Halloweeeeeeeeeen!

 Beautiful light at sunset trick-or-treating on our usual route.

 Bill was verrrrry scary!

 Ptolemy and Camden and their people.

Estafania and Juan, some of my favorite students.

Els and Ars

 Collin.  He looked scarier in real life.  Here, he just looks adorable.

 Neeley and Kayla

 Best friends

 Ari and Kiptyn

Notice Freestone's costume?  He gets these completely unreasonable ideas that nobody can talk him out of.  He claimed that I threw his zombie costume in the garbage and told him I would buy him one at the store.  Insane, but I know Freestone well enough to predict which battles I can win.  Not this one.  For a couple of bucks, I took him to Family Dollar and let him pick out this hideous mask with the cheap read-and-black striped shirt.  He could not have been more pleased.  Go figure.

 Xanthe's costume is either a devil riding a unicorn or just The Costume Closet.  She has trouble deciding between things for fear she'll miss out.  She probably had a ballet costume on under all that, like she did at the trunk-or-treat last week.  It came in handy when she got hot inside the church and took off the devil costume to reveal a yellow tutu.

 Neeley wrote this cute little note.  Thanks, Neeley!  Your note is really special, and I love it.  I love you, too!

 Thank heavens for old recital costumes that are THIS cute!!

I think I might love Halloween the best out of all the holidays.  It has the best colors, the best season and it's visually stunning with the costumes and the fall backdrop.  The weather was rudely rainy for our annual party, but it managed to hold out during the festivities.  This year, the kids went from our house to Coco and Bill's, to Josh and Emily's Ghost Gully, and then all the way around the block, trick-or-treating at the neighbors' houses who had agreed to participate.  It might have been the biggest party yet, with the best guess being about 130 kids.  Since we planned for a hundred, I felt like there wasn't as much candy this year, but Scott assures me there was.  We added a fun new spectacle, too:  Scott and me arguing about how to throw the candy off the deck for the Candy Toss.  Fun and entertaining for everyone!  Next year, there will be more candy.  Halloween is about excess.  Just ask Xanthe, if you can find her under her layers of costumes.

Xanthe's Special Day

Xanthe went on a special date with Grandma and Grandpa Friday.  To earn it, she had to do a good job practicing and be nice for a whole week.  She was great;  bribery works.  She had her date all planned out and woke up while it was still dark outside to wait.  And wait.  Around eleven, I was wishing I had asked Grandma and Grandpa to take Xanthe to breakfast!

Grandma and Grandpa took Xanthe to her favorite restaurant, Panda Express, and then took her shopping.  Xanthe had said she wanted to look for "a beautiful dress with Santa and the reindeer and the jingle bells with sparkles all around."  A tall order, but Grandma is an excellent shopper, so I had no doubt they would find the perfect thing.

When Xanthe got home, she was beaming.  She had such a good time being the special one.  There's nothing she enjoys more than having everybody's undivided attention.  Scott asked her, "Xanthe, what did you get with Grandma and Grandpa?"

Her answer shows her personality to a T:  "I got noodles and orange chicken."

Scott looked at the gorgeous dress, which even came with an adorable, matching doll dress and said, "Anything else?"

Xanthe said, "Oh yeah, and we went to the dollar store and got this dress!"

I'm pretty sure they didn't buy the dress at the dollar store!  And she really does love it, Grandma and Grandpa.  Just not quite as much as she loves orange chicken.  Thank you for making Xanthe's day!  We love you.

Costuming

It's not even Halloween yet, and people are running around in costume.

 Yes, it's Egypt Day in 6th grade.  I've gotten a lot of mileage out of Ellison's old King tut costume!  Thanks, Sarah.  Ruby went to school bearing dates and pomegranates for her virtual tour of the Nile River Delta.  Egypt Day was 6th grade mayhem.

 Uncle Trajan showed up at our house at 7:00 AM the other day with gifts from the Great Wall of China.  That day in Ari's class, the teacher read a story about the Great Wall of China.  The story said, "Some people who visit bring back t-shirts that say, "I climbed the Great Wall of China."  And Ari was wearing just such a shirt!  Can you believe it?  Her teacher emailed me to tell me about it, it was such a funny coincidence.  Thanks, Traj!

Memoirs of a Last-Minute Halloween Costume.  An hour before the ward Halloween party, all six kids were rummaging around in the costume closet.  This is what Golda came up with.  Ari wore the queen costume that has served as Shakespeare garb and Greek Day finery as well as Halloween.  It's a far cry from our first few Halloweens when I would start browsing around fabric stores in mid-August looking for ideas. 

This is what fit Ptolemy from the costume closet. My sis-in-law Emily said she remembered Xanthe wearing it. I said, "You mean that day I left her at the dentist's office?" It's almost child abuse that my little Tolly doesn't have a homemade Halloween costume for his second Halloween, poor deprived little soul. But look how cute he is as a mouse! I almost can't stand it!  We'll just pretend we put a lot of thought into his get-up.  It's better than admitting he's wearing the costume we bought on clearance after Halloween for the express purpose of making Xanthe play the part of a baby mouse when the girls play "Nutcracker."

 Freestone is a zombie.  I tried to make him a zombie costume out of his worn-out clothes, but Free would have none of it.  He said zombies only wear certain ripped clothing.  I didn't know zombies were so particular about their wardrobes.  Free finally found the perfect items to rip.  Or R.I.P.

Need I say more?  This costume is perfect. 

Even our dinner dressed up.  Plain old taco soup served in fine china.  It's all about the costume, I tell you.