Crazy!?

The week before Halloween was Red Ribbon Week. One of the days was Crazy Hair day. Generally in the past we collectively forget about such days. My kids would always go to school feeling left out. Sheesh, such a Mom am I. It was hard enough getting kids ready in the morning, let alone doing something CRAZY! Now that 2 of my 6 are off at 7:15am it's a lot easier to do fun things like this.


Annika surprised me by allowing for such Craziness.



The feathers didn't last very long at all.  Neither did the bows.
We put forth a great effort.



Isabel was NOT happy with me for insisting on doing her hair.  You have to understand Isabel.  She hates fly aways.  Half the time I do her hair she takes it out because it isn't "perfect".  I will spend a good 10 minutes of my life doing her hair all for her to undo it in 30 seconds.  When her hair is in a pony tail, it can't be too high, and there can be no bumps, or any little hairs out of place.  We go through a lot of hairspray, that is when we actually have it. 



Yep, I'm a mean Mom.  This hair-do took me quite a while to pull off.  It felt weird on her head, she cried and told me she was going to take it out as soon as she got to school.  I told her she wasn't going to be the only one at school with funky hair.  After looking at if for a while, she finally realized how awesome her hair was.  One of Isabel's greatest qualities is her quickness to apologize.  A quality that she has just recently polished. 

I find that as the kids get older some things become easier as other things become more difficult.  My time management in the mornings is so much better, for the most part.  Maybe that's due to the fact that my kids can actually pick out their outfits and get themselves dressed.  The difficult part comes with more fighting.  She didn't ask to wear this or that, She called me ugly, She was in my room, She called me this name or that name.  I have to admit, the fighting gets more difficult to endure.  When they were younger for some reason I had more patience with them.  Now that they are older they can express themselves with words and not just crying.  Words hurt a lot of the time.  Most of the time.  It's draining.  I try and talk them through each battle.  Everyone has their own tunnel vision and has a difficult time seeing the whole picture.  

I am grateful for the quiet moments at night with my husband.  Evening if we are just vegging out on the couch, watching our shows.  I find my time with him is even more valuable now then ever.  As the kids get older and more involved our time gets split up a lot more. 

As much as I like to complain about my life, I really wouldn't change it for anything.  Yes, it's hard even difficult at times.  But when your 3 year old says Guess what?  I respond What, she says, I LoVe you, or when my 13 yr old still asks for hugs, or we laugh around the dinner table as silly things we say and do, I remember that life wouldn't be as sweet without the hard times.  The quiet times wouldn't feel so refreshing without the crazy chaotic noise of the day. 

Chiggor-Cheat?

By the end of the night Grace had transformed the quintessential trick or treating phrase into "Chiggor Cheat". I laughed every time she said it.

Halloween was pretty much a breeze this year. All thanks to my Mom. She made the Alice, Red Riding and Tinker Bell Costumes. I was left with the Mummy/Skeleton and the Witch which I just decorated up a hat and threw on one of my dresses. Of course my favorite part of Halloween is the make-up part. There weren't too many faces to be done up this year. Still fun none the less. I had all sorts of stuff spread out on the table. That turned out to be far to tempting for the 3 year old. While my back was turned, she got into several of the eye shadows spreading  shimmeriness all over the table and her face. Good times.

Everyone looked great this year.


All lined up and waiting for the fun to begin.



Taking a different perspective.



My mummy.  No longer wanted to be twisted in shredded sheets.



Already for some School Haunting.



Alice.  The costume was perfection!!



Sometimes it feels as though our house has gone down the rabbit's hole.



Miss Riding Hood. 



Annika looked adorable!! 



Tinker Bell.



This one has a whole lotta 'tude!!



What can I say?  She's just that cute.







Miss Witch.



Her last year trick or treating. 






The whole gang before we set off.

We missed seeing our Grandparents.

We left Jaren the Zombie at home to pass out candy.  He "owned" that responsibility.  When we came back he told us to get out of the way, he had some trick or treaters coming.  He later left to go to a party.  It took a while for other people to show up so he ended up roaming the street and had a ton of fun scaring people and getting fun comments.  I don't think he missed the door to door gig.

The weather was phenomenal.  People were out on their porches handing out candy.  We didn't have to wear jackets the whole night.  I made a great new tortilla soup recipe.  It's definitely a keeper.