Halloween 2014

The winter holidays are here! We started off with a busy Halloween that was a lot of fun and extremely busy.
Our first activity involved Oktoberfest on the other side of Orlando. Gabriel liked the German music a lot and commented on the beautiful young women in their German outfits. Lane enjoyed dancing with her friend and Alex was happy once we found a cool art project for him. The food, activities, and company made it a great few hours together as a family.
We went to Sea World's Spooktacular. The kids dressed up and got lots of candy while trick-or-treating around the park. They received far too much candy that we used to give out to kids at our door on Halloween. The kids enjoyed the characters as they collected their candy.

The Thursday prior to Halloween, the school had a Kindergarten pumpkin patch. The PTO donates large pumpkins for families to carve together. I honestly think it was the only time I've enjoyed caring a pumpkin. It was a lot of fun to watch kids run around playing while eating treats. Parents carved pumpkins while the kids scooped out the inside of the pumpkin. There were fun photo opportunities as well.

Halloween was a busy, active day for all of us. I spent the morning with Lane's classroom helping with the fall festival rotations. The Kindergarten rooms switched classrooms every few minutes and completed a new activity in each classroom. It was wonderful watching Lane's interactions with her peers while doing the fun activities.
After Lane's fall festival, Gabriel and I joined Alex's class. Alex's class had a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory party while watching the movie. The teacher has a chocolate fountain and I set up other things for the kids. I had Wonka goggles and golden eggs for the kids. I also made an Oompa Loompa poster and a contract from the movie for the kids to sign. It was a really cute party.

We were supposed to join our community in a Halloween party I helped plan but it became too complicated to join. We got the kids dressed to trick-or-treat and went out together as a family.
The kids did well but Gabriel's behavior was odd at points. He asked for three pieces of candy at each home. At one door, he told the owner that he wanted to be the first to receive his candy. She told him that he would have to wait because he was the biggest kid and she enjoyed giving the candy out to kids. Gabriel demanded his candy while surrounded by six other kids. She denied his request and Gabriel proceeded to meltdown. It was at this point that I could see a change in her expression, that "ah ha" moment, that "light bulb" went off. Even though he looks like any other ten year old, he's not. He has challenges and something outside of his routine is difficult for him. She apologized and of course, I said that it was fine and really it was fine but it is just another moment when I get slapped in the face and the stink hurts. He isn't like every other kid. He wants to do things like other kids and he has a tough time processing his environment.

The kids seem to enjoy passing out candy more than getting candy. (as long a it isn't a favorite candy) It took a while for Gabriel and Alex to understand that every person wasn't at our home to talk to them. We had hundreds of kids at our house and it was so much fun to feel the excitement. Alex became obsessed with scaring people. It took several trials for him to understand that it's unacceptable to scare younger children.
He wore his creepy devil costume and found the best spot to hide was in our yard. He sat still like a lawn ornament and people didn't see him. He would move slightly or walk up behind someone and scare the jeebies out of them. He mastered the art of scaring strangers by the end of the evening.
Halloween is over and we are now gearing up for Gabriel's tenth birthday and Thanksgiving. We have an enormous amount of sugar from our holiday and look forward to the coming months of celebrations.