Saturday, November 1, 2008

Halloween and the Stomach Flu


Zachary dressed as an "Army Man." He is even wearing Matt's beret from 10 years ago when Matt was a Sergeant in the Army!



Emilie as "Snow White." She was very excited about her red sparkly shoes!



Luke as a "spider." Most people thought he was either a turtle or a pumpkin??!




It is becoming a tradition to drive over to the Wilkinson's to show off costumes before we go back to our neighborhood to Trick-or-Treat.


I was so happy that the flu bug left our house just in time for Halloween! Here is the latest on the flu:
MONDAY: Luke starts throwing up
TUESDAY: Luke continues
WEDNESDAY: Emilie's turn
THURSDAY: Emilie continues and Matt begins and late that night Zachary joins in!
FRIDAY: Everyone is well!!!! (Zachary had the shortest flu ever - 5 hours!)

Friday morning, I Googled "Stomach Flu & Contagious" and I learned that a person is contagious from the time he starts vomiting (and depending on the type of flu) up until 3 days after and even up to 2 weeks later! And then the article added, "and in children, they may be contagious even longer than that." Well, I don't think I can keep my family locked up in our house for 2 weeks but I thought it would be best to stay away from our friends at school and church.....if I don't know you.....you are probably not safe! Since we would not be touching or spending a continuous amount of time with our neighbors, I thought it would be ok for the kids to hold out their Trick-or Treat buckets and let our neighbors drop a piece of candy in.....I promise, there was no hand-to-hand contact!

I kept Emilie out of school because we didn't want to spread any germs and she was sad about missing out. Zachary did not have school because of Parent/Teacher Conferences (as a former teacher I say, "Great idea!") and he was sad about missing out on Emilie's party, too. We were all bummed about not being able to go to church to see our friends and join in the fun there. But, once again, we did not want to get blamed if anyone started throwing up! So, by Friday evening, everyone was feeling great and anxious to begin celebrating.

After a quick trip to the Wilkinson's (they have all already had the stomach flu!), we came back home to find Nana and Papa had arrived. The kids were so excited to have them here to celebrate Halloween with us. After we went around 3 courts, we came home to pass out candy. I think the kids liked this part just as much as they liked Trick-or-Treating!

We have so much candy left over....it is ridiculous! What does everyone do with all their left-overs? What about all the candy your kids collected? Do you let them eat as much as they want in one weekend and then throw it out? Or do you give them a piece after dinner every night for the next year? I am already tired of my kids asking for it....and it is 9 o'clock in the morning! I did hear of a dentist here in town that will pay you by the pound for your candy.....I guess he is hoping to save some teeth from cavities. Which is pretty nice of him considering all the money he would make off those fillings!

Happy Halloween! And good-bye flu bug.....fly, fly away!

5 comments:

cyndie said...

that is so funny, i just said to makenzie, we are not eating candy all day! i have a ton too!!

Laura said...

We had no candy left, we had to shut out our light about 8. There were so many kids in our neighborhood, I'm wondering where they all came from. The girls are driving me crazy asking for the stuff too, Josh said he heard somewhere it's better to let them binge then dump the rest then to spacee it out and give them one piece at a time, I don't know if that makes sense to me, but....
I have to say I love the tradition of you guys coming over!!!!

Unknown said...

I'm so glad you were all able to celebrate - I was thinking of and praying for you as you dealt with this all week. :)

As for the candy - no good advice. They aren't supposed to ask before lunch and then they get to pick 3 pieces after lunch and usually dinner, too. Sometimes I'm more liberal than that - but I pay for it with their moods. After a few days, we start sneaking it out a little at a time so there's not so much. Of course, that's harder as they get older.

Dorina Gilmore said...

Heather,

Now that I know you a little from MOPS I love reading your blog because I can hear your voice telling stories when you write. Funny!

As for candy, have you ever considered a buy-back? Some families are doing this now to avoid the "sugar damage." ;) They offer 10-25 cents a piece. We took a different approach since Meilani's 2 and just starting out on Halloween. We traded her whole bucket of candy for some cool prizes: a giant coloring book, crayons, glow-in-the-dark pen and Jamba Juice card. I only spent about $12 and save the dental bills and headache later.

I just had to make sure I dumped that bucket of candy before I was tempted...I know, I know, you're groaning...

Anonymous said...

Katelynn had the stomache flu a day after Halloween.. Poor little thing. I thought she was sick because I gave her a peanut butter cup lol. I felt like a horrible mom. But then I got it and Marc got it on the same day.. ITs not funny tring to take care of a little one when you and your hubby are in the the bathroom non stop. Thanks goodness we are all better :)