Halloween

 The Monday before Halloween is known as Pizza and Pumpkins. So while I went out for some last-minute visiting teaching (yeah, I have to keep up on that stuff now) Levi made some pizza.

 And after dinner came the pumpkins. Every year we go to a place in Hooper that you can pick your own pumpkins for $5 an armful. This year they were kind of puny, but we got two that were still carveable. Nathan wanted a bat and Clara wanted a princess. While I was hollowing out Clara's pumpkin Nathan went at his with the safety knife we had from last year's pumpkin-carving kit. The pumpkin was pretty soft from all our warm weather so he could actually carve it. I did the bat but on the other side of his pumpkin he wanted a face--a face which, after I got it done, he systematically dismantled with the safety knife. It was just a gaping hole when he had finished. But he left the bat symbol alone, so we had one side fit for display. Levi took over carving the princess pumpkin. His carving is a little more nuanced than mine, and his took a lot longer. Clara loved it.

 The kids were so antsy to get out trick-or-treating that we didn't get very good pictures.

 For instance, we forgot Batman's yellow utility belt. I especially like the small ballerina holding on to Batman's cape.

And Clara, whose leotard skirt is sticking out over her tutu, had a cute matching headband like Alice's. Which she broke promptly after wearing it for five minutes. It broke on the way to our first Halloween party.

This year it was really warm. I wore shorts while we took the kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood, and then we headed to trick-or-treat the grandparents. The kids had fun showing off their costumes to a very appreciative audience, and they especially enjoyed the extra handfuls of candy doled out by doting grandmas and grandpas.

It was a Happy Halloween.