patience for overreaching rules a regulations, and trophies and awards go to the person who made the best effort.

At the risk of banishment I will say this once and be done; I'm awake but not woke.