halloween quarantine

Well, COVID has finally hit our household. On Wednesday, I got a call from Colin's day care that he was a close contact of a confirmed positive case. Both a home test Wednesday and a test at the doctor on Thursday came back positive. So far, he seems to be doing okay. He has a runny nose and just doesn't quite seem like himself: reduced appetite and occasionally laying his head down on the couch or floor to rest. Mae and I are okay, but Dan started feeling yucky today and is waiting his test results. We are doing our best to mask and distance, but it's challenging within our house. Mae is out of school for at least 10 days, and Colin is home from day care for 2 weeks. Wish us luck, and say a little prayer that the rest of us stay healthy.

Obviously, quarantine has disrupted our Halloween plans quite a bit. Colleen and Bobby had to cancel their visit, which was the worst part. I can't dwell on it or I'll get too bummed about how much fun it would have been. We did our best to still make Halloween special for Mae. Yesterday was our street's Halloween party and costume parade. I cordoned off our yard with some wooden yard stakes and red "DANGER" tape so that Mae could watch from a safe distance while the other kids walked up and down the street. Even though she couldn't attend the party, she won a prize for her Cinderella costume. (I heard that everyone cheered.)

This morning, we went out to the backyard and carved a pumpkin. Mae still isn't a fan of cleaning out pumpkins, but Colin dutifully carried around the bowl of guts while she scooped.

Mae designed the face: triangle eyes, a circle nose, and a big smiley mouth with teeth like Colin: 4 on top and 3 on the bottom.

After we were done carving, Mae could not resist the blank canvas on the back side of the pumpkin and had to draw an elaborate Halloween scene with a witch and a pirate and several other characters.

In the afternoon, we set up an indoor scavenger hunt for Mae that led her all over the house to find hidden candy. Dan and I had fun writing the little rhyming clues. After dinner, we put on our costumes and went outside to take some photos and wave to the trick-or-treaters from our taped-off porch. I'm really glad I didn't put the effort into an elaborate family costume theme this year. Colin wore the hand-me-down bee costume and looked SO cute.

Mae chose to be Cinderella, and her costume turned out great! I got her all dressed up last weekend for a fall event that ended up getting rained out, but I was able to get lots of glamour shots after the rain cleared. I have more photos and dress details to share later.

Our neighbors, friends, and family really helped keep Halloween special despite the quarantine. When we realized that pumpkins were sold out everywhere, one family gave us an extra one to carve! Mae received Halloween treats in the mail from GranE and Batman and Grandma and Grandpa this week. Jen dropped off a little bucket of goodies for Mae (and Starbucks for me!) today. Mae's friend from across the street collected an extra piece of candy for "his quarantined friend" at each house tonight and surprised her with a huge bag of treats at the end of trick-or-treating. We'll have candy for months... especially since we didn't hand out any of the candy we bought!

I am really loving this photo that one of our neighbors took tonight. You can't tell we're all smiling, so it has kind of a solemn American Gothic feeling. I also think our mismatched combination of skeleton, bumblebee, and Cinderella costumes represents the chaos that was Quarantine Halloween 2021.

P.S. Did I mention our car broke down Saturday? When it rains, it pours. At least we aren't going anywhere this week.