Today was the Make-A-Wish Halloween party. It was an awful lot of fun. They had a banquet room at a hotel with a DJ and, of course, LOTS of treats. Popcorn and chips at every table, plenty of cookies, cupcakes, and funny-colored beverages, and balloons everywhere. Disappointing food choice at first--little sandwiches with all kinds of pepperoni and ham and such on them, and that was the only option. Fortunately, they ran out, and they had to get pizza. Cici's to the rescue.
The boys had a great time. They wore little horse costumes. Pictures to follow.
Both boys enjoyed dancing and were thrilled to see Elmo's "surprise" appearance.
We were reminded of how lucky we are. Obviously, "lucky" kids and lucky families aren't the ones who get invited to this party. But there were many families whose children had a lot more issues than ours. Make-A-Wish isn't just for kids with potentially terminal illnesses; I'm not sure exactly to what it extends and who else is eligible, but it wasn't just cancer patients and cancer survivors at this party, not by far. There were several kids in wheelchairs and several others who also had speech devices (like DynaVox).
Major snaps to a father we saw who turned his son's wheelchair into Thomas the Tank Engine, complete with Thomas face on the end and an engineer hat for the little boy. He obviously worked REALLY hard on the presentation and they got a lot of positive attention for it.
At the end of the party was "trick-or-treating" around the room, which I didn't get to see because Meatball was so done by that point. He was overstimulated and needed milk and a nap.
Musical Daddy had some coffee in the hopes of skipping his nap and getting himself to bed early tonight and tomorrow night. He starts a temporary job on Monday where he has to be at work at 7 AM, and it's about an hour drive. Fortunately, he'll get home by 4:30.
Tonight we're going to make pumpkin pie from real pumpkins, bake the seeds, and then carve jack-o-lanterns. Tomorrow? We trick-or-treat. The kids have never been, because The Boy has always been in the hospital or low-count. I think the first Halloween ever for him, when he was 2 months old, was on a Tuesday night. Musical Daddy was at chorus rehearsal and I was home with The Boy handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. Someone has to, right?
Not sure yet if we'll do the stores, the neighborhood, or both. The stores always do a nice job and it's supposed to be "safe" for the kids to go to the stores rather than the different houses. On the other hand, going to houses in our neighborhood means we can possibly see some friends.
I'll wear a costume. Musical Daddy has a good one (although some of you who know him will say that it's cheating). I'll let him show it off.
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