Ok, so I am neither for, or against Halloween. On the one hand, it is fun for kids and there is a lot of delicious candy that comes into our house! On the other hand, it is a big waste of money and resources that could better be spent on any number of other things.
That being said, we had a fun day yesterday with our costumed kids. We ran a few errands during the afternoon and let the kids dress up while we were out. I didn't take any pictures, but they had fun going to the grocery store as a ninja turtle and a, well, we don't really know what Jori was.
After running errands, the kids played for a while, then it was time to start getting dressed up. Here they are in costume.
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| Ninja Turtle and Princess |
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| Princess Jori |
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| Tyson striking a Ninja pose |
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| Ninja kicks |
Then, around 4:30 we headed over to the Huismans to take our annual Halloween pictures of the kids. We've done this ever since Tyson and Jenna were little. We usually trick or treat with them as well, but this year we went our separate ways : ( We did have fun though for the 20 minutes we were together!
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| Woody (JJ), Cowboy Reid, Jessie (Jenna), Princess Jori and Tyson the Ninja |
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| Best friends |
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| Buddies forever |
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| Little Reid-e-lee-boo |
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| Auntie Becka getting in on the leaf fight |
It is funny how you can cram so much fun into such a little time. I think that the moment was made more bright and brilliant because we know that we probably won't be doing this with our friends next year as we head off to South Africa and our hearts are also full of the knowledge that Becka is leaving for training in Texas on Monday and then heading to Afghanistan much faster than any of us would like. We threw leaves at each other, took turns doing scary laughs, which Rachel caught on tape. We even got Darin and Jon to take part in that. I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants. I LOVE moments like this, and I know that having these memories will sustain our family when we are far from friends and familiar things.
I was in kind of a contemplative mood when we packed up the van to head for our next stop. It is so easy to let the looming sadness of saying goodbye overshadow that present fun that we are having, but I need to keep shaking it off and thanking God for each moment He is giving us here!
This year, we were invited into someone elses Halloween tradition, along with the rest of our small group. We had a wonderful time in Zeeland with the Rigterinks, Louzons, Brenners and Elders. Here's a group shot of all the kids:
One of my favorite parts of the night was when the DADs all took the kids trick or treating and the moms stayed in to relax.
The highlight for the dads was when they stopped at a house with a scarecrow on the porch and the scarecrow waited til all kids were on the porch and then jumped and said boo. This was the last house on their trick or treating route, so we were soon inundated by kids saying "Joey just got scared by a scare crow" and sure enough, poor little Joey was so shaken up, that even retelling his sorrowful tale made him cry again! The dads enjoyed seeing all the kids get a little scare.
After lots of good food, candy and cake, we finally headed home a little before 9. A fun day was had by all.
2 comments:
Yes, this is something you won't get to do in SA, maybe if you meet with all the Americans in some place you might be able to do this Halloween stuff. My Ethan say; "we do not know Ween that is why we do not say hallo."
The lawn is so thick and green there.
Thanks for the reminder to enjoy the NOW and not worry so much about all the goodbyes later. Oh how I miss Becka already...such a good auntie. We had such fun with you too. We'll have to review the tape but I think I had the best laugh! :) JRJJR
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