I can’t recall a Halloween when I’ve spent as much time and energy decorating and celebrating this candy-covered holiday. It doesn’t take much soul-searching to figure out that feathering our nest is one of the ways I’m caring for my family right now. So, I wasn’t overly surprised (but still very happy) when I heard our boys declare, “This is the best Halloween ever!”

Much to my husband’s delight – and (surprisingly) mine, too – we created Halloween-themed scenes out of Legos and used them to decorate our mantle. The boys (all 3 of them) love the new Monster Fighters sets we brought home from our visit to the Lego Store last summer. They worked diligently to find all the original pieces – which in our obscenely large collection of Legos is quite commendable. The Lego mini-fig mummy and werewolf made me smile every time I walked by – I just had to avert my eyes from the trail of red Lego studs all around them (our youngest son’s idea for drops of blood).

We dusted off and put together our Halloween puzzle – The House on Haunted Hill; Springbok, 1973 – the same one I worked every year when I was a kid. We made a countdown chain, printed countless coloring pages found online, and wrapped a stuffed Superman in toilet paper to create a mummy. We ate on our pumpkin-shaped melmac plates and drank from our pumpkin covered plastic cups. And we capped our month-long celebration off by walking our entire neighborhood tonight, hitting every home with a porch light on.

Tonight, both of our boys fell asleep in a sugar-induced coma, bits of chocolate still visible in the corners of their mouths. Needless to say, I’m a happy momma bird.