You might think with the level of stress in my house lately, the sore back that still isn't really better, the ridiculous amount of work that I have been doing and have yet to finish in the next six weeks, etc., we'd have canceled Halloween altogether. It would have been the smart thing to do, really. But I always find that when the going gets tough, the tough run away and hide from what they absolutely have to do, thereby leaving a bigger to do pile for when they come back. It's the American way.

So this week has been filled with multiple school and church Halloween parties, pumpkin carving, and experiments in insanity. And it all culminated in trick-or-treating through the neighborhood tonight.


The Caterpillar went a little more traditional Halloween theme with the classic, Skeleton. Except when she says it, it sounds half Yiddish/half speech impediment, something more like "sschkel-o-tun." Clearly, speaking as her mother, I want her speech to develop so that she doesn't have a lisp for everyone to make fun of when she goes to grade school, grows up and makes a good impression on job interviews. But also as her mother, I hope she never stops saying it like this. Sschkel-o-tun, sschkel-o-tun, sschkel-o-tun. It's completely delicious.

If my bones were this cute, I'd gladly die tomorrow and walk around like this.

The Dormouse's costume was something that kind of grew from a germ of an idea. First she wanted to be "an angel." I suggested that she was more of a devil most of the time. And then we found a costume that fits her personality better than any other costume in the history of time. The Half Angel/Half Devil.


Kinda gives her pumpkin a little context, now doesn't it?

She made me take this photo from both sides, but I think you get the idea.

The Dormouse wore her costume to school on Friday, where they had their traditional NotHalloween party where everyone dresses up in costume and has a costume parade like the Harvest Festivals you knew and loved as a kid. Parents were invited, though not required to come, but she desperately wanted me to be there. It was a day I'm normally in the office, and even if I wasn't, I should have been home trying to get my back into some form so I can one day stand upright again. So it was hella inconvenient for me and I wasn't going to go. But then a little voice in my head said, how many more years will it be that she ASKS you to come to school for one of these things? and I realized that I was going to have to suck it up and make it there. When she saw me and starting yelling to her friends, "Look, that's my Mom! MY MOM IS HERE!" I decided to put this into the bag of moments to relish because it won't last long, I know.

Their costume parade, which at this school is a tradition, was all kinds of cute and all kinds of disorganized at the same time. Which is what makes it awesome. The school band played the chorus of and ostinato of Thriller approximately eleventy-thousand-and-seven times as they all wandered around the playground looking like a drunken ant trail from where I was standing.

The other tradition this school has, which I think is kind of awesome, is....


The Phantom!


Apparently, every year someone gets up on the roof of the school building and makes appearances while the kids are parading around the school grounds in their costumes. He only sticks his head up for a few brief seconds and not all the kids even get a glimpse of him. I managed to get a couple decent shots though.


No one seems to know who it is who does this. He's like the Poe Toaster of the elementary school. Someone once suggested to me that it might be the Principal of the school, but he retired last year and the tradition goes on. So maybe, like the Poe Toaster, someone has taken over for him.

Oh and for those of you who wondered about my jack-o-lantern plans? I finally did get a minute to carve my own.


Happy Halloween to all, and to all a good night.