Back in Ohio…but Barely at Home
October 28, 2007
I flew back from Austin late Friday night. From the airport in Columbus, I called to check in, and Julie said she was feeling very, very ill. Luckily, the kids had already gone to bed, so she was able to bundle up and crawl into bed herself. By the time I got home at 11:30, she was out. Saturday morning, she got up early and took the dogs for a walk. This was based on her self-diagnosis and treatment plan. Which seemed to work, luckily!
We had a slow start to the morning, but then headed out around 10:30 to drive up to the Wadsworth Lyrens’ house. We got there early afternoon and the kids played for a few hours before we donned costumes and headed up to Julie’s cousin’s house in Cleveland for their annual Halloween Party. Julie’s cousin, Anne, is basically a Martha Stewart clone who has a side job as a doctor. So, the decorations at the party included headstones in the front yard, faux “legs” of her two sons coming through the ceiling in the sunroom, spiders mounted on the ceiling, rats running up the banister, and so on. The food was even more out of control: “fingers” (bread sticks with red pumpkin seeds tacked on the end), chocolate spiders, hard-boiled eggs with spiderwebs on them, chocolate mice (licorice tails), and four or five dishes that weren’t specifically Halloween-themed, but were delicious and high effort in the making! Oh…and each dish had a meticulously lettered sign stuck in it explaining what it was. The goodie bags for the kids were two layers of brown lunch bags, with the outer bags stripped and shredded in a way…that I’m not describing effectively at all!
Benton went in full camo, including face paint. He’s into a heavy camouflage/soldier phase, which we sort of hope passes sooner rather than later! Carson was a Ninja. Alana was a princess. A princess who, mind you, fell asleep five minutes before we arrived at the party. So, I stayed in the car and let her sleep for 45 minutes before heading in. Needless to say, she was a still a bit groggy when we entered the house, so I had her clinging to me as she checked out the very realistic mummy (Anne again…included face “paint” that was made from flour, water, and some sort of paper — she is certifiabley out. Of. CONTROL!), a werewolf (Anne’s husband, Matt…including hairy feet, fangs, and pointy ears), a clown (Aunt Elaine), and any other number of characters. Ultimately, Alana warmed up to the event and had a great time.
Carson, as is his tendency, found a group of cousins and friends to tear around the house with. Luckily, his Ninja sword, another kid’s light saber, his second-cousin’s pirate saber, and other kids’ various plastic weapons did not inflict any real harm.
Oh. Yeah. Julie and I were M&Ms. Julie painted an M on a red sweatshirt for me, and she sewed a felt M on her yellow sweatshirt. I don’t think we actually made the crack that we were M&Ms — Julie plain and me “with nuts” — all evening! As it turned out, Julie’s Uncle Bill and her cousin’s son, Luke, came as M&Ms, too. But with more elaborate costumes.
We headed out ~8:45 and were back in Wadsworth by 9:30.
And, we’re getting ready to head back to Columbus!
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