In the triplet circles, there is annual comment on whether or not your children will consent to "theme costumes" for another year. We have been themed every year so far - tigers as infants, zoo animals as crawlers, Peanuts Gang as toddlers, and Lazy Town and Super Heroes as pre-schoolers.
This year, I offered to them that they didn't have to do a theme and for a while, Caroline considered being a princess. So much so that we bought an Ariel mermaid dress for her. But in the end, she wanted "to be a turtle like my bros".
There are four ninja turtles and only three Salvateenies, so we had to improvise on the final one...
They didn't last in the elbow- and knee-pads or shells for long, but the costumes were cute enough without them.
The first stop of the day was at Mose's house for a party with our old MCC friends.
Pin the tail on the cat!
scavenger hunt!
Then we headed to Sea Cliff to trick or treat with Jeweletta and her friend. Compared with hitting our sparsely-visited neighborhood last year, it was quite a difference. I think the kids ended up getting less candy, since our neighbors would gladly empty their bowls into our baskets because they'd seen so few kids, the kids soaked up the energy of the throngs of kids out and about and the attention of the homeowners who complimented their costumes. Max wandered through the streets calling out, "Happy Halloween to you!" to anyone who looked his way.
Daddy had been working when we set out to trick or treat, so we dropped by to say hi and show off our candy.
Each year, the kids' school holds an "International Day" on Halloween, asking parents to send their children to school in an outfit that represents their particular culture, rather than wearing their Halloween costumes. This is a frustration to me, as it means I have to come up with TWO costumes for each kid. The first year, I sent them to school in their San Francisco shirts (and sent sliced sourdough bread to represent their culture in the pot luck), and last year we celebrated the Giants' third World Series celebration with our orange and black and garlic fries.
This year the school inexplicably instituted a "no superhero shirts" policy and then never mentioned it to me, but rather would mention it to the kids at school. And so I saw an opening to follow the assignment and be a brat, and I dressed them all in Captain America shirts for International Day. Win-Win!
This weekend we had a very full schedule with a birthday party and a Halloween party back-to-back in the South Bay on Saturday and Junior's birthday in the East Bay on Sunday. But we're a festive lot, so we made it through successfully.
First was a celebration of Athina's and Sotiris's birthdays, complete with a bouncy house and a piñata. This was the kids' second piñata, but they don't seem to remember the first one. There were about twenty kids at the party and they lined up from shortest to tallest to take whacks at the Tinker Bell star. The Teenies were toward the front of the line and Daniel got to take the first crack of the three, setting the tone by "swinging like a baseball player". He was followed by Caroline, who surprised everyone with the fervor of her attack and the volume of the thwacks as she connected, and then Max followed suit with some pretty good swings himself.
They made it all the way through the line and back around to the birthday girl who finally broke it open with a triumphant swing.
Daniel squaring up
Max went one handed for a bit
Shortly after the piñata, we said our goodbyes and headed across town to the gym for party #2 - the Evans Family Halloween Party. This is one I helped out with a bunch back before I had kids and the Evans actually took a hiatus from hosting it for a while, choosing just this year to revive it. It is a jam-packed evening of events, starting with a costume parade, then a mummy race (wrap someone up in toilet paper and then watch them race across the room to see who makes it back first), then bobbing for apples and pumpkin decorating.
For the pumpkin decorating, guests bring their own pumpkins and are provided with an assortment of vegetables and toothpicks and asked to use their imaginations to combine them into a jack-o-lantern of sorts. This is where my participation was often sought - not in the decorating, but in the judging of those pumpkins. Every entry received an award and certificate, with the categories decided by Pam and me on the fly as we inspected the designs.
Luckily, I was able to convince the kids not to wear their "real" Halloween costumes, so we went with some dress up items - Daniel as Iron Man, Max as Batman, and Caroline as Princess Anna from Frozen. They led off the parade and were adorable walking across the stage and doing a little spin just as they'd been shown to in the middle.
Waiting for the costume parade
They loved dressing Uncle up as a Mummy. Caroline asked me if it was "a winning race" and when I said I thought it was, she said she really wanted Uncle to win. But if he didn't that was ok, "we'll just tell him it was just a 'having fun race'." In the end, Uncle did not win, but we had a good round of chanting "Uncle wasn't last!" and everyone enjoyed that.
Making Uncle into a Mummy
Cleaning up after the Mummy race
The kids didn't take long to figure out how to do the pumpkins and they had a lot of fun with it. Everyone went with mushroom eyes, but Daniel opted to have some red radish pupils while Max wanted the white inner radish eyeballs. Max made asparagus hair while Daniel used green beans for hair and Caroline opted to use the bottom of a cauliflower to make a hat. They all had bell peppers involved, though the boys made them into mouths and Caroline opted for a yellow bell pepper mustache. Max had a teeny, pointy green bean nose and used the stem of a mushroom as a cigar (his first addition to the pumpkin's face) in the corner of his mouth. Daniel had a long bell pepper nose and Caroline went snowman-inspired with hers, using a carrot.
Max, Daniel, Caroline from left to right
Caroline is proud of those pumpkins!
Waiting for the judging
And waiting
Max's pumpkin was "Smokin' Hot!"
Daniel's had "Crazy Wiggle Hair"
And Caroline won the award for "Best Rain Hat"
They were all pleased with their awards and asked if they could put them up on the wall when they got home. And that is where they are now, proudly displayed for all who enter their room to see.
And then it was free play time on the gym floor which they, and Uncle, enjoyed thoroughly.
And then it was Sunday afternoon and time to head out for Junior's party, which was at the playground and park near his house in Union City. It was so much fun that the kids forgot to eat almost any of the yummy food there. Caroline spent most of her time playing with Lilly or pushing her on the swings, but when she wasn't doing that, she and her brothers were chasing Junior and his friends around the structure.
Max hard at work on the digger
Caroline catches a ride with Lilly
Daniel spilled water on his shirt and wanted a new one, so we put it on inside out and backwards. Worked for him!
