Coming in super late with the first post of NaBloPoMo, which will be a surprise to NO ONE.
I really love Halloween, but this year felt a little meh. I can’t quite figure out why, but I guess not every Halloween can be amazing. Here are some highlights from this year.
Costumes
The 15yo was the Headless Horseman. She wore slacks and a nice shirt and a Wednesday Adams-ish jacket and a pumpkin head thing we got at Daiso. It was cute. The 12yo was Michael Myers. He wore a $60 Michael Myers costume that we bought at Spirit Halloween several weeks ago. I didn’t love that he dressed up as that character, but it wasn’t a battle I wanted to fight. There were Michael Myers costume for ages 5-6, so I’m clearly not the worst parent in the world. Our staff did 6-7 meme costumes, and I had a colleague make me a shirt with a double three and a three four domino. It ended up looking pretty cute. Many staff got shirts that were subject-specific and most of them were very clever. I have to admit, it ended up being more fun that I was expecting.
Halloween evening
Both kids went directly with friends after school and for the first time ever we did not accompany either one on their trick-or-treating adventures. Instead the husband and I went out to dinner. It was really nice! We don’t get any trick-ot-treaters in our neighborhood, so we just went to a nearby restaurant and marveled at how old our kids are getting. Later I stopped by a house party at my friends’ place. It was a pretty chill Halloween.
Spirit Week
Spirit Week was a kind of a dud. Not very many kids participated. I was a little bummed out about it, but the staff showed up and I had a lot of fun dressing up, so I’m letting it go. The 12yo also had spirit week leading up to Halloween and he was adamantly opposed to participating on any day except pajama day. I feel like Spirit Week used to be a big deal, but maybe kids these days aren’t into it? I really don’t know…
Simpsons Halloween Countdown Calendar
Costco sold a Halloween Countdown Calendar and of course I bought it. Every day the 12yo opened a little door and found a Tree House of Horror character. He LOVES The Simpsons and REALLY LOVES the Tree House of Horror episodes, so it was pretty fun.
Trick or Kick
Last week my daughter had to go to swimming on Friday – not her favorite thing – but she came back happy because they played a fun game where swimmers randomly picked sets and activities instead of doing a regular practice. I thought it would be fun to do something like that during my Teen class at the dojo the morning after Halloween. It was kicking day, which worked out because it’s easy to come up with a bunch of quick kicking activities. A few were, rapid fire round kicks, flying side kicks, and fake-up front kids. That was the Kicks part of the game. The Tricks part was really fun to put together. We did things like Basic Form with eyes closed, sparring with one hand behind the back, bear crawl while balancing cones on their backs. I was worried no one would come, but there were ten kids there today. They really liked the game and we all had a lot of fun. They left begging to do it again soon. It was probably my favorite part of Halloween this year.
I’m keeping posts short for NaBloPoMo this year, and honestly there isn’t much else to say about Halloween this year. It was fine. And now it’s over and it’s basically Christmas already, if the stores have anything to say about it.
It sounds like you had a great Halloween. Happy NaBloPoMo.
Happy NaBloPoMo.
Your Halloween sounds like the way I would tolerate it – dinner with the hubby, no trick or treaters. Ha. I locked the door and didn’t open anyone. Didn’t have candy anyways.
I wonder: what is spirit week exactly?
I wonder if what made it feel meh was not trick-or-treating? That feels like a big change, but the more low-key night with a dinner out sounds kind of amazing too.
I have been thinking about it more, and I think part of it was just being tired from Spirit Week all week (we had different dress-up themes every day, which was fun but tiring). I actually wanted to do spirit week the week before, because I anticipated this outcome, but the kids all wanted it the week of Halloween, so that is when we had it. I also wasn’t that into the staff costumes, so it kind of felt like I wasn’t dressed up, with just a shirt on. Mostly I think I was just in a mood, for totally un-Halloween related reasons.
Interesting. When I walked neighborhoods though some people did wonderful Halloween displays somehow I felt there were fewer people participating overall. I do need to add SOME houses were wonderfully creative like normal. I thought maybe people are just tired of fear and worry and had less energy for the holiday. I suspect seasonal winter sales are going to showing this as well as people are minding their money between the worries about food, prices, inflation and what will come in the new year ….. it is scary.
THANK YOU FOR UNDERTAKING THIS CHALLENGE THIS YEAR. You are such a lift to my world when you write and I know you are horribly busy. Fingers crossed for your daughter and hoping for a schedule that your family can manage. I am happy for her that she has gotten so far in the process at such a young age.
Yay for joining NaBloPoMo again this year. Sounds like you had a low-key Halloween… but you did get dressed up! I haven’t dressed up for anything in years! Dinner out and no trick-or-treaters sounds nice. We have a lot of kids in our (new) neighborhood and I am always afraid of running out of candy (but I also don’t want to NOT give out candy). It’s a dilemma.
I love Halloween too, but it’s not as much fun as when the kids were little. We get a few (maybe around 15) trick or treaters so I handed out candy for a while and my daughter went trick or treating with friends in a different (more fun) neighborhood. I do love your Simpsons countdown calendar!
Lovely Halloween! The count down calendar looks fun, don’t tell my husband lol
They are on super sale right now! $8! I got an extra to use the toys as prizes at school!
Long-time lurker, first time poster. I also teach middle school & I’m one of the Student Council co-sponsors. It was our Spirit Week last week too. I noticed a lot less participation this year. PJ day was the biggest. By Halloween, there wasn’t as much as usual. Feedback was that our no gore/blood, masks, or weapons was the downer. But we’ve always had that rule. Maybe end of the quarter stress was part of the reason. Love reading your posts as they definitely relate to my experiences too.
Thanks for commenting! I appreciate hearing that we’re not the only school feeling the spirit week slump. I’m definitely going to ask the yearbook “staff” why they think not many kids participated, and see if they have any suggestions for making it more inspiring (or accessible?) next time.