Halloween 2013

All day on Halloween, I kept thinking that my head was going to explode.
And that some much happiness was going to spill out,
 I wouldn't have any more friends, due to the joyful nature of my insides.

You know the ones.
The kind that are always so happy they are hard to be around?
.....  

I think that's been me lately.

Things are good.  Really good.

Never perfect. But so good.

The highlights of my day yesterday..

1. Tatum's last Halloween parade in Elementary school. Tear.

2. My babies loving the parade, and getting some much deserved attention in their Halloween costumes.  

Plus, my kids just wearing their costumes period.  

3. Jack yelling "HI FIFE HI FIFE" to all the little parade kids that passed his stroller

4. Helping out in Tatum's classroom for the first time in over a year.

5. Steph taking Jack to the Riverton Hospital party, and texting me little clips of his time there. "be nice to jackjack clown.  Be nice."

6.  Good naps out of both babies while I prepared for a little Halloween party at our house

7. My Mir getting her wedding photos back, and loving looking through them

8. A house packed with friends, food, babies, and pre teens.

9. My man home from work early.  

10. Jack running from house to house with his big boy friends, and really grasping the whole trick or treating concept.

10a.  Jack grasping concepts basically chokes me with gratitude.  

More on that another time.

But.

Really, it all boils down to number 11

11. All of my kids having their own versions of a perfect day.

That is a perfect day for me. 

Tatum having a fun day at school, and a late night with her best friends.

Jack running through the neighborhood as fast as he can.  AND getting candy at the same time! Bonus!

Sienna finding so much food on the floor that she couldn't eat it all fast enough.

Wins for everyone. 

But so.
This is a funny story.
My little Jack.
The kid is something.
He is.  He is just pure goodness.
All month he has been wanting to be a pumpkin for Halloween.  We have combed the SL valley looking for a pumpkin costume that he would like, or even attempt to like.
We could not get him to try on a single costume.
We have a huge bin of costumes at our house, and he wouldn't try on any of those either.
Not even so much as a leather vest that Ryan had bought hoping to get him to be Woody.
He would not try on ANY aspect of ANY costume.
Although he has been so obsessed with Halloween, he has also been very nervous.
Always making sure to differentiate between "nice, or bad guy" when approaching,
Well.  Everything.
People, pumpkins, decorations, animals, TV shows, or the characters on Ryan's tacky t shirts.
He's been very apprehensive about it all.
Especially costumes.
So, his preschool teacher suggested we buy him a pumpkin t shirt.
That's what we did, and it worked beautifully.  He LOVED it and wore it all month long.
I figured that's what he would wear on Halloween too.
I had given up on getting him anywhere near a real costume.
It was obvious that he wasn't going to have that.
But so.
He was wearing a pumpkin T shirt because he was too scared to wear anything else.
Tatum was wearing a pumpkin T shirt because she was too cool to wear anything else.
So, on Tuesday, I figured I would try to track down Sienna a little pumpkin number to complete my patch.
I had incredible luck.
I came home from TJ Maxx with the single cutest pumpkin princessey costume that has ever been created.
And..
Apparently.
The costume of Jack's dreams.

I had finally found the costume he had been hoping for all month.
As soon as I took it out of the bag, he immediately squoze himself into it, and was as proud as any peacock I have ever seen.
"Fank you Mama! Fank you!  My punkeen Mama!  Fank you!"

Hmm.
.........
So, I did what any mother that is mildly obsessed with her son would do.
I visited every single TJ Maxx along the Wasatch front to try to find him his own pumpkin princess costume that didn't cut off his arm circulation

I failed.

Luckily, he was happily distracted by a soft little Monsters Inc. number from the Costco.
Because.
Fewf.

It would have been a total tragedy for Sienna not to be able to wear that pumpkin princess number.
She was dreamy.

And in a battle of wills, A sweet 2 year old little boy, with a month long dream of being a "punkeen"   and pleading eyes that you can only imagine, will win 100 percent of the time.
100.
Jack doesn't even need to get to the tantrum part of getting what he wants.
Just being JackJack is enough for everyone in this house.
The kid is a killer.

Speaking of being Jacks Mama..
While we were out Trick or Treating, It got cold awfully quick, and Sienna wasn't loving it,
so Ryan ran back up to our house to grab her a blankie, while our group continued on.

Our neighborhood was busy, and there were a few teenage boys in masks that were trying to scare little kids.
I don't like that. Dumb big kids.
Jack was heading up the driveway of a house, and there was a creepy skeleton mask cloak guy wandering around, and I could tell that he was going to try to linger around scare my boy...
Like I mentioned above, Jack had been equal parts nervous and excited about Halloween, and now that the day was here, and he was enjoying himself so much, I wasn't about to let some dummy ruin his night.
So, as I hurried up the driveway, and pushed passed the stupid that was trying to scare little kids,
 I said, very very sternly
"Hey pal, don't scare my little kid.  It will ruin his night"
But the big idiot stayed put, crouched around the corner of the garage, and wasn't even fazed by me.
Kids these days.
So I ran up to the door and scooped up Jack so he wouldn't run around the corner into dumb skeletor.
As I came down the side of the house to where the guy was, I turned my body, and tried to face Jack the other way so he wouldn't see the guy, but pushed right past me, and lept right into Jacks face and growled!
Can you even imagine?
Oh.
Oh.
Don't worry.
It was his dad.
And I had no clue.
I didn't even recognize the mask, or the cloak, or any of it.
I totally tried to tell off a stranger and it ended up being my husband..
Poor Ryan.
Always getting the brunt of my moodiness.
Go figure.

And anyways, Jack wasn't even a bit scared,
even before he knew it was Ryan, he was fine.

Let me tell you.
I really make a fool out of myself as a mother on a daily basis...

So.
It was a great day. A great night. And a great holiday.
I loved on it hard core.  I can't wait to do it again next year.