Sunday, November 2, 2008

Halloween

After a week of nasty, almost-snowing, definitely ugh ugh ugh why do I live here weather, October 31st dawned bright and warm and with that low golden light of late fall.
I went to the kids school for Parent Teacher conferences with the older kids teachers and came away feeling so good - they are academically strong, beloved members of their class communities. Picked the twins up from a playdate and took them to buy pumpkins, and went home to put on a pot of soup for friends joining us to trick or treat.















The front porch was deemed far superior to the kitchen for jack-o-lantern carving, so we took ourselves out and set to work.



















First you have to draw the face you want.














Then get someone bigger to cut the top off for you. You get to stick your hand in and scoop the pulp, separating the delicious seeds out to be roasted - a delightful/ yuck experience.



















Meanwhile, in back, have someone laying a fire for after it gets dark and you are done trick or treating and are ready to eat some serious candy and warm up.















Ta-da! A cat, a baby, and Pippi Longstacking, to be lit as you leave for trick or treating, to scare away the goblins.















Trick or treating in our town started before dark, so I was able to get some pictures. Pippi Longstacking and Mr Nillson, her monkey, almost filled a pillowcase full of candy in an hour and a half. Very dedicated.















This little trio, twins plus a friend, trooped about gamely braving spooky front walks, smoke machines and the friendly police man with his bowl of candy outside the station. Then we all came back home, ate soup, examined endlessly our stash and ran around madly, our sugar levels skyrocketing.

At ten, we left the big boy in charge and my friend and I stole off into town to see these guys play:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9OUqakSSyo

It was one of those immensly satisfying we almost stayed home but at the last minute decided to live a little events that turned out to be so much better than we could have imagined. Great day!