Seriously, this is going to be a year like never before. You see, we are living in this cute little house that is right smack dab in the heart of a little town that is apparently OFF THE HOOK on Halloween night. When the neighbors walk by they make sure that the new neighbors (us) know just how insane it can be and just this morning the neighbor across the street informed me that she gets at least 20 (maybe she said 30...I had a hard time hearing her since we were shouting from across the street) of the big 60-100 piece bags. What?! So, today, in addition to setting up for a small gathering with some of the soccer families, I am stocking up on a bit more candy.
I found one of my favorite pictures from 2 Halloweens ago:
Man, I felt so awesome in this Bat Girl costume! I went on a run in it (as you can see by the running tights, arm warmers, watch, and shoes) and I felt fast, strong, and bad A. Ha! Okay, really, I felt a little ridiculous BUT if I would have been in a race where I was running with other people in costume, I would have probably run really fast just because of the superheroishness (yes, that's a word) of the costume.
Speaking of costumes, my electrical engineer husband stayed up all night geeking out with wires, metal, tubes, batteries, and various switches to make his Halloween costume. With the black wig he found, he will look very similar to the man below...Whiplash from Ironman 2. I couldn't help but laugh a little when I saw him so involved and excited over electrical stuff but mostly I was thinking what a cool dad he is to be making this awesome costume to match our little four year old Ironman. Can't wait to see him all decked out as Whiplash!
I started writing this post a few hours ago and now as I've come back to finish it, my train of thought is nowhere to be found so I'll end with a short gratitude list.
Today I'm thankful for:
- Fall Colors. Driving around today (and on my run) I felt like I was in the set of a movie. It is amazing to me how much brilliance and ART there is in nature. I would never want to live in a place without seasons. I'd miss Fall way too much.
- The fact that I feel strong after my ten 400's yesterday. Granted, they weren't super fast compared to when I'm in peak condition but they did provide a great workout and the fact that I feel so good today is a good sign. But I won't talk too much about that or I might jinx myself.
- Training for another marathon soon. Yup, I said it. I knew this excitement to train would come back to me if I waited long enough and gave myself enough time off. It almost always returns around this time of year.
- Feeling FULL of gratitude, life and joy. This is a good place.
- The family memories and traditions that come with the holidays.
- Girlfriends.
Do you dress up for Halloween? Yes. We have fun with it. And I think this makes it fun for the kids too! However, I spend very little money on this holiday. Most of my costumes are as simple as throwing a few things together from around the house or borrowing costumes from friends who have old costumes just collecting dust. Last year, I squeezed into a princess dress in the dress up bin and wore it over my running clothes with a random blonde wig (also in the dress up bin).
Do you celebrate Halloween? I grew up as a Jehovah's Witness (until I was 12) where we didn't get to celebrate ANYTHING. Not even our own birthdays. So yes, I do! But it doesn't have to be about EVIL and Gore...in fact I hate the EVIL Horror side of Halloween. We make it about costumes, pumpkins (picking and carving), and being joyful about the change in seasons/harvest.
Does your neighborhood get a lot of trick or treaters?
and Last But NOT LEAST...
Do you keep all of the Halloween candy that your kids bring home? Please share all the ideas You know of for how to get rid of all (or some) of the CANDY after Halloween is over? For your sake and your kids. I've gotten some great ideas already from my Runninghood Facebook Post about this. I'm not sure we'll get our kids on board with this but I've got to find a way to get this crap out of the house...I know myself, I'll EAT IT. All between the hours of 8 p.m and bedtime. And honestly, although I do allow my kids a fair amount of junk food, I'm a big believer in feeding the BRAIN so we limit a lot of the junk without cutting it all out.
Amanda
You can also find Runninghood on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Runninghood
Instagram: http://instagram.com/runninghood
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Runninghood1
My kids' PE teacher makes a deal with all the kids, if they bring XX pounds of candy he will spend a school day dressed like the Tooth Fairy. They go through and pick out the stuff they don't like and take it to him.
ReplyDeleteY'all are so cool that you dress up, too.
ReplyDeleteThat Batgirl costume is awesome - you do look pretty badA!!!
I hope you post pictures of the Ironman costume(s).
Ah!! You are in one of THOSE neighborhoods :) Should be a lot of fun right now! Or dying down already.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I dress up, but I am a bit unprepared... and it looks a bit drizzly right now. So - maybe not! LOL . I love that pic of you - so fun.
Happy you are enjoying some speedwork. Looking forward to more news about this marathon.
I love that costume! It's hard to find truly runnable ones. I ran a 10K in fairy wings once, and it was a disaster!
ReplyDeleteI LOVED what your daughter did in your last post- very cool. Have you seen the Rachel Ray cookbook for kids? It has a lot of "theme" meals that your daughter would probably enjoy. One of the biggest things I'm looking forward to about having my own kids is starting fun family traditions. We had a few when I was a kid, the biggest being finding and chopping our own Christmas tree.
And I'm with you on the scary side of Halloween. I like FUN costumes, games, etc.
Love the photo how fun! We just stayed in and handed out candy, it's my husband's birthday and we have a 2 month old so we kept it low key and didn't dress up. I'm sure once the little one gets older we'll have lots of fun with costumes. That's insane how many you get we only got like 5-6 groups of kids almost not worth buying candy for.
ReplyDeleteHalloween sounds huge around your new town. 20 bags of candy? That's keeping a lot of sugar farmers very happy. Halloween is almost non-existent over here but I did see a few people out on Thursday night trick or treating in costume. They were in saris and I thought it seemed a little racist seeing as it's supposed to be about scary stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! Nice post!
ReplyDeleteCác mẹ lo lắng vì mỡ bụng thì xem cách cách giảm mỡ bụng sau sinh hiệu quả nhất cực hiệu quả, khi các mẹ bầu bị cảm thì tham khảo mẹo chữa cảm cúm cho bà bầu hiệu quả hay phòng bệnh cảm cúm cho bà bầu cực hiệu quả hay bà bầu có xông được không mà các mẹ bầu nên biết, giải trí với những câu đố hại não nhất có đáp án cực thú vị, nằm mơ thấy máu thì tham khảo giải mã giấc mơ thấy máu mang đến điềm báo gì, bật mí cách làm cơm cari Nhật Bản thơm ngon, giải đáp thắc mắc lắc vòng có to mông không hay uống nước ngọt nhiều có bị sao không tại uống nước ngọt nhiều có bị tiểu đường không hay khi bạn hóc xương cá thì làm sao tại cách chữa hóc xương cá hiệu quả nhất tại nhà.