Friday, October 27, 2006

Tricks and Treats

After a rough couple of days, Sir Oliver finally had a good one. He was pleasant, napped well, stayed reasonably calm while eating, and did not have any inexplicable shrieking spells. He scared us all with what Mr Renn diagnosed as a intestinal pseudo obstruction. So I was on tinterhooks for almost 16 hours waiting for a royal bowel movement. (Has my life really been reduced to this?) All is lah-dee-dah again.

Tonight was our ward Halloween party/carnival at the church. I have mixed feelings about Halloween anyway, it would never make my top 20 holidays, but I try never to be a party pooper. Using sheer will power and laser-beam deadly "you wanna stay married?" glares, I got our whole posse to the church on time. Yeah me!

There were lots of cute kids there. All under 5. There were plenty of kids there over 5, but no cute ones. What?! How dare I say such a thing? Okay well I'm a little disillusioned. I was subject to a lot of greedy petty behavior (in the aforementioned over 5 club) and came this close to making a scene. Let's just sum it up with the older kids pillaged the treats intended for the younger kids and it wasn't pretty. I'm one angry mama and my kid wasn't even affected!
So I guess the question is, how do I keep my kids from behaving like that? Or rather, how do I teach them to overcome the crazy egocentrism? Isn't there anything that I can do?

Well, at least there was plenty of cuteness, and an encouraging amount of mamma fellowshipping going on. I'm starting to feel just a bit like I can belong here (minus the heathen children..... ) Okay, I've vented, I can move on. Besides, a lot of said grubby fingered gimme-grunts weren't even members of our ward. So I need to let it go in the name of good-neighborliness. It's just hard when little kids are involved! ../Moving on.

highlights of the evening:
The cutest spook!


Sir Oliver with his "future" friend Cole (our friends the Skinners, who live beneath us)
Sir Oliver and Mama


6 comments:

samunwritten said...

I totally get the whole Halloween thing.
I've always been of the go-with-the-crowd persuasion when it comes to Halloween. Not exactly my favorite holiday, but whatever. Free candy.
As the years go by, I feel less inclined to celebrate it. I have no intention of dressing up for any reason this year.
And little Harry Potter's and Lord of the Rings people knocking on my door for hours at a time is not my idea of fun.
But I've been overwhelmed by Halloween spirit this year and its beyond my control.
A very spontaneous aunt has spearheaded a spook alley at the Johnson residence this year.
So we'll see how that goes.

tracy m said...

Awww! He's such a cute spookie! Abby doesn't even have a costume yet- maybe by tomorrow when we have our halloween thingie at our ward...

I'm with you on halloween- why on earth would I want to decorate with skulls and ghoulish things all over my house? Eeek, I won't even watch a scary movie... But Christmas is coming, and I can get behind that one!

As far as other peoples kids- Ugh. Always a tough one. You know I have wrestled with that one before! I'll let you know when I figure it out- three kids and five years into it, I still don't have clue...

Anonymous said...

I dont' mean to sound ignorant, but what is a "ward"?

Em said...

No problem Anne - our church tends to have so many new words that it can be like a whole different language. Ward is just what we call our congregation. They are divided geographically, but sometimes more than one congregation (ward) will meet in the same building at different times....etc etc etc
More info with clearer information here:
http://www.mormon.org/learn/0,8672,794-1,00.html

Em said...

And Tracy - Oliver's costume was made out of a pillowcase! I know you have a bunch of pillowcases with pretty embroidery on them that are nearing the end of their lives... so if you wanted to save the embroidery and find another life for a pillowcase... there you go!

Anonymous said...

How cute is that!! love Oliver's costume!

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