Spooking the pants off the kids

Been spending the last few days whipping this bungalow in the woods into haunted house status for my nephew's surprise Halloween birthday party. You see, months ago, Big H came to my sister and said:

"Mommy, for my next birthday, I want to have a surprise party. And, I want you to film it, so I can see the surprise on my face."

Jax was left stumped by this request. How was she to throw Hunter a surprise party--if he was asking for it?

Besides, it has never been easy planning a party for him. His birthday is the week before Christmas, so it's always difficult to organize anything with his classmates and friends at such a busy time of year. Everyone is always visiting family, attending other parties or busy doing last-minute holiday planning.

Last year, because Jax doesn't really have the room for an indoor party (and since December means an indoor party!), she spent countless hours finding a venue for the party (everything was already booked up for Christmas parties and events!) only to have three or so of the dozen kids invited show up.

So, after we discussed the situation, we decided to throw him a party well in advance of his actual birthday. This way, it really would be a surprise! And, it wouldn't be at that crazy time of year, either. We also decided to have the party at my house to help keep it a surprise--and because I have more room, both inside and out. Yes, it means another party at our house (that makes four this month, I believe), but that's what October is all about!

The party plan began as a pirate-themed shindig since Hunter wanted to be a pirate for Halloween, but then slowly evolved into a general Halloween party. Jax wanted to make sure that all the kids could re-use their costumes for the event and would not feel obligated to show up in pirate attire. She decided to save the pirate theme for the twins' party this summer. Might work better as a pool party anyways.

Since Jax is handling party foods and cake, my only real job is decorating and coming up with the scavenger hunt. The idea is to not only surprise Hunter with the party decorations and activities, but to scare him a bit, too!

To that effect, Brooke and I have been busy bedazzling foam bats, stringing up gauze strips in our spooky tree and blowing up pumpkin balloons for the last couple of days now. We also made a mini "Grave Garden" (as Brooke calls it) under the tree with some skeleton garden stakes and foam tombstones we found at the dollar store. We even revived Ol' Brunhilda, my porch witch from Rockland. She is now frowning angrily at visitors by the door, her brewing pot overflowing with bones, spiders, snakes and eyeballs at her feet. The place has really morphed into a haunted house.

Was fun to do. Hadn't really decorated for Halloween since we moved, as we are really in the woodsy country here and won't likely get many trick-or-treaters. That, and we have decided to trick-or-treat in town with the cousins anyways, so I guess we will never really know how many kids show up.

Today, we'll tackle the pumpkins. We have about 20 or so in total, but only about 5 or 6 of 'em are worth carving. I found some great pumpkin stencils on the Internet and can't wait to see the girls' faces when we hollow out the jacks!

Three years ago

Three years ago, on a sunny October day much like today, you joined our little family. Three years ago today you turned us into parents. Three years ago today you made our wish into reality and brought us such overwhelming joy that we thought our hearts would burst from sheer happiness.

And this year, well, you have grown up in such a short time. Just months ago, we were waiting for your little sister to arrive and you were such a toddler--bumbling and stumbling, giggling and jabbering. Now, it's hard to believe that our wise old owl, with all of her logical reasonings and thoughtful musings, is only turning three! You hardly seemed like a two-year-old Friday morning when you waved Daddy out the door with a reminder to ''go to work to make monies to buy my gas,'' and yet you still were.

Perhaps, it's that you have always had an imagination and a vocabulary more advanced than the average kid your age. Maybe it's that you've grown a good couple of inches and lost much of the chubby babyness about you this summer. Or that instead of shapeless blobs and scribbles, your drawings of people now actually include facial features and legs and arms. Or perhaps, it's simply that you have had to endure more in these last couple of months than most adults have to endure in their entire lifespan.

We are sooo proud of you and inspired by your courage and cheerful spirit. We wish you many, many more years of joy and sunshine! Happy birthday, Peanut! We love you forever.