Ninja’s Don’t Use Hair Dryers

Halloween has come and gone. I must say that this was one of the most relaxed Halloweens in recent memory. In years past we have had a trunk-or-treat at the church from 4:30-5:00 and then we would come home and try to get the kids to eat something nutritious and then they would go trick-or-treating almost immediatly because the time change made it really dark early. It was really a lot for just a couple of hours.

Halloween morning Tanner had a pre-school party where moms were invited to come. Jaxon is off track and I always have Alex so I called and found out that they were invited too. This worked out good because Jaxon got to wear his costume again and enjoy a party evn though he didn't do it with his class. Tanners class was cute. It was weird because there was two of almost every costume. There were two lions, two spidermans, two batmans, two princesses, two fairies etc... You can tell what pre-schoolers are into.

This year our ward did a Halloween carnival the night before at the church building. This was really fun. It was not on Halloween- but it was the night before therefore it flowed into the celebration. We ate dinner at the normal time of 5:00ish. We ate our Halloween bread skeleton with bacon for hair and carrot sticks for fingers. Then we realized that it was not going to be dark for at least 1 1/2 hours because the time did not change until after Halloween. What to do with very hyper kids for 1 ½ hours? Put them in the bathtub of course- at least that contains them. Well that worked because all of a sudden we had trick-o- treaters at our door and we were not ready!

Alex was the cutest Mickey Mouse ever, Tanner was a scary lion, and Jaxon was a ninja. Last winter Jaxon took karate and as soon as I bought the uniform he informed me that he didn’t want to take karate anymore. So I told him that he was going to have to use the uniform for his costume because it was expensive (I also had him take a few more months of karate because he had to learn perseverance and I needed to spend countless hours wondering around the fitness center making sure a one year old was not getting into everything). He was happy with his costume after we bought him cool ninja swords and got him a head band to go with it. (When I first told him we would get him a head band he was weird about it and said he didn’t want one. When I asked why, he said headbands were for girls! When I explained the difference- he was cool with it.) I will have photos soon. We have issues with getting photos on the computer straight from the camera- but it will not be long.

We were getting kids out of the bath and straight into their costumes. It was really cold so we were getting warm sweatshirts and stuff for underneath costumes. The boys hair was still wet so I herded them into the bathroom and turned the hairdryer on them. This never happens because they are boys and have short hair. But it was cold and they were going right outside. Usually they won't even stay in the bathroom if I am drying my hair because it is too loud- so this was torture to have it aimed at their heads! This was when Jaxon used the “Ninja’s don’t use hairdryers” line. He also used that earlier, "Ninja's don't take baths". They did not get colds so I was a good mom. (Was there ever any question of that?)

The next question was what to do with the candy. We actually had less then usual because the trunck or treat gave a lot more candy then the carnival (hallalujah!). The next day I had them sort their candy. That is a fun, time consuming activity and they can see how many candy bars and how many lollipops they got. Then they put 5 pieces in a baggy. They get one bag a day. That way, they don't get too much all at once and their mom can't snack on their treats without getting caught!