I'm Sure I'll Think Of A Clever Title Someday: Halloween!!

I consider it a point of pride that my daughter has never had chewing gum before today. Now that trick-or-treat is over, she's allowed three pieces of her Halloween candy per day, four max. One of her picks today was a piece of bubble gum, the ones that are the color of pepto bismol. Yum. "Exactly why is it called bubble gum?" she asks me as she unwraps it, examines it for a moment, then pops it in and gingerly starts to chew. I explain it's because you can blow bubbles with it, which I offer to teach her, but we can't find another piece of gum, so it'll have to wait until next Halloween.

The festivities started on Friday with the Halloween concert, play, and party at school. I took video which I'm not going to post here because everyone else's kids are in it too. Av is of course one of the most enthusiastic participants if it has to do with being on stage in front of people, so it makes for good video, although production value is pretty low due to Mom's lack of prowess with the camera.


She got her face painted - she's a vampire.

Have I said before that I love Av's school? What a wonderful place it is. I'm going to miss it when Av's done. Maybe we'll be back when El is old enough, who knows. I hope so. Anyway, they have a concert for the parents at the end of every month, where they sing all the little songs they've learned, but the Halloween concert is probably the biggest deal. The songs are so cute and creative, and the kids sing them in costumes they've helped make over the past few weeks. Av being a second-year student knows the songs by heart, complete with all the motions, and always tacks on a bow at the end of each piece (she's been doing that since last year - it's her signature). Plus at Halloween there's a play after the concert's over, which is priceless. There are ghosts and pumpkins and bats and witches. This year there was dry ice in a cauldron - which unbeknownst to the general audience, had almost frozen one of the kids' hands off earlier in the day. Av mentioned it casually to me later and I had a quiet panic attack before I realized that had a child's hand actually been injured, the festivities would not have gone on as if all was well. Upon investigation, it turned out that a little girl had in fact stuck her hand in the bucket of dry ice before the production began, acting on a dare from a little troublemaker in the group (a boy, of course!;). There was hullabaloo about who to call first, the parent or the pediatrician or the hospital nurse-line, but the little girl was back to playing happily with her friends way before the adults stopped wringing their hands. The show must go on.

After the play, food and games and prizes. Then home, bathtub, crash.

Oh, and I forgot - Halloween actually began for Av on Thursday with a party with her play-group friends. She got to be Buzz Lightyear for that one. I went in GW's Woody costume. With shorts on (it was hot out). I looked every bit as stupid as I thought I would. But my Bo Peep costume wasn't done yet - I still had some sewing to do - and I wasn't about to put El's fuzzy costume on her in the 80-some degree muggy weather.


To infinity and beyond! Actually, I think she's looking at a squirrel.


Looking in the mirror at her heart-and-rainbow face painting, by my friend A.

Here's a few of Av and El hanging out at home, trying on costumes and playing and stuff - I think this was last week sometime when I was still working on pulling costume elements together for everyone - it's a lot of work dressing everyone as Toy Story characters.