Halloween Fun?

Friday at the church they had a trunk-or-treat which just basically means that instead of going door to door for Halloween candy, you go to people's cars. They usually have their trunks decorated and you go up and say the usual, "Trick-or-Treat" and you get candy. The nice thing about this is that it's all compact and in one area and you can be done in about 10 minutes or so. I also thought this was a good thing to do so that if Halloween was too cold, then at least Makenna would get some loot out of the holiday. Unfortunately to Makenna, this is not true trick-or-treating.

We went to the party inside the church and she had fun painting a pumpkin

And getting her face painted

And she loved her Tinkerbell costume

But when it came time for a game similar to musical chairs where you could win a cake--she was not into it. I have to admit I wanted it more than she did as some of the cakes looked scrumptious. It wasn't until the game was almost over, and had to be rigged so she would win and stop crying, that she finally participated and we won some cupcakes. All the good cakes were already taken by that point.

She was obviously in major break-down tired mode. By the time trunk-or-treating came about I went to our car to hand out candy and Chris took her around to the other cars...so I thought. he came back about 15-20 minutes later and said she got about nine pieces of candy of which three were from our car. He said she was so upset that he just had her in his car trying to get her to stop crying and calm down. I hurried and finished handing out what candy I had left and we took her home and to bed.

The next day we took her to a gymnastics practice for a show in December. She was supposed to also be there last night but I wanted her to enjoy the Halloween party - for what that was worth.

Unfortunately the practices are utter chaos and she was just as tired and miserable. I was getting really frustrated with her and with the process. I wanted an agenda of what happens when so that I could tell if she was supposed to out on the floor practicing a routine. As it was, I didn't see any kids from her age group or class there so I thought maybe we weren't supposed to be there. I asked repeatedly and they assured me that yes, she was supposed to be there.

Another problem is that there are so many things going on at once that the people directing the show don't know if every child who is supposed to be out on the floor for a certain piece is really out there so it wasn't until a minute or so into it that I'd be like, "Makenna, I think you're supposed to be out on the floor doing this." Then we'd try to get her out there and she wouldn't want to go. When everyone was off the floor then she'd go out and dance around.

Between not knowing when she should be out on the floor for a routine and her not wanting to when I did figure it out, I was about ready for a melt-down myself. We did end up leaving early because I figured if she's not going to do this then I'm not wasting my time sitting her arguing with her about it.

Later in the afternoon, she decided to dance around some more at home making me think that maybe dance is the way to go and that I should get her into it sooner than I had planned...but I'm not having her give up yet on gymnastics or this program.

Then on Sunday, Halloween Day, Chris's church also decided to have a trunk-or-treat and we got the same results as Friday's--refusal to go to the cars for treats. At least this time she wasn't crying. They didn't really have much in the way of games for her to do and it was all outside so after a while we left and went to her grandma and grandpa Jones' house. They graciously fed us dinner and Makenna had made up her mind to not go trick-or-treating at all. After a long weekend of trying to cajole her into doing it at cars I gave up and gave in and said that she could help her grandparents hand out candy.

The doorbell rang and a kid said, "trick-or-treat" and a spark went off in Makenna who decided that she wanted to go house to house. I said, "Okay, we'll just go down this street and then come back." I was setting my hopes low this time. We got out on the street and there were only a few houses lit up and one was "too scary" for her to go to so she agreed to walk a bit further onto another street. After about the fourth house she would keep asking, "Mom, can we go get some more treats?" Off we went onto different streets around the area. By the end we had a pumpkin bag full and it was a good ending to a bad start.

On a side note, earlier on Sunday, we went and visited my grandmother at the nursing home. They informed us that they were having a Halloween party and that the kids were welcome to come. They also said they were going to have a pinata filled with candy for the kids.

We went to the party and Makenna didn't want to hit the pinata at first as she thought it was going to explode like a firework and make a loud noise. She kept covering her ears as others hit it. Her cousin Eli took his little toy hammer and was lightly hitting the pinata which was hilarious to watch. It was as if he was trying to fix it. After a few hits by other kids, she saw that it wasn't going to be loud and she absolutely loved the candy falling to the floor and the free-for-all that ensued. Luckily they had another pinata and she got into whacking that one.

The funniest part of the weekend though was Makenna's answers to a couple of jokes that were told by staff at the nursing home. This lady was up front telling really bad Halloween jokes to everyone. The lady asked, "What is Dracula's favorite holiday?" Makenna loudly replied, "Ours is Sukkot." This is a Jewish holiday that she learned about at pre-school so when I stopped laughing and composed myself I said, "Wow, I didn't know we were Jewish." Then the lady asked, "Why did the mummy have no friends?" Makenna's reply, "Because he wasn't being a good listener."

Something she accuses me of all the time, and maybe she's right. If I had truly been listening, I would've let these little things go by this weekend without getting so uptight and let things fall into place themselves and probably would've enjoyed the weekend much more.