The Halloween Report

Ever since it turned October and cats and spiders have shown up everywhere we go, Hazel has had a fascination with scary things, especially scary stories and monsters. First, when she would ask for a scary story at night Ed would just pick up any book and read it in a scary voice. Then last week when their preschool class went to the library like they do every Monday, the Halloween books were out so we checked a few out. One in particular, Halloween Night on Shivermore Street, has given Hazel the creepy thrill she craves, and nightmares a few nights as well.

I don't do much in the way of any seasonal decorations. I'm not interested in keeping up with decorating, or storing, a bunch of hoo-haw. But I'm slowly coming around to the concept of being festive, and I would like my house to be inviting to trick-or-treaters, so I went this far this year:
Hazel has made it pretty clear this is the last Halloween I get to choose what she's going to be. She's not totally opposed to being a cowgirl - she loves to say "Yaw!" - but thinks next year there should be quite a bit more sparkle and lace. Ginger, poor Ginger, will never get to choose for herself until she can make her own costume because she'll always be what Hazel was 2 years ago. Luckily, it will always be unbearably cute.Last Thursday night around 9pm I got a bug in my head that I had to make the girls new matching trick-or-treat bags RIGHT NOW. It was too late to go shopping so I had to work with whatever was in my sewing bin. A quick creative consult with Tona, and I was chopping up a pair of ugly black-and-white capri pants from the bottom of my bin. The next day I did go to Michael's for the embellishments to finish them off.Last Saturday we made a lightning-quick appearance at the church Halloween party. It was two wards combined, way too crowded, loud and chaotic. Luckily, we also had tickets for "Boo at the Zoo", which was not too crowded, loud or chaotic. Only a bit rainy. But we made the rounds to about half the stations and collected some treats like ice cream cups, pencils, granola bars and apples from Whole Foods. The zoo was decorated beautifully, just-scary-enough-but-not-too-scary, and I think in nicer weather it would have been fabulous.

This week at preschool instead of an alphabet letter it was Halloween Week. They made monster masks on Monday and hand-print bats on Wednesday. Today was a Halloween parade and lunch party. I love that Hazel was buddied up with her friend Bradley, who was a cowboy.At the end of the party the class did a dance for the parents to the "Ghostbusters" song. Uh-dorable. (Hazel is towards the left between witch and Spongebob.)

Tonight after dinner our friends the Gores came over with cutie shark-suited, new walker Joseph for trick-or-treating action.

John was optimistic about Joseph's potential and brought a pillowcase he could have fit in. Ginger nearly missed the fun altogether due to a battle of wills over two bites of dinner, but as everyone walked out the door, leaving her behind with me, she ran over to the table and stuffed the two bites in. Wise choice. I went to a few houses with them, then came home to man the fort. Hazel quickly found her stride and was at every door before the rest of us, knocking and calling "TRICK OR TREAT!" before the door was even opened. Ed brought them home about 30 minutes later with brimming bags - he said when Ginger couldn't carry her tote anymore it was time to go home. The booty was a pretty good mix of chocolate, lollipops, and miscellaneous. Luckily the days of dreaded Mary Jane or Bit-o-Honey chews and Good-and-Plenty's are past, though some folks still give out Jolly Ranchers; they can kiss my butt. For our part, we bought three medium bags - plain M&M's, peanut M&M's and Smarties - and that was just the right amount. I also had a back-up container of snack-size UTZ pretzels but we didn't get into those, which is fine since the girls snack on them.

Halloween was a vastly different experience for us this year than the last few. Of course the best part was Ed's presence for so much of it. And now, on to November!