A Very Halloweeny Weekend

It has just been a whirlwind Halloween/autumn extravaganza around here lately!  It's hard to believe we still have the REAL Halloween coming up, what with all the fun and exciting activities the kids have taken part in over the weekend. 

From baking - and decorating - Halloween cupcakes with Auntie Caitlyn:

to cutting out sugar cookie dough in Halloweeny shapes with Mommy, to a Haunted House and Halloween party in our town, the girls have *definitely* gotten their spook on.

Speaking of, the kids were WAY into the idea of a spooky haunted house. They could barely contain their excitement as we stood in line waiting for our turn through the haunted happenings:

Okay, okay, they don't look so excited in this photo, but that's because they STINK at doing posed smiles for pictures.

I actually did not have a true sense of how excited they were to be scared until the person in charge came through to organize folks into groups of 8 or so, based on whether or not the kids wanted a "scary" or "not scary" Haunted House adventure.

ME: Girls?  Do you want NOT scary?
JULIA: SCARY!!  SCARY!!
ME: Well, hang on, Madeleine may not want that.
MADELEINE: SCARY!!  SCARY!!

Believe it or not, even when going with the not scary group would have allowed us to jump the line and enter the haunted house much sooner, the girls held steadfast to their desire for a scary good time.

When we finally entered the haunted house, the girls were absolutely delighted with every aspect of the adventure.  As a skeleton in the shadows reached out and grabbed Madeleine, I expected some freaking out to occur, but instead, Madeleine giggled joyously.  Julia brazenly stalked right up to the monsters and ghouls holding cauldrons full of candy and selected her choice chocolates and sweets.  In other words, the kids weren't scared AT ALL.

I'm relieved.  But baffled.  After all, these are the kids that won't go up to their bedroom alone because they're "scared of the DARKNESS" (Madeleine), and can't fall asleep at night because they think they hear a tornado brewing outside our house EVERY DARN NIGHT (Julia).  But monsters jumping out of dark corners and grabbing at them?  No big deal.

After the haunted house, we got to attend the Halloween party upstairs, complete with games, refreshments, and a bouncy house!:

As Madeleine and I snuggled in her bed last night, she had several requests to ensure the Halloween fun just goes on and on and on:

MADELEINE: Mama?  Tomorrow...I want to frost our Halloween cookies STRAIGHT away.
ME: Sure, we can frost them tomorrow morning before church.
MADELEINE: And Mama?  Tomorrow can we go to the Haunted House again??
ME: Oh, honey, it's not open tomorrow.  It was one night only. 
MADELEINE: But Mama.  PLEASE can we go tomorrow?
ME: Honey, the Haunted House was ONLY open today.  It's all done now.
MADELEINE: But Mama!  Why do they NOT want us to have Halloween FUN?

Yeah.  Those pesky teenage volunteers at the Congregational Church who put this WHOLE thing together for no pay.  Why, oh why are they trying to RUIN our Halloween fun??

Turns out Madeleine meant it in the most literal sense that she wanted to frost those Halloween cookies straight away.  Upon trotting down from her bedroom this morning, she was raring to go.

ME: Good morning, sweetheart!  Can you go pee and brush your teeth?
MADELEINE: (hopping up and down frantically) But Maaamaaa!  I *said* I wanted to frost Halloween cookies STRAIGHT AWAY!

We were able to hold her off until after dropping Ethan at his church choir rehearsal.  Then we Rowe ladies got to serious work putting icing on some pumpkins, ghosts, and half-moons:

Afterwards, Madeleine scooped EACH AND EVERY stray drop of frosting off of the four plates we used, licking each scoop off of her fingers, so I'm not even really sure she NEEDS the sugar from one of these cookies for dessert tonight.

To top off our autumn weekend fun, we had a play-date after church with friends Loula and Will, and spent time doing Madeleine's favorite fall activity: jumping into a big pile of leaves!:

To truly capitulate the spooky weekend, Julia drew me this very Halloweeny picture:

Halloween can't come soon enough for these two kiddos!