The thing about Halloween that makes it so fun is that it’s the one day to be something you’re not. So here I am in 2005 as the perfect wife and mother.
I’m one of those few parents who dresses up for my kids Halloween parade at school. That year I wore a 50s wig, cat eye glasses, red lipstick and a dress, apron and pumps, pearls and a brooch that reads Mother from the local thrift stores. I made fake cookies with a simple salt dough recipe and painted them to look like chocolate chip cookies (to avoid being eaten.) The glass is full of tub & tile caulking to simulate milk. (The glass of milk/caulk takes a few days to soft set. Every kid at school wanted to touch the milk and one stuck her finger right down in it. Now I have a hole in my milk. Ha!)
This was definitely a fun costume to wear! No one knew who’s mom I really was. Not even my kids at first!
“Cut the crust off.” “Leave the crust on, I like to tear it off.” “I don’t want mayonnaise.” “You forgot a cold pack and my cheese was warm.” “I don’t like meat!” …I could go on forever with that. I’ve been packing school lunches daily for 8-plus years. I have 3 kids. My best days are the days they choose to have the school hot-lunch (has to be the same day for all 3.) We don’t allow hot lunch everyday in order to save money, and quite frankly, hot lunch ’aint all that. Pizza day is good, nacho day in Jr. High is fun, but they only get 2 HLs a week. The other days I’m rehashing old ideas like PB&J, bagel & cream cheese, turkey sandwich, and that’s where I get stuck. Who can be so creative at 7:00 am? I don’t pack at night because of the soggy factor. I hate sending plastic containers because, if they even make it home, they leak after use and sticky-up the lunch box. I am willing to throw in a freezer pack. And the kids gave up juice boxes 2 years ago when we switched to water only, (with NO complaints ever, can you believe that?!)
I really don’t want to spend a lot of time on lunches, but I DO want my kids to have a pleasant lunch, (that’s right, I want it all.) So here’s where you come in!Share your lunch ideas in the comments. Let’s hear what you pack for your kids…I’m all ears, and my children will thank you.
Out in the country where my husband grew up, during October there was always a cute little assortment of pumpkins placed at the base of a rod iron mailbox at the end of a neighbor’s driveway for as long as Jeff could remember. All the kids around would go grab a pumpkin when they were out. It was somehow implied that they were free for the taking.
One day, maybe 8 years or more ago, while on a walk with my husband and brother-in-law, we stopped to grab a couple of pumpkins and I said that I was going to go knock on the door and thank them. “Oh, no, don’t do that. Don’t bother them, they know we are taking them, the pumpkins are always here just for the taking.” (It almost reminded me of a scene from Home Alone, how no one wanted to go to the old man’s house nextdoor.)
So, naturally, I knocked on the door. There were Mr. and Mrs. Beasley. The sweetest little old couple you could ever imagine. So grateful for our visit. We promised to come back by with the kids and we did. And every year since. Our visits have evolved into a full on pumpkin patch experience for close to 15 kids now. The Beasley’s adult children have cookies and cider ready every year as we arrive in parade formation, coming from Jeff’s childhood home up the road, with our wheelbarrows and wagons full of kids, later to fill with our haul of pumpkins.
The elder Beasleys have been declining in health the last few years, but when they can, they still come outside, sit in the shade and watch as the children play in their garden. We look forward to visiting them again soon in the next few weeks. It just doesn’t get more small town sweeter than this. The little Pumpkin Patch sign is one I made in the fall of 2005 using wood items found at Beverly Crafts. On the back are gingerbread-type wood cut-outs that all the kids painted to resemble themselves. I wrote each child’s name under their picture as a thank you to the Beasley family. (LAST PHOTO: Mr. and Mrs. Beasley, sitting)
