Halloween 2011

It has been a roller coaster of a weekend, which I guess is just normal for life with teenagers in the house.

 Beautiful fall colors all around!  I took this on my walk up to the rec. center on Saturday.

 Helena and I were the only ones in the family interested in carving pumpkins this year.

 We got part of it done on Saturday, but then she ended up leaving for a date, so we finished on Sunday evening.

 Helena posing for the camera.

 Helena's pumpkin was so thick that she was only at this stage when I was ready to carve the face on mine.  She was blown away by how much 'meat' there was inside hers.  The guts filled it all the way to the top!

 Every year, we save the seeds and roast them after soaking them in a salt bath.

 These are the boys from the Saturday date... although Helena insists it wasn't really a date, they were just 'hanging out'.  Braxton is in the lederhosen, and Dallin is the nerd.  Helena and Megan were in the basement putting together a quick costume for Helena.

 Group shot before heading out.

 Helena's pumpkin design.

 My pumpkin design.

 Look at how Helena's pumpkin seems to be welcoming everybody to the door!

 Dinner tonight.  Homemade chili in a bread bowl, "butterbeer", and a caramel apple for dessert.

 I wanted to make sure the little trick-or-treaters could find their way to my front door (since our front walkway has been temporarily destroyed).  It worked very well.

 Super salty roasted pumpkin seeds.  I now have sores all over my tongue from eating too many of these!

 The candy bowl.  We ran out early in the evening (at about 8 pm).  The weather was so mild that we had more trick or treaters than usual.

 The secret "butterbeer" recipe... butterscotch/club soda + cream soda topped with whipped cream/caramel sauce mix.

So.  I had a great day today.  It was my day off, so I dedicated the entire day to enjoying Halloween.  After dropping the kids off at school, I built some homemade chili in the crock pot, then headed back to the high school for Helena's SEOP.  That's a Student Educational Occupation Plan, aka, let's-make-sure-this-kid-will-graduate-and-has-plans-for-after-high-school meeting.  That went well, so next I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some items for this evening.

I went back home and put in the first Harry Potter movie as background 'ambiance' while I roasted pumpkin seeds and made caramel apples.  I was just really, really happy to be home and making stuff for my kids and their friends, who I expected to come by and hang out tonight.

I had told Helena we were lifting part of her grounding since she had fulfilled most of our requirements.  She got her phone back and was allowed to enjoy Halloween weekend with her friends.  She was allowed to invite someone to Preference, and we registered her for a college retreat weekend at Dixie State College with her best friend.  So, things were getting back to normal.

After picking the kids up from school, things got a little sidetracked.  Helena wanted the house clean for when her friends arrived, so the harassed her brother about helping out.  He reacts badly when Helena 'bosses him around' and shuts down.  When I follow up with a request for him to help, he is slow to respond.  After getting that smoothed over, I took Will to get his Sundance ski pass for the season.  Today was the last day of pre-season discount price. While there, we discovered a SCREAMING sale on last year's rental gear, so Will ended up with an early Christmas!  We were going to get him skis for Christmas, but this was too good to pass up.  $96 total for skis, binding, and boots!  And they adjusted the bindings for free.

Home again.  Time to set up the paper lanterns and shred cheese to go with the chili.

Will took off for a friend's house to watch scary movies.  Later, I found out that instead of watching scary movies, they turned off the lights in the basement and were scaring each other instead.  During the screaming and mayhem, one of the boys accidentally 'butt dialed' 911!  Three squad cars showed up to investigate the emergency call of hysterical screaming!  Oops.

Anyways, to make a long story slightly shorter (I do have work in the morning), Helena's friends came over and had a great time.  They loved the chili and caramel apples, didn't like the "butterbeer", but were polite about it.

Then they wanted to watch a movie.

I have very clear rules about ratings.  No rated 'R' in the house.  The only exceptions are those rare times when the subject matter outweighs the rating.  Like Schindler's List.  Or Last of the Mohicans.  In those cases, I have allowed it because there is an educational quality to the movie that is significantly important.  But your run of the mill rated 'R' entertainment value only movie?  No.

It has nothing to do with the age of the kids.  They could be visiting me as 30 year olds and the rule would be the same.  My house, my rules.  I am the one paying for the streaming video service and I just don't want 'R' in my house.  That is all.  When they pay the bills in their own place, they can do whatever they want.

Helena wanted to watch a scary movie with her friends and complained that it couldn't be done without the 'R' rating.  I repeated myself.  No 'R'.  Her friends heard me, too.  No 'R'.

So, when Bill checked on them in the basement?

They are watching an 'R' rated movie.

Here is where the roller coaster takes one of those nasty nose dives.  Not only did Helena let me down, so did her friends.  They all knew they were disrespecting me after all the trouble I went through for them.  Was their desire to watch an 'R' rated movie that much more important than treating me with respect?  I admit, I had thought more highly than that of them.  I hate being forced into the 'bad guy' roll.  I told her to shut it off and that the party was over.

Now I have to play the role of disciplinarian again.  I hate that.  I feel like I have been manipulated and I anticipate another stressful week, now, because I can't let Helena drive and, oh! I wanted her to.  All the good feelings of making a fun Halloween are completely gone, because what I offered wasn't good enough for them.

Why'd I even bother?