Halloween 2009

Help! My son's been eaten by a snake!


And my daughter is just so sweet ...They did some decorating this year ...
and then some sorting and trading of the haul.

Me? I'm a little dizzy and my calves will be sore in the morning.

The dizzy part comes from our Urban Trick-or-Treating where you start on the top floor of a building and work your way down, floor by floor. Since our complex provides "trick-or-treat" posters to put on your door if you want to play, we quickly make our way down the stairs, pausing briefly to see if any doors have the signs up. This leads to us going in an almost constant, tight, spiral as we work our way downstairs.

The aching calves? Hey, we just walked down 42 flights of stairs!

Happy Halloween!

Ssssss ....

Ssssss .... I'm Sssssewing ...


Sssssee you after Halloween!

(And after Parent Teacher Conferencessssss ...)

Have a Ssssspectacular ... Ssssspooky ... and Sssssilly Sssssaturday!

Halloween

Once again it is time to reveal the annual Halloween Costumes.

May I submit for your approval, Hermione and The Swedish Chef.

And ... Elwood Blues.

Needless to say, a good time was had by all.

Twas the night before Halloween ...

... and it took three, count em, three tries to get my nails orange. The first attempt included black stripes that I decided looked stupid. The second attempt was destroyed by my desire to get my comforter into it's new cover before my nails were totally dry. The third attempt looks o.k. and that is all that matters since they will be a wreck after 2 hours of searching backpacks tomorrow morning.

While maintaining a stance as a "rhymes with witch" at school regarding Halloween frivolity, I do have some fun with it. Orange nails. Orange silk shirt, black slacks and my rat race scarf. Pumpkin earrings and matching hair sticks.

I try.

Now to master tying a bow tie by trick-or-treating time. This year was a unique, no-sew Halloween. The only two items to be made utilized hot glue and an iron. Yes, I promise pictures.

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween Answers

I was just reminded that I never revealed what the kids actually were. Squidette is, as she appears, a black cat. Little Squid is a white cat. But wait, there is more! He is actually "Cloud Tail," a Warrior Cat from the Warriors series of books. He was very insistent that he was Cloud Tail and not just any white cat. He was particularly insulted when an elderly woman kept saying how scared she was of the ghost. When he started to argue, I reminded him that we do not argue with people who are giving us candy! He stopped getting insulted after that -- or at least stopped complaining about it. *grin*Squidette was supposed to be Crazy Cat lady but managed to get her costume thrown out. Yes, there is some irony about her being Crazy Cat Lady accompanied by a cat.

The Aftermath ... and other Blather

Here you go, cute picture of the kids sorting and swapping candy. This stuff will last until next Halloween -- at which point I will dump it. Yup -- did a big dump just before trick-or-treating started. All the stuff that didn't get eaten last year -- mostly Almond Joys.

Yes, it is a rather small haul. We live in a NORC (naturally occurring retirement community) and an average of less than 1 apartment per floor was giving out candy. We did all of both cores of our building -- 21 floors each and what you see was the result.

By the way, the "proper" way to trick-or-treat in an apartment building is to take the elevator to the top and then go down the stairs, floor by floor. For the first core, we had friends with small kids so my kids would shoot ahead, scout out the floor (candy-givers had paper pumpkins on their doors) and let us know if we should stop or keep going. For the second core, my legs gave out and I let the kids do the top 6 floors by them selves while I sat and knit on 15.

For all of you looking for my costume ... I didn't have one. My school doesn't allow costumes so a black suit with an orange blouse and my fancy nails was as halloweeny as I got. When I got home, the suit became jeans and I added a button that Sprite sent. By the way, you all should hop over to her blog and get info on how to send some holiday cheer to our troops.

There is knitting going on here and in the next day or two you should look for a finished Flower Basket Shawl and the start of Little Squid's new sweater.

Happy Halloween!

I feel that I should write something clever but frankly, after searching hundreds of backpacks, patrolling miles of corridor and walking down 40 flights of stairs in search of candy, I'm just too wiped. So, we will make due with pictures.

For Dave, who did a muscle edition today ...
There is a second shirt rigged so it could (and was) be ripped off multiple times during the day. There were also boots. This is the "home edition."

And the ... um someone out there wanted to guess so I will let you all figure it out and then tell the tale of my son the ___ who kept contradicting the elderly residents who said "oh a ___."

My Dehaired Husband

A picture is worth a thousand words laughs.

(the tanning stuff does not seem to be working yet)

Any guesses as to what he is going as for Halloween?

Twas the night before Halloween

and all through the house, all the creatures were stirring, including the mouse.

Mama had done all the shopping with care, and was now grooming Papa, removing some hair.

Products applied and and fingernails painted. Mama! they all cried, you should be sainted.


And now Mama sits, alone in her chair, praying the Great Pumpkin will soon be here. And for Susan -- Little Squid's new sweater.

Crazy Cat Lady

My kid sister called earlier to ask for some cooking advice. Since it was a simple matter, I was able to answer her with authority. My husband, however, on overhearing the conversation, commented: "she called you for cooking advice?"

At which point Squidette decided to rehearse for Halloween and pelted her father with stuffed cats.


On the coffee table, if you care, is a piece of Papa Squid's Halloween costume and my flower basket shawl. In the purple bottle is my "contact bug killer" aka 91% rubbing alcohol. The small blue bottle holds Squidette's current shade of nail polish. She and I are going to do orange and black nails for Halloween.