It was the day before Halloween and I had not made any attempt to participate in any Fall Festivities. No pumpkin, no cob webs, no spiders, no candied apples... oh and no candy. I thought to myself...Maybe this is the year I should just skip Halloween. I wonder what the kids will think if I do that. Will that scar them for life, label me bad mommy for life or maybe they won't even notice. It was Sunday afternoon and tomorrow was Halloween. I had about 6 hours before bed time to figure it all out. Sammy (11) at his age is ok with most everything as long as he gets to get together with his friends to roam the neighborhood on Halloween night. Gavin on the other hand is all about "CELEBRATING LIFE!"Gavin and I were in the car about to head home when Gavin finally said with an accusing bad mommy tone "MOAMMM! Tomorrow is Halloween and we have not carved a pumpkin yet and we have no candy! We gotta go to the store NOW!" I could see him in my rear view mirror as he cut his eyes over my way with what looked like a child's disgust. His brow was furrowed and his jaw was clinched. I'm not scared of a little 8 year old so I attempted again. "It is so late and our pumpkin would only be out only one day. Maybe we could do a couple of pumpkins next year."
"NO! responded Gavin. (Loudly I might add!) We have to carve a pumpkin and put out decorations today so we can be ready for all the festivities tomorrow." He was not going to buy into my trick. I guess we are not skipping this holiday. I am pretty sure there would be some mental long term scarring for Gavin.
So....I turned the car around and headed to Kroger only to find zero...yep zero pumpkins available for purchase not even the plug in kind. I drove on to Fresh Market... same story. I knew my only real option was to go to the dreaded pumpkin patch where the trunk or treat was taking place at that exact moment. There was going to be no parking and there would be tons of people everywhere. I was worried Gavin would be sucked up in the excitement of trunk or treat with the big jumpy activities and want to side track. We got there and I tried to get out of getting the pumpkin one more time. No chance! Gavin was so focused on the patch and getting that pumpkin that he was trying to keep me on his mission and told me "Do not to even think about going over to the church for other activities Mom". "Well OK then" I replied. We got in and out under $12 and in 30 minutes. We ended up with one carving pumpkin and 2 small cute pumpkins to draw faces on. We got home and Gavin went to immediate carving mode, drawing all over the pumpkin face and then shedding tears over his crooked mouth. Gavin even got the drawing on his small pumpkin done.
Sammy comes in the door and Gavin immediately picks up the two small pumpkins saying in a very calm soft tone with no inflection on any work "here Sam draw a face on your pumpkin...hurry up we don't have time to talk about it...tomorrow is Halloween." Sam immediately was looking around questioning for what we brought back for him "Why did I get this one, what are my choices." Sam said dismissing Gavin's urgency. Gavin replies "we have one big one to carve, a tiny little one for me and this bigger on for you. Oh... and yours is bigger (pause) .... 'cause (pause) ... well 'cause you're fat! The insults never stop between brothers and I love it because it makes for some pretty good blog topics.
