David's costume

I lost the bet. David did, in fact, settle on a costume, design it, and wear it. He is Darth Red Hawk, a character he created to live in the Star Wars universe. He has a long sleeved red shirt, dark pants, and he stripes them all with duct tape and masking tape. We have a few mishaps when he was afraid he couldn't take it off and refused to go to the bathroom, resulting in great pain on his part and great frustration on ours. Then he thought it would be a good idea to tape his hair, more pain for him. But, he's done the costume twice now and we have two more events to go, and he's still wearing it.

Rose's costume

Little Red Riding Hood vampire. Yeah, I love it. She had a gorgeous Little Red Riding Hood cape that I fell in love with several years ago and gave to Miriam. Thanks goodness for Miriam's generous spirit. Then, a friend passed down a deep red dress, we bought Rose Dracula teeth, and a trip to Value Village with the grandparents yielded glue on eyelashes. She looks so innocent and then wham! She and Edward Gory should hang out.

The trip to the pumpkin farm

It was raining. Why do I even bother to say that? Of course, it was raining. We live in Seattle. We took Mom and a friend of Rose's down the dark and dreary freeway to the pumpkin farm. It was ok. When we've gone previously, it's been mid-week, earlier in the season, or earlier in the day. This time--crowds and lines everywhere we turned. We didn't actually go out in the pumpkin field. We had our pumpkins from the new local fruit and veggie stand. But, we went for a ride in the tractor pulled train cars, picked out some gourds, and shot off a pumpkin in the pumpkin cannon. I love the pumpkin cannon. There's something spectacular about seeing that pumpkin go way way up in the sky and land so far away you can't even hear it; you just have to imagine the splat and splatter.


Carving pumpkins

I want you to know this was all me. In previous years I let/begged John or my sister to carve the pumpkins, but this year the timing put it on me. I remember, from when I was a kid, an infinite amount of goop in the pumpkins, a just never ending process of sticking your hand in that slimy mess and then the never ending process of separating out the seeds. Well, I don't know if they are breeding them for less goop (quite likely) or my weight lifting has finally paid off, but I really had no trouble scraping them down. I put the kids in charge of actually lifting the goop from the pumpkin to the bowl. Then, with the help of the carving kit knife, I had no real problems cutting the faces. It was a shockingly unmiserable experience.

The party at David's school

It suffered from the problems we've consistently had at parties like these

--There is not enough food/good food at the potluck, and we end up feeling hungry and then eating too much bad food that we don't even like.
--They don't actually start the food line until we are all hungry and non-functional.
--My children refuse to eat because they are hungry and non-function and spiral downward.
--David is shy and refuses to interact.

On the other hand,

--we brought gluten-free mac and cheese, someone brought corn chips, and a friend brought gluten-free pumpkin bread, so there was enough food my kids could (and eventually would) eat.

--I got to chat with some parents.

--I liked my costume.

Jazzercise in costume

I love that all my jazzercise buddies dressed up for exercise class this morning. I was a cowgirl rainbow fairy. Don't think too hard about it. I just went for color matching. The pale pink wings, wand, and boa with the pale pink cowgirl hat. Then the rainbow socks and tye-dyed rainbow shirt. And I wore my mother-in-law's hand-me-down petticoat. It has a charming pale pink bow.


Trick or Treating on Greenwood

I love my neighborhood. I love knowing my neighbors, and nothing says fun like walking up and down the street admiring everyone's costumes. This was the local businesses handing out candy day. It was raining. Why did I even bother to say that? It was raining quite a bit. So much so that John had to take his delicate costume home. But, the rain also reduced the crowds which made going in and out of the businesses a much less Grand Central Station experience. We saw friends from Rose's school, David's school; friends who hang out at the coffee shop down the street; and friends who own the eyeglass shop down the street. There were adorable lady bugs and terrifying witches. The kids (and by that I mean the 4 cousins) came home and divvied up the candy with no fighting.


Stay tuned for the Halloween birthday party and the actual Halloween night. Who's taking bets on whether it rains?