Whippersnappers

We had a ton of trick or treaters last night but I still have about 94 lbs of candy left. I over prepare to say the least. Lots of cute costumes, some lame ones like the teenagers who refused to dress up. I stationed myself on the front porch on my bench so the doorbell wouldn't freak out the pugs. I'd stand there in silence until the teenagers with no costumes would say trick or treat. Then I'd ask what were they dressed up as (besides punks asking me for free food. shoulda given them canned corn). One girl said a typical teenager, another said a basketball player (obviously it was off season for him). One kid said a bum, then he had the nerve to come back to my house a half hour later! I told him he could take that bum talk home to his mama. One group of people coming down the sidewalk to my house appeared to have a jester. Then 2 kids came to the porch, and one boy was a jester, but his dad was wearing the hat.
Me: Hey Dad, nice hat!
Dad: Well this little punk wouldn't wear it and I want my money's worth!

I thought I'd share some of the face painting requests I received on Saturday. Lots of pumpkins, spiders, kitties, etc. One kid wanted "a hockey player, a hockey stick, and a puck". I'm not painting the side of a van, kid. Another one wanted me to paint her whole face to look like an eagle. I talked her into a bat. My favorite request of the day went down like this:

Me: Hey! I love your costume! What would you like for me to paint for you?
Kid: I want a lawnmower.
Me: Ok, but what do you want painted on your face?
K: A lawnmower. On my hand.
Me: A lawnmower??
This is when my friend A jumps in with "You can do it Shannon! You can draw anything!" I introduced A to the family finger (pinkie finger flashed instead of the middle one)
Kid's sister spots my nephews' play lawnmower and brings it over. She excitedly tells me I can just use that one as a model. Gee thanks.
So I paint a lawnmower on his hand. Looks alright, but not my best work.
K: I can't see the blades.
Me: That's cause they're underneath.
K: But I wanna see the blades.
I paint the blades on top. The lawnmower is now an air mower.
K: There's no grass.
So I paint grass while I'm thinking that I'm not a muralist, kid.
Me: OK, there you go! There's your lawnmower! Do you like it?
Kid looks at me with wide eyes and runs away to show his parents who probably wonder why the nutjob face painter painted an upside down lawnmower on their kid's hand.

Fall Festival

Today was the first WCOG Octoberfest. It was a lot of fun. WCOG is the Women's Circle of Giving that my sister started. We get together every other month and raise donations for various charities. Octoberfest was our first big festival and it went really well. I did face painting, there were vendor booths (Avon & whatnot), my BIL & Jon made BBQ, there was a bouncy house, craft tables, and more.

Costume contest:

The local fire department came out, let the kids explore the truck, passed out fire helmets & stickers.

Joey was a punk rocker:

So was Jacob: