Clara slept very long - she went to bed sometime before 10pm but didn't get up until after 8pm, which is long for her. Jill was going to Walmart and I thought it would be nice for Clara and me to get out of the house for a bit, but by the time we had driven to Walmart, even though Clara had only been awake about two hours so far, she had fallen asleep! I am not sure what's going on with that but in case she was getting sick or something, I decided to just leave her sleeping and let her get as much rest as possible. She slept in her carseat in the shopping cart almost the entire time we were at Walmart.
Jill bought a few more Halloween items, amazingly enough, and a birthday gift for Harrison (who is almost 15, wow). I have somehow managed to not pack a single long-sleeved shirt for Clara for this trip, so I picked out a red sweatshirt for her that says "Sweetheart" as well as a long-sleeved black tshirt with orange and white stripes that will look good under her jack-o-lantern tshirt if it's chilly out on Halloween. I also found a pretty cute jack-o-lantern tshirt that fits me. Jill was kind enough to buy all of it alongside her own supplies.
Clara woke up while we were checking out and so of course was wide awake during what would be her normal nap time, which means I didn't have a chance to take a nap myself. But later that afternoon Dad offered to watch her so I could sleep a bit before my friend Jen came over for pumpkin carving.
Jen arrived around 2pm. I can't really carve pumpkins and watch Clara. At first I tried putting on one of her playlists and putting up a baby gate in the door to the backyard, but it didn't really work. She kept hanging out at the baby gate wanting to come outside and see what we were doing. But then Ms. Kristen kindly offered to take Clara on a stroller walk, which was really helpful. They were gone a long time and I made some great pumpkin progress alongside Dad, Jill, Jen, and sort of Rocket.
Look at those focused artists.
Dad scooped a lot of pumpkins so that the rest of us didn't have to, which I love. I am not into scooping pumpkins and it's pretty nice to get to carve multiple of them without the work of scooping. It's like always getting to ride the wagon downhill without having to pull it back up. Dad also scooped a few pumpkins for Rocket, and then I'd sketch some classic jack-o-lantern faces on those and do some of the big cuts so Rocket could focus on the tiny ones, then he'd finish the jack-o-lanterns off. He really enjoyed it and was very proud to show Jill and Dad each time he finished a part of the face.
At some point Dad went and got his grinder so we could try removing a thin layer of pumpkin to get a multi-layered jack-o-lantern. It was fun to try and in the daylight it looked pretty awesome.
After Ms. Kristen got back with Clara, Dad improvised some outdoor baby gates so Clara could go in and out of the family room to the backyard, but stay confined to the back porch with us and not run around to the front. That made things pretty simple. For the most part she was content to wander around and just be near us as we carved. Ms. Kristen helped with some carving too.
In the end we carved about 25 pumpkins. We separted them into "faces" and "scenes." We had all been doing mostly faces in the beginning and switched to scenes in the end (e.g. the grim reaper, bats over the moon, etc). Overall I liked the scenes more but it was all fun. By then it had gotten dark, so we added candles to everything, turned out the porch lights, and looked at our "trial run." Dad added more candles to the dimmer pumpkins and also carved some of them a little wider so the light could get through. The whole thing looked excellent and we were all pretty pleased with our work. It was a really enjoyable Halloween-themed creative outlet!
Afterward Jen had to go home because she was dog sitting, but Ms. Kristen watched Rocket and Clara so Dad, Jill, and I could get dinner at The Keg. I was very tired by then and the idea of just sitting still with no kids while someone brings me food was awesome. We sat at the bar and I got a big Caesar salad, which was what I just happened to be craving. Because I'm pregnant of course I didn't order any alcohol, but I'm also getting a little tired of milk, water, and Diet Coke all the time (yeah I said it) so I got a Shirley Temple, which was pretty delicious.
There were a lot of people dressed up in the bar. In fact the whole town was pretty decked out because apparently earlier that night they had "coffin races" which are a Halloween-themed derby.
Costumed patrons getting way into singing along.
And since I was the only one not drinking I drove us home, nice and safe, even though Dad is an amazingly bad backseat driver. He chided me to make sure I wasn't too close behind a car when I was going less than 25 mph. I think he's just not used to being a passenger.
When we got home Clara and Rocket were nearly ready for bed. Dad goofed around with Clara a lot, and she thinks he's hilarious. She was being so cuddly and playful with him that he ended up trying to leave to go to bed 2-3x but coming back and playing some more because she was so cute. It was endearing.
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