The Rewards Are Great - Halloween Weekend

• Nov. 2, 2008
Halloween Weekend

Halloween has never been my favorite holiday, even before I learned the origins of the Jack-o-lantern and gobblins and such. I'm not sure why, because I'm a candy lover (especially *chocolate*) from way back, and Fall is one of my favorite seasons! But, for whatever reason I just don't really get into the halloween thing. I suffer thru it to make the kids happy and when it's all said and done Jordan throws me a few chocolate bars. (He doesn't like chocolate!!)

This year we used hand-me-down costumes for the two youngest kids. Lucas was a spider and Shiloh was a cute kitty. The older two wanted new costums. Jordan wanted a race car driver costume, but we couldn't find one. Josiah wanted a $20 Batman costume! We said 'no way'. We have a perfectly fine Batman suite already, but he wanted the new and improved version. So Josiah quickly agreed to go as a hunter, and about 30min before time for us to leave for Trunk or Treat, Jordan agreed to go as a deer.

As usual we had a nice turn out for Trunk or Treat, we even had some entertainment from the king himself, king of rock n roll that is! Unfortunately I couldn't get close enough to get a good picture, you know how those Elvis fans can be.

Jordan and Josiah had recently been grounded from their friends due to the way they treat one another, especially when they're around other kids. I know this is natural for some siblings but it's not what I want for my kids. I want them to be close to one another, and to know that the other one is there for them no matter what. They will defend the younger two kids with no thought, but when it comes to defending each other they just won't do it.

My husband and I have noticed for awhile that our two oldest boys are always at odds with one another when there are other kids involved. When a disagreement occurs involving another child they automatically jump to defend the other child, which is okay if they know the whole story and realize their brother is truly at fault. Unfortunately they usually don't know the whole story and could care less who is at fault. It seems they just love to be against each other. This bothers me greatly because I would've never allowed someone to mistreat any of my siblings (yes, it was okay for me to mistreat them, but no one else).

(Jordan is missing from the picture because it was his turn to "hunt" on the game)

So their grounding was over on Halloween night and, they both invited a friend home from the Trunk or Treat for a sleepover, and for the most part everyone had a great time, even mom! By Saturday afternoon everyone was getting a little tired and cranky from lack of sleep the night before, and they started bickering a little. I guess we still have a lot of work cut out for us. All in all though it was a fun time. We played checkers and Pentago until midnight. We even played Go Fishy with my three year old, yelp he stayed up until everyone else laid down to watch TV. He was worn out Saturday. My boys really Love sleepovers so I think I'll be using this as a learning tool more often. They really handled themselves well for two weeks

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