Pre-Halloween Fun
Today ended up being all-Halloween family-fun day in the Kang household. It's kind of weird when we actually manage to spend a day as a family doing fun things together, because unfortunately, that's not the kind of thing our family is always best at. It seems like we do better one-on-one - Joe taking Julie somewhere, or me doing something with one or both of the girls, allowing the other one to either get something done at home, or just take a break. But today we stuck together, and I think most of us managed to enjoy ourselves at some point during the day.
We started off at our local library, where they were having a special Halloween-themed story time, including a little costume-parade around the main area to the tune of Monster Mash.
There's my little monkey.
All the kids were dressed up in their costumes, and the room was decorated nicely.
Even Sophie got in on the fun. I'm not sure whether this costume is supposed to be a dinosaur or a dragon, but she's awfully cuddly-cute in it. It has a little hood that is even cuter, but she doesn't like it up. Look - even Joe is actually smiling!
After the stories, Julie got her face painted. She was very excited about it, and I was proud of her for overcoming her sometimes extreme shyness to let a stranger touch her face.
Julie talked us into going out to lunch at Chipotle (it didn't take much), and then we came home and carved pumpkins. Julie tried scraping out the inside of hers for about ten seconds before deciding she didn't like the goopy stuff and handing the job off to me.
Instead, she went back out to the living room and got Joe to help her put her costume back on. Although Joe did carve pumpkins a couple times growing up, it wasn't a yearly tradition for him, and he tends to shake his head in amusement in my obsession with little holiday-related things like pumpkin-carving, egg dyeing, christmas-tree decorating, etc. Especially considering that we're, well, heathens.
Anyway, I persevered and finished carving a couple jack-o-lanterns with occasional participation and observation from the rest of the family. Here's what we ended up with.
At least Joe gets a little more excited about the roasted pumpkin seeds. I also managed to mix up a batch of sugar cookie dough, and tomorrow Julie and I will make some Halloween cookies.
We started off at our local library, where they were having a special Halloween-themed story time, including a little costume-parade around the main area to the tune of Monster Mash.
There's my little monkey.
All the kids were dressed up in their costumes, and the room was decorated nicely.
Even Sophie got in on the fun. I'm not sure whether this costume is supposed to be a dinosaur or a dragon, but she's awfully cuddly-cute in it. It has a little hood that is even cuter, but she doesn't like it up. Look - even Joe is actually smiling!
After the stories, Julie got her face painted. She was very excited about it, and I was proud of her for overcoming her sometimes extreme shyness to let a stranger touch her face.
Julie talked us into going out to lunch at Chipotle (it didn't take much), and then we came home and carved pumpkins. Julie tried scraping out the inside of hers for about ten seconds before deciding she didn't like the goopy stuff and handing the job off to me.
Instead, she went back out to the living room and got Joe to help her put her costume back on. Although Joe did carve pumpkins a couple times growing up, it wasn't a yearly tradition for him, and he tends to shake his head in amusement in my obsession with little holiday-related things like pumpkin-carving, egg dyeing, christmas-tree decorating, etc. Especially considering that we're, well, heathens.
Anyway, I persevered and finished carving a couple jack-o-lanterns with occasional participation and observation from the rest of the family. Here's what we ended up with.
At least Joe gets a little more excited about the roasted pumpkin seeds. I also managed to mix up a batch of sugar cookie dough, and tomorrow Julie and I will make some Halloween cookies.
posted by Shelly Kang at 9:25 PM
5 Comments:
The girls (and Joe) look like they had a great time at the library. And your pumpkin looks great! I love doing all the tradition stuff, too. Heathen or not, it is still a lot of fun and pretty!
I love the girls' costumes! We're going to have a football player and a cheerleader, here.
I haven't carved a pumpkin in several years. We're a divorced family with shared parenting 50/50, but it seems Halloween always falls on "Daddy's Days". The seeds are always delicious, though.
Good to see you ALL had a good time together!
Great pumpkin carving! Do you usually get alot of kids at your house? In the past, we've had less than a dozen so my excitement has waned somewhat.
When it comes to little holiday traditions I say: Good for you ! They are worth the effort. Your kids will remember those times and as they get older appreciate them. I feel it is part of being a family and part of a home. At Christmas time I would make gingerbread houses with my kids - and we would snap photos before they got devoured. This past Saturday I carved pumpkins with my daughter and she is 14. She wouldn't let me forget to roast the pumpkin seeds either.
Another tradition we have is to take a family photo in front of the Christmas tree. I've done that for years. My family used to grumble and groan when I started to group them in front of the tree with camera in hand - that is until 1988. That was the year my grandmother died in a car crash. My 1987 Christmas photo was the last photo taken of her. So now my whole family reminds me to remember my camera and tripod when coming for Christmas and requests reprints of the best shot. That yearly photo has become important to everyone.
So I say keep those traditions, invent a few new ones and never believe they are silly or too much work.
Charming!
'Nuff said.
All the best,
bill
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