Yes its true, no one was more stunned than us, but it appears James turned it up at school and really did well this marking period, making the Honor roll and getting several awards including an award for improvement in reading. His behavior has been much better as well, although in a recent parent/teacher meeting the teachers said James gets a little anxious the last half hour of school and if he causes them trouble thats usually the time.

We are all proud of James and when we got the news from school took James out to Walmart and bought him a video game he had wanted (we were going to get it for him for Christmas anyhow). Hopefully he can continue winning awards at school and making his family proud.

All the Halloween decorations are put away and the Christmas stuff is out and will be put on during the Thanksgiving holiday. We took some pictures of the Living Room returned to normal (with Mary posing as Frankenstein in one of the pictures). Taking down the scene setters was pretty easy, as long as it was on a standard dry wall or plaster wall surface. If it got into caulk (for instance around a door) it was more difficult to remove. It was also very difficult to remove from the basement which has concrete covered by Dry-Loc. Fortunately we did not have much in the basement. The scene setters when removed took up almost no space, so if you want a great Halloween look but do not want to spend much cash or store much away I would suggest going to Halloween City or Spirit Halloween and picking up a roll of scene setters.

Speaking of saving money Mary came home with an animated tombstone Saturday while I was taking down decorations. The cost – $2. Mary keeps her eye opened for things like this after Halloween and it has served us well the last couple years. Even if the prop is broken, odds are its an easy repair like this tombstone was.

Continue reading “The People Under The Stairs – Halloween Cleanup 2011” →

Once again Mom got Dads birthday and Christmas gift the day after Halloween. With 50% sales on Halloween items at Walmart and Spirit, Mary made out like a bandit, especially at Walmart where she got a ton of cool stuff half off their already low price!

We stocked up on Halloween garland and the stone dungeon scene setters that we used in the living room. Mary got a cup cake server (which has a small pirate skull on it in the picture) that she really wanted, especially since cupcakes went over well at the party. James got some shirts and a couple pirate props (James really liked Pirates of the Caribbean), and dad got his Christmas and Birthday gifts early again with several Halloween props and animated figures.

Continue reading “After Halloween Sale 2011” →