The Skarda Family: The Halloween I'm kinda glad is over

We started off great.

Tyler's school hosted a "Fall Festival" the Saturday before Halloween. The lady in charge actually went ALL out- tons of games, bounce houses, food, a photographer, you name it. But when I heard her mention a week before that they had rented a cotton candy machine, I told her to skip that!

This is seriously my husband's happy place. He LOVES spinning cotton candy, and especially converting new people to how awesome the Jolly Ranchers are in cotton candy form. It was nice to feel like we contributed, too, because a lot of work went into that day.

Oh, and Christopher is Mario for the sole reason that Tyler told him to be.

Daddy's favorite thing to do when he gets home is play Mario Bros. Wii with Tyler. Green is for Tyler, so naturally Tyler is Luigi and Daddy is Mario. When I asked Tyler if he wanted to be Luigi, he was thrilled. I debated on sewing him a costume for a few minutes, but realized that Luigi is wearing overalls and overalls are useful. Luigi's hat came as a pair with the Mario hat, so I figured they could wear them while playing sometime.

But the day the hats arrived, Tyler changed into his green shirt and overalls as fast as he could and gave Daddy his hat. He happened to be wearing a red shirt that day, which Tyler congratulated him on. "Daddy, you have a red hat - check! You have a red shirt- check! Now you need . . . a blue thing!"

Daddy had marching orders. So that became my shopping orders, and soon we had a matching pair. I love how much Christopher truly enjoys making that little guy happy.

At that point, I decided to make this a no-sew Halloween! Practically a first for me. Jasmine and Kaitlyn had plenty of dress-ups to choose from, after all.

This little lady went with her Anna costume for the party.

I know that "selfies" are all the rage right now, but I have to tell you I have no idea how people do that. Every time I try to take a picture of myself it is terrible. Or at least awkward looking. I need lessons.

Now, Kaitlyn's choice surprised me. She has entire rack of Princess and mermaids to choose from, but was thrilled to invent her own ghost costume out of a weird dance slip from a garage sale, and other random white stuff she could find.

At first I was a tad miffed she didn't choose to wear her Elsa dress, but then I realized just how many Elsas there were this year. Someone told me there were 34 at the school parade. So maybe going her own direction wasn't too bad. She has been on Ghostbusters kick lately, and really enjoyed being chased by any Ghostbusters she found at school.

Anyway, after the school party, we went to the end of our block party back by our house, and then got in bed so they would be ready for the Primary Program in Sacrament meeting the next day. Kaitlyn did a great job memorizing a tricky little part - and Tyler, as usual, got up there and decided he wanted to sing as loud as he could in the microphone. Thank goodness the teacher that was sitting next to the mike controls was quicker than him, and turned the sound off as soon as he said his part! I was impressed.

Oh well.

Christopher got sick the next day with a typical congestion cold, so I didn't think much of it when I woke up with a sore throat Tuesday. It was painful to swallow, so I got some cough drops and figured I would be fine. Then the fever hit. By the time I had to go pick up the kids from school, I was starting on the chills. That was no fun, especially considering that Tyler's school is a half an hour round trip. Once I made it home, I just set the kids in front of the TV, rode out the chills until that broke, and then called all sorts of people to get rides for my kids on Wednesday. Obviously, I needed a day off, and thankfully, I have lots of great friends and neighbors who were willing to help out. Jasmine was also willing to watch TV and scavenge for her own food all day, the silly girl.

I spent basically all day Wednesday in bed (and not really able to get out very long), but figured I'd be fine by Thursday. So I didn't arrange any more rides. Thursday morning I decided I was now better, had breakfast, took a shower, and herded the kids to the door to go to school, while ignoring how tired and out of it I felt.

And then the fever and chills hit me like a rock wall.

I have never felt that sick in my life, I have to say. But I couldn't make Tyler late to school- he had a field trip to go swimming and have a pizza party for lunch! So I drove out there, and pulled over in the parking lot of his school white as a sheet and shivering like mad. I knew I couldn't go any further, so I called my sweet mother-in-law who dropped everything and drove over to pick me up. She drove me to the Instacare,which, you have to understand, is impressive for that family. She taught all her kids that you don't go to the doctor unless you are truly broken. But the Instacare checked my vitals and said that I was too low to stay there.

And that's how I ended up in the ER the day before Halloween.

After taking all kinds of blood samples and tests, all they could determine was that I probably had strep. Between the 2 IV fluids I got and the shot for strep, I finally felt better enough to get out of there. Lorraine stayed with me all day, Christopher came down from work, and my sister-in-law came to get Jasmine. Their family had the funniest story of the day. Jasmine apparently blended in so nicely into their family that she started calling them "mom" and "dad" with the rest of the kids. They kept her until bedtime, and helped her carve a pumpkin with everyone else, too. So when they asked if she was ready to go home, she said "no."

"Don't you want to go home?"

"No. Mommy sick."

She had found a new family for herself, I guess. One that actually did fun things, with a Mommy that got out of bed. I wasn't sure what she thought of how sick I got, since she just sat silently watching in the backseat while I shivered.

Thankfully, we were . . . almost back to normal in time for Halloween. I had to keep reminding myself to not over-do it, but it is hard when it should be such a fun day. I am just so amazingly grateful to everyone that helped me out. As I apologized to my neighbor and told her that I owed her some favors for all the times she got Tyler to school and back, she reminded me that we are all in a Sisterhood. We all do everything we can to help each other, and we might not ever help the exact people who helped us, but we just all help those we can help when we can help them. The kids thought I was crazy when I started crying while blessing the food that night, but knowing how much love had gone into that clam chowder that arrived on my doorstop was just the last in a long list of helps I had gotten that week.

Halloween night was crazy, at that point. I was too tired to be of real use, but I did manage to get the kids put together in time for a neighbor to take them trick-or-treating. I just didn't get a picture of them before they went, sadly. Christopher didn't take them himself because it was the warmest Halloween I can remember, which gave him a new idea of what to hand out as kids came by.

Thankfully, when I told my kids today how sad I was that I didn't get a good picture of them and asked if they wouldn't mind dressing up one more time, they were thrilled to go change.

Jasmine went though a few dress-ups that day, but eventually settled on Princess Sofia. Which is pronounced "Pin-cess Ah-Fi-AH!" Part of me regrets not making her a really nice version of that, because it would be a fun costume to create. Then I remember that this is cheaper and easier. And that her favorite part is the silly plastic medallion with a picture of Princess Sofia on it, just in case she forgot who she is.