Halloweenies

Am I going nuts, or has Halloween blossomed into a massive extravaganza of a holiday? It is no longer just a kids' holiday: it is a giant inflatable lawn ornament and porch-decorating holiday and a college student binge-drinking holiday, too. (In fact, ISU has moved parents' weekend to coincide with Halloween to keep the undergrads under control.)

This year costumes went on sale at the beginning of September and all of the good ones were sold out before October. I think that the idea is that if you buy costumes in advance, the kids will change their minds or ruin the costume in the intervening two months and you will have to buy another one. I tried to sell the kids on home-made costumes, but no dice. This is the first year that no one needed for me to sew them anything elaborate. Snif. Sam wanted to be Iron Man and Joseph wanted to be Darth Vader, so I bought costumes in September and stuck them in the closet for safety. Is it just me, or does Joseph look like Dark Helmet from Spaceballs?

We went to the annual Halloween Planetarium show (for a detailed description, read last year's post). Soooo corny... I was chatting with the fellow who runs the planetarium the other day and I had an epiphany--he records the cheesy audio tracks for the shows!!!

Normal has the annual Uptown Normal Treat Fest for kids to go from store to store and get candy (and coupons--what every kid wants!) But this year was insane--there were just too many people for the length of the street, so that everyone ended up gridlocked and unable to move forward, even though there was plenty of candy (and coupons!) We eventually gave up and stopped for dinner.

Joseph's school has a Halloween parade, which Danny attended. Sam's school also has a "Halloween walk-a-thon" which we didn't see.

Darth Vader makes a skeleton out of Q-tips.


After we went to the Harvest Festival, Sam asked if we could make a scarecrow. So we dipped into the discarded clothes collection, and stuffed them with plastic bags (the ones that I can't use for crocheting). However, the day before Halloween, it was (not surprisingly) stolen off of our porch. So we made another one for Halloween. Sam helped stuff it and Joseph made the mask.

Our neighborhood is awesome for trick-or-treating! There are loads of older neighbors who recall Halloween nostalgically, and stuff handfuls of candy into the kids' bags. Our neighbors also do this awesome haunted yard. Sam was a little freaked out, but Joseph spent a long time examining each of the corpses and ghouls.

We left a big bowl of candy on the porch and when we got back from trick-or-treating, although it looks like some kids helped themselves the bowl was still there! And the biggest surprise--after Halloween weekend, the scarecrow is still there, and the pumpkins haven't been smashed!

Almost fun weekend

Last weekend was pretty lame. We kept almost doing fun things, but not quite. We accidentally went to the Harvest Festival (lame) instead of the Autumnal Festival (fun). However, we did have some fun at the Harvest Festival. There was a pumpkin teacup ride. Joseph insisted that we not spin, which made the ride equivalent to taking a slow bus around a traffic circle.

There was a portable climbing wall from Upper Limits, this fantastic indoor climbing place in Bloomington. Upper Limits occupies Cargill's old soybean processing plant and you can climb the insides of the scary-high grain silos. It is pretty pricey, though, and I haven't yet been there. So I challenged Danny to a climb-off. I think that I won.


We had planned to visit our favorite local cheesemaker for an open house and pumpkin patch. However, our GPS failed us: we kept driving in circles without finding the place. We stopped at a gas station and bought a map, but the map didn't include the street either. So no pumpkins and cheese.
Saturday night we went to the ISU Biology picnic. Attendance was not great, and there were few other kids there. The weather was a little cold, but we all had a good time.


Sunday was the Champaign Surplus Store's fall clearance event. I had been waiting all year to find a reasonably priced winter coat. I have clearly demonstrated that L.L. Bean and Land's End do not make a coat in my size. Also, Columbia does not make a coat in my size (XS is extra short but extra wide). Only North Face makes (super expensive) coats that fit me. We drove 60 minutes to Champaign, but they had no North Face in my size. I did buy a pair of Frye boots marked down from $128 to $9.99.


Hopefully next weekend will be better?

Sugar Creek Arts Festival

This weekend was the 25th annual Sugar Creek Arts Festival. I love living right next to uptown Normal and campus!!! Today we brought the kids and Argos to the festival, and a great time was had by everyone. It was a great arts festival!! No twee license plate birdhouses and scented candles. There was an astonishing diversity of arts and crafts, with festival food and live entertainment.

Universe of Russian stacking dolls

Rust bugs

Rust dogs

Joseph makes jewelry and a visor.


Wise-ass balloon man! (Is there any other kind?)



Joseph explains why he chose pineapple ice.

Argos was pet by so many people that he was palpably greasy by the time he got home. It was rather hot and humid, so we tried to keep Argos in the shade as much as possible, and he spent a lot of time lying in different booths.


Here's the Pantagraph story

Apple and Pork Festival

Last weekend we went to the Apple and Pork Festival in Clinton. We had apples. We had pork. The kids pet farm animals and learned about how corn is milled. I found out that a taffy apple is just a caramel apple made by an old person. Here are some of the highlights.

There were many many craft (and crap) booths. You got your birdhouses made out of license plates, homemade candles, and lawn pigs

Reenactor brass band? Was the civil war between the apples and pigs?

Sam was really into the tractors. Joseph not so much.

An antique steam tractor.



Click here for the local newspaper article on the event

Fell Fest

Saturday was the Fell Fest in Normal. Jesse Fell was the founding father of Normal: he was kind of like Johnny Appleseed, developing parks and planting trees. As it happens, we live one block from Fell Park, the oldest park in Normal. It is a cute little 2-acre park with a newish climbing structure, and some cool old things like an excavator toy in the sandbox, metal horses and one of those go-rounds that kids like to use to get nauseated/break bones jumping off of. (Who was I talking to recently about the fact that most parks no longer have working go-rounds due to litigious parents?) There is also a softball field, a basketball court and horseshoes. At the center of the park is a brick water tower that the local kids claim has a witch living at the top. Our kids are regulars at the park and were asked to participate in the children's parade. Attached are some pics of the event.
A Jesse Fell re-enactor delivering a stirring speech. Note the woman in old-timey dress with the video camera.

The car show, complete with the winner of the 1944 soap box derby

The children's parade with Sam and Joseph. (They won a prize!)

Sam playing a little corn-hole (they call it "bags" here).

Argos had a great time at the Fest meeting people and dogs. He especially enjoyed drinking the soapy water for making bubbles.
Click here for the local newspaper article on the event