Halloween pics and Fire Safety

We had so much fun yesterday! First we went to Kiddie U for Natalie's Preschool party. They played games, created spider cookies, made some Swamp stuff and even went trick or treating to the store and salon next door. There are 24 kids in Natalie's room and they all looked so cute lined up on the sidewalk. I can't post pics, it's agains Kiddie U policy so you'll just have to imagine girls as either princesses or cheerleaders and boys as superheroes.
Here is Natalie getting ready to go trick or treating at preschool

Here is Natalie with a sucker after her Kiddie U party

In the evening we headed to Mom and Dad's house and hung out for a little while. We came home and went trick or treating around the whole neighborhood behind my house and it's also where my Grandma lives. This happens to be one of the neighborhoods I went trick or treating in when I was a kid. Natalie loved it! It was such a pefect evening...the weather was great! No need for a coat until around 7ish...but we were done about then anyhow. My Mom called later to tell me that their neighborhood sounded haunted. I guess houses had creepy music going on and one guy had his golf cart hooked up with some sound system that blasted spooky music and he drove kids from house to house. We are SO staying in their neighborhood next year to trick or treat. My Mom and Dad go all out with decoration and I guess some 12 year old girl went running from their house screaming and another wouldn't even come up to it. Of course my Dad brought the candy down the driveway to them. Here is a pic of my Mom and Dad with Natalie...I LOVE how this turned out

and yet another pose

Remember the bike we won...well today was the day the guy came out and informed us about fire safety and ordered Natalie's new bike. It's pink and purple and it'll be here in 2 weeks...couldn't do it next Sat since that is the parade in Kalamazoo. Well, he shared some very interesting information that I would love to share also. I am passing this on to you becasue I care. It took everything I had to not cry listening to some of the info. So scary and sad. You think you have all sorts of time but really you only have 1-2 minutes to get out of your home when it's on fire!
1. If you have a fire in your home, you should keep your head at door knob level. Nowadays, so much is made with plastic that the burning plastic particles are heavier than air so they will be hanging out closest to the floor and is harmful.
2. Leave your child's door open at night. This is a sad story. This little girl was sleeping in her room when the baby monitor caught fire. Her room filled with smoke which caused her to die. Once the room was deprived of oxygen, the smoke went out and never developed further to a fire due to lack of oxygen. Her paretns found her in the morning in her room. You could actually see the black on her bed everywher except where she lay it was still white...you could actually see the outline of her hair, her arm, and body.
3. People think they will wake up right away if they smell smoke. Acutally, when we are resting, so are our senses which may cause you to not smell smoke right away. Wehn the house is filling with smoke and fire it's taking oxygen and depriving it from you...therefore your body reacts by putting you into a coma like state.
4. Have smoke detectors or heat detectors. But these are not 100% accurate. Like I said before, so many things are made out of plastic and when plactic burns it makes very black smoke which has particles that are too large to fit between the plates of the inside of a smoke detector...therefor the smoke detector will not set until smaller particles from something organic starts to burn and gets between those plates.
5. Keep a fire extinguisher in your room so in case you need to make a path to rescue your children you can use this.
6. Have an evacuation plan. Hollywood depicts fires as if you will be able to see, but it's pitch black from smoke that you won't be able to see your hand in fron of your face. This one man couldn't find his way around his house becasue it was so black. He said he knew that house like no other home before and was running into wall where he knew a doorway should have been. He only found his daughter after falling over her. Unfortunately, a fire ball blew him over in the living room. He jumped out of the living room holding his daughter only to find out she was not in his arms. She perished in the house. His body is covered in burn scars except for across his body where is was carrying his daughter.
7. Finally, replace your batteries every 6 months in your smoke detectors. Also, replace your smoke detectors ever 3-4 years. There is a chip inside the smoke detector that goes bad in roughly 3 years. Even though you may test your smoke detector, it's only testing for sounds...not smoke. And remember, when smoke particles are too large to fit between those plates, it will not set. One couple had a fire in the day and were outside waiting for the Fire Dept. and finally heard the smoke detectors go off. Some smoke detectors can take 18 minutes befroe they go off. And even though that smoke detector is loud, children often to not wake to it!
8. Don't run your dryer while you are sleeping. A dryer is a source of a lot of heat and clothes can ignite...and as I said before..sleeping and smoke/flames are dangerous.

Stay safe!