My kids made some very nice pumpkins this year (unicorn, panda, barfing man) and I could show you a picture, but instead I will include this picture from the CBC’s Facebook page, because it is the best pumpkin ever:
Am I right or am I right? So totally doing that next year.
It’s Halloween, and I enjoy Halloween. I like handing out the candy at the door and seeing the kids. We usually get hundreds of kids here, but this year is very cold and wet and rainy so I don’t know what to expect. I’d complain, but the last several years have been gloriously clear and warm, so we seem due. And if we have tons of candy leftover, so be it, right? I’d love to be able to be all, “oh heavens, what will we do with the leftover candy?” but even I can’t pull that off with a straight face, as we all know it will be going straight into my belly.
This year is the first year that Captain Jelly Belly, at age 14, won’t be going out door to door. We have put a firm foot down about it – Grade 9 is our cutoff. He’s a little pouty about it, to tell the truth, but he negotiated that, in exchange, he be allowed to watch a bona fide horror film, something he’s been asking about for a few months now. He’s a pretty good negotiator and I’m tired of putting him off so I’ve said yes.
And now, what to choose? Personally I am not a horror fan. I want him to be scared but not too too scared. The Saw movies, for example, are still right out. And I don’t feel he’s quite ready for say, Quentin Tarantino. But I don’t want his first horror to be something stupidly cartoonish, either, like Bride of Chucky or Sleepaway Camp, which I watched at a Grade 8 sleepover party in my youth and left me scarred forever with both its murders and its terrible, terrible acting and dialog. I mean, they can’t all be Citizen Kane, but at least put in a half-assed effort, am I right?
Anyway, I recommended Scream to him, which I think is a very fine film, but Sir Monkeypants things perhaps he won’t get all the cool meta moments having never seen the basic version. We tried to get a copy of the classic Friday the Thirteenth or Halloween, but they are nowhere to be found, and I did find a pack of all six? seven? Nightmare on Elm Street DVDs at Walmart but I have no desire at all to own seven Nightmare movies at a cost of $50.
So we have borrowed a few things from my sister, including The Thing, a movie that’s not quite horror but is TOTES AWESOME and has some great jump scares, and I have a copy of the crappy remake of Poltergeist from a couple of years ago that might fly. I’m sure we can rent something suitable on iTunes as well. Hopefully he survives it – I think he will, he’s pretty chill about such things. He’ll be watching alone, though, as his father will be taking the girls out. I wonder, if while I am handing out candy at the door, I will hear a small voice on the couch in the main room asking me to please come sit beside me NO REASON.
Happy Halloween, everyone!
TurtleHead 
We have a milestone year here too, with Halloween. First off, the kids, usually thrilled to go with grandma, are going with friends this year. The boy on his own with four or five others, and, since they’re still 12, but don’t want supervision tagging along, received super clear tight perimeter instructions on where to go and where not to go and text me if it’s going to take more than an hour. (It will.) 🙂
The 10yo has a gaggle of girlfriends organized to meet at our house. I did not know this. I started getting texts from moms I know moms I didn’t wondering what the plan is. So I did the only thing any *still* sane mom could do: I commissioned Dad to take the gaggle of tweens out. I’ll stay home and supervise Grandpa so he won’t eat all the candy. 🙂
Happy Halloween!
Is there really a cutoff for kids to go door to door? I keep on seeing teens… I mean, it’s hard to guess their age (with costumes to boot) but I’d say 16-17.
Scream is an awesome movie. Totally classic… which makes me feel old because I saw it in high school!
Oh, definitely no fixed cutoff, either by law or convention. I try to be as enthusiastic as possible with all visitors at the door, no matter their age. If older kids still want to trick or treat, go for it!
The cutoff is just our own personal thing. When I was a kid, that was my own cutoff – Grade 9 – but also I felt myself I was getting too old for it. We did see a few friends of my son’s at the door this year and I think he felt a little sad not to be going out, but we didn’t see anyone older than that (that we know of) so I think the 13-14 age is generally when people start going to parties instead :).
Jesus Christ Sleepaway Camp WTF? I mean, really, WTF? Eve has been mainlining every horror movie she can find for about a year now. I need a Goodreads for movies so I can remember the really good horror movies I’ve seen – I love scary movies but only if they’re smart, which is a lamentably difficult quality to find. I agree that Scream and The Thing are awesome. Cabin in the Woods is also brilliant but maybe a little too meta. I thought The Ring was really good (only the first one). An American Werewolf in London was pretty good, but I haven’t seen it for years and it’s probably horribly dated. The Sixth Sense? Shaun of the Dead? I’m too late anyway, I guess. This also reminded me of a few years ago when Matt and Eve went to Thunder Bay for Thanksgiving and Angus and I watched the season premiere of The Walking Dead. He talked all tough during the show, but when it was over he said “you know I’m sleeping with you, right?”
Halloween update: it stopped raining by trick-or-treat time and we got a record 374 kids, so leftover candy was sadly kept to a minimum. My son didn’t want to watch a scary movie alone (CALLED IT), so instead he handed out candy with me, then watched The Thing with his dad after Sir Monkeypants got home from taking the girls around. It was perfect for the Captain – scary but not too scary. WIN.
Unfortunately we let Gal Smiley join them, and she has started sleeping with a baseball bat. FAIL. Oh well, can’t win them all.