of death and chocolate

In the words of Arkwright, it's been a funny old week! Much ado about something. Today was Halloween and the children are finally sleeping after crashing from their sugar induced freak outs! Phew, that was a lot of sweet stuff! It was a pleasant day but not as pleasant as had been originally planned. The week started off with bad news about Eric's Aunt Nora. She had a massive heart attack this past weekend and passed away on Monday. She was lucky in that she died surrounded by all those who love her. Eric flew out on Tuesday to be with the family and has been there since. His dad needs him around and that is where he needs to be and where he should be. The funeral was yesterday and now the healing can begin. Eric should be home on Tuesday. We all miss him but we needed to let the state of Virginia borrow him for a week.

So that was the somber news of the week. The rest was taken up with Halloween, Halloween and more Halloween. I think I may just be ready to move on! We did manage to have lots of fun though in spite of Eric not being here. Owen had his party at preschool this morning and came home laden down with all kinds of goody bags. Then we were off to Alexandras class and her party. This was slightly different in that I was in charge of this shindig. I wanted to make sure it was fun for all and that the parents and teachers had as many treats as the kids. It is always a slightly different event when the group you are hosting are all autistic - you have to think of way more variables! I decided on caramel apples using the tried and true small lady apples and twigs as the handles - the teachers loved those! I made little cups of orange popcorn that I found at World Market and I made white chocolate ghosts for each child. I decided on Chocolate cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Buttercream that I dyed a lovely halloween orange! I combined a craft with the goody bag! I bought orange paper bags at Wal Mart and then used stick on letters to spell out each childs name. Then they got to decorate them using all kinds of stickers. I had four cauldrons full of all kinds of candy and the kids then had to go trick and treat so they could fill their bags from each cauldron. The bags were then tied with black licorice laces. It was a really fun day and I know Alex enjoyed herself. So now I sit in bed and sleep is making my eyes heavy.

Owen did not get to go trick or treating this year but he did not seem too worried. He did get to hand out lots of candy to the masses who came on by this evening and I think we managed to make a little dent in our mountain of candy. If anybody knows a good way to get rid of lots of chocolate (that does not involve my thighs) I would be delighted to hear it.

So to all those goblins and ghouls who I miss, I say Happy Halloween. So many souls that I miss this year - rest easy and be at peace.

Goodnight and I will post photos tomorrow!