This weekend, we were warned (with 48 hours' notice this time) of another PG&E "public safety shut off" planned for Saturday night (with an estimated outage 2-5 days) due to concerns of the power lines with respect to raging wildfires in Sonoma county south of us.
As was the last outage, it was inconvenient and mildly stressful with two little kids, but not terrible. Our next-door neighbor, whose husband is machine-dependent, allowed us to run an extension cord to her generator, which allowed us to plug in our fridge (and alternate the hook-up with plugging in the hot water heater to bathe) and which was a total life saver (I HATE to waste food and breastmilk). We were able to heat up food on our gas-range stove (although the hood didn't work so we still set off the smoke alarms) to eat, but sent the kids with "cool lunches." The power returned on Monday afternoon while we were at work, after a 40-hour outage. We were warned that another outage was to occur on Tuesday morning at 4 a.m., possibly for another couple of days, which then got postponed until Tuesday night ("TRICK!"), but it didn't happen, so we got to keep our power for the rest of the week ("TREAT!")
What didn't go as planned: the "hot dog mummies" that I planned to make for Iver's Halloween school celebration didn't happen because the local grocery stores were all out of perishable food as of Monday (and were still out later in the week!). I scrambled to make some no-bake chocolate/fruit/nut clusters, which were just "eh." We've been eating frozen vegetables with most meals.
The up-side: Niall learned several new words/phrases: "fash-yight" (flashlight) "no yight" (no light), "dark," and "batteries." He enjoyed reading by lantern-light.
Things that went on as planned: Mandy and Sam's weekend Halloween party (which was to be a "go" with or without power, she said!)
The hosts
Mandy and her aunt, Tammy
I made these pizza ghost bagels to bring. They certainly aren't pinterest-worthy, but they tasted ok!
Mandy's bloody punch...
... and spooky wines
Iver chose to be Peter Pan for his costume this year and thus our family costume revolved around this idea.
(Niall had, but didn't want to wear, the croc costume. Here's Peter with Captain Hook).
(I'm Wendy)
Boo!
with bud, Connor
with buddy Ben and Noah
The littles (Noah, Milo, Niall) at Mandy's
"Off!"
(Trying to get infants/toddlers to look at a camera is impossible)
Iver and Niall both had school celebrations/Halloween parades (which we couldn't attend due to work schedules), but we saw some great photos and video from other parents.
Niall with beloved teacher Gloria
Sean & Jenna joined us for neighborhood trick-or-treating with their kiddos.
Family Halloween photo (me as Wendy holding the Darlings' nanny-dog, "Nana," Niall as croc, Iver as Peter Pan, and K as Hook)
The kids had a blast toddling around. Niall was a bit overtired at the end, but Iver enjoyed two precious pieces of candy and went to bed without a fight.
The week was a bit of a stressful one, in part due to work inefficiencies and in part due to the running around before and during the outage, but the lights were back on for dark-and-spooky Halloween. That was certainly a treat!
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