A Full All Hallow's Eve Festival

Halloween has come and gone for another year. We couldn't have had better weather last night for trick-or-treating. It was practically tropical outside -- light breeze, overcast, but rather warm. I think it was probably in the upper 50's. Once we picked up O.'s friend for a sleepover, we set-up the pumpkin palace in the kitchen. This year I didn't do anything to help anyone with their pumpkin beyond carving out the lid. B. wanted hers cut out of the bottom (thanks for the idea Karli!). Each child had to do their own scraping out and face design and execution. In a couple of cases, I think the word "execution" is more than appropriate. L. left a fair amount of goo and seeds inside his. That made for some toasted pumpkin smells coming from his pumpkin for the night.

Once the Pumpkin Palace closed and cleaned up, the kids hustled into their costumes. L. was a ninja (and he wouldn't wear the handsome homemade version I made because the tabard came down way too long and he complained that it looked like he had a dress on. No matter that the tabard was actually too big for him. I had made it for O. when he was probably 10.); E. settled on being a karate expert; and B. reprised her vampire role from last year. I think we did a better job of make-up on her this year. She doesn't even look like a girl. O. and his friend took the kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood while I stayed home to hand out candy. And experiment with the settings on my camera. I discovered the usefulness of a tripod when taking pictures with the "fireworks" setting, and I also discovered how to make the timer work. Enjoy the Halloween pics!

When everyone returned (I thought they would stay out longer, but the shortest legs in the bunch were 6 years old, after all), we had some chili for dinner and then sat everyone down to watch Arsenic and Old Lace. I realized how different movie pacing is now from when this film was originally done. The kids were pretty squirrely until it came down to the final bashing-up-the-room scene at the end. B. thought Jonathan was too creepy and she kept hiding her eyes.