Sugar High

It's All Saints Day, and approaching 7:30 a.m. Usually by this time, Isaac has been up about 1.5 hours and Anna is groggily lounging on the couch waiting for the warm milk to hit her blood stream. But today they are barely stirring. The excitement (or the sugar?) kept them up past 9 last night, and now they are sleeping it off.
Part of the excitement was that we had another family over for dinner and trick-or-treating. I made a yummy pinto bean and mole chili and a baked pumpkin filled with rice, raisins, apples, and cinnamon. Almost a dessert, really. Our guests brought an excellent chicken soup and bread, which was very fortunate since neither Jon nor the kids actually liked the chili. Was it the kale I snuck in there? The kids didn't eat much anyway -- too excited. So after the grown-ups quickly ate we headed out the door.
The actual trick-or-treating was good fun, as always. We know a lot of the kids on our block, and it's great to see all the costumes and wander around with everyone. Anna's Winter Queen outfit was lovely and sparkly and served as a nice contrast to Isaac's deep and dark Darth Vader. Jon also wore a Vader costume, so they were a funny pair.

This year, we noticed that Anna and Isaac have very different approaches to candy collection. I believe Anna's stream of thought went something like this:
"I am a beautiful Winter Queen! I am skipping/floating along to each house, I love seeing my friends, and enjoying the wonder that is this annual candy-coated event. I AM EXCITED!"
Isaac's stream of thought was more like this: "It is time to go to work. I have donned my costume and am ready to receive the candy that is due me. This is my job. This is what I do. This is what I was born for. I am serious about this endeavor."

All that to say Anna loved the event-aspect, whereas Isaac loved the candy-aspect. To further illustrate this point: Once we returned home, Anna delayed candy consumption in favor of drawing in a little notebook she got at one house. Meanwhile, Isaac held on to his candy basket like a drowning man holding a life raft, yelling in protest if anyone came too near. "I got it FIRST!" he would announce.

Over the course of the week we also managed to carve four pumpkins, including the mega-squash, which we proudly displayed. The two little ones ended up as Minnie Mouse and a Storm Trooper, while the big guys were a little harder to recognize. One was the classic Snoopy sillouette, as he rises up out of the pumpkin patch. The other was Pumpkin Pi: a pumpkin outline with pi carved in the middle. I wonder how many people "got" that one? Anyway, Jon did a great job carving the big guys with the saw - I didn't need to do much detail work after he got through with them. I'd post pictures, but that's just one step too many today. Maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, I have some chili to heat up for dinner (because it literally took all day to write this post). And they all better like it. (But if not, I saved some of the soup.)