Halloween Fun

We had a really fun Halloween this year. About a third of the way through October, we took a trip to JoAnn Fabrics so Phoebe could pick out her pattern and fabric. She had decided to be a rainbow fairy. We looked through the books for ages and finally found an acceptable fairy costume. Naturally, it was out of stock. (Why do I feel like that’s happened before?) Being an unimaginative grown-up, I tried to push her toward another fairy pattern, but she resisted, choosing a queen’s dress from the Middle Ages page instead. When I groused that it wasn’t a fairy dress, she pointed out, logically, “If I’m wearing wings, everyone will know I’m a fairy.” I nearly gasped from sticker shock when she picked her fabric, but once a year everyone should get to splurge. The rainbow fairy was transformed into a peacock fairy.

A week before Halloween, we met my friend Becki and her daughter Maya at Erie’s Trunk or Treat event. Hundreds of families make a long loop around car and truck trunks decorated for Halloween and promoting people’s organizations (including the library where Becki works). The kids came home with bags of what I considered pre-candy.

Benjamin had decided to be Batman, and he already had the cape and mask from his birthday party, so I wouldn’t need to do much more for him than paint a logo on a shirt and make a yellow belt. Remarkably, when we stopped by Goodwill for a few fall items, we found a long-sleeved, size-four Batman shirt. Easy as pie! He had a party at preschool on Friday because he doesn’t have preschool on Mondays.

The day before Halloween, we carved pumpkins on the deck. It’s handy to have balmy weather at the end of October!

Unbeknownst to me, Phoebe made a few videos after carving pumpkins. For your viewing pleasure:

I sewed and sewed and sewed for half a month and was delighted with how Phoebe’s dress turned out. (I even remembered a few tricks from last year!) You can’t see any of my kluges in the pictures, and Phoebe was really happy with her costume. Hooray!

Both kids had parties at Take-A-Break, and Phoebe had a first-grade party on Halloween. I went to her school to watch her class parade. They got to traverse the school and drop in on their reading buddies’ class. I always participate in a work contest; this year we dressed up as fairy and folk tales. I was the three little pigs (yes, all three of them).

As usual, we went over to the Brinkmans’ house for pizza and beer on Halloween. Then we trick-or-treated in their neighborhood for a while. It was a lovely warm night, but there weren’t many kids out, so ours ended up with overflowing bags of candy. They got tired of walking after a while and were happy to sit in the living room amidst piles of candy wrappers. The perfect end to a fun day.