The Party!

 Path to the witch's house.

 Ghost Gully at Josh and Emily's.  Each balloon was tied to a big candy bar.

 The witch was more festive this year!  She was a happy witch.

 Kiptyn gets the whole "Give me candy" thing!

 Jim and Trajan handing out big candy bars at the clubhouse.

 Waiting for the candy toss.  Scott and I took away from everyone's entertainment by not having an argument about how to throw the candy.  We decided before the party and our technique was validated and improved upon by Ryan.  I hope nobody got too injured by flying candy!

 "Make sure everyone gets candy!"

 Chris looked scared.  Some of that candy looked dangerous coming at your head, it's true.

 Sam and Free

 OK, this is my dad on his way to go home teaching.  It WAS the 31st.  He likes to be consistent.

 Ari had changed into her pajamas by this time, Xanthe was on her second costume and high as a kite and we had lost Golda temporarily to friends who eventually all ended up at our house and who are still here at ten PM being crazy and enjoying the drinks and snacks Scott ran to the store for.  They're a great group of kids!

 Oh, Ptolemy was having so much fun!  Everyone was telling him how cute he was and giving him candy.  But look at the next picture.  I think the novelty wore off.  He didn't make a peep in his stroller for the last hour of trick-or-treating except to say, "I sleepy, Ari."  I bet!  Ninja work is hard!

How cool is this guy?  And that scarf is not a Halloween prop.  Scott is just cool enough to pull it off any day!  Happy Halloween, everyone.  I think it's time to put Halloween 2011 in the graveyard.  Boo!

The Costumes!

 Araceli was a witch at Venetian Carnivale.  Hence the mask.  Thanks for taking her shopping, Bill!

 Xanthe was Tinkerbell wearing last year's ballet costume.  She had to have a blonde wig because "Tinkerbell doesn't have black hair."

 Ptolemy was a "Tiny Ninja."  He was the cutest ninja ever.

 Mary Poppins!

 Poodle skirt that Coco made for Golda when she was in 5th grade.  We have really gotten some mileage out of this skirt!

When Ruby said she wanted to be Mary Poppins, I knew there was only one way to get a costume.  I called my mom and said, "I'm just waring you that I'm going to attempt to make Ruby a Mary Poppins costume and I'm probably going to be calling you to bail me out within 24 hours."  Then I waited.  Three hours later I got a text:  "Send Ruby over after school for a fitting."  The costume was in the works.  Bingo!  Thanks, Mom.  I think Ruby looked darling!  Coco was also responsible for Xanthe's second costume of the day, a mermaid get-up that Coco made for X and Esmae over the summer, just for fun.  So cute!  Oh, and Freestone was a kid in a black dress and blood-red makeup on his chin.  He said it was a vampire costume.  Hey, he was happy.  What more do you want!?

Freestone In the Forefront

What's a boy to do when Saturday includes his sisters' three ballet classes, three hours of Nutcracker rehearsal, Mom teaching, a "longest day" show choir rehearsal and Daddy going to a Utah football game?  Well, he makes the most of it by catching his first fish and shopping for a new wardrobe with Daddy, buying a Halloween costume, playing in a Monster Concert and swinging a solo trip to the pumpkin patch with Mom, and scoring a bag of candy at the ward trunk-or-treat.  Not too bad for a day's work of carving out his place in a big family.

Freestone has taken an interest in fishing, so Scott got him a tackle box at Walmart we brought him a tackle box all the way from Paris!  He and Scott spent a couple of hours at the Ponds where Freestone landed a big fish five minutes into their excursion.  When Free got dressed that morning, Scott realized he had outgrown all his clothes.  A trip to Old Navy solved that, and the boys were able to fish in style.  After fishing, Scott left for the game and Mom still had Nutcracker.  So Freestone babysat his little bro while Bill took Ari shopping for a Halloween costume and Xanthe played at Esmae's. 

When it was time for the Monster Concert, Free didn't have a "vampire" costume and we had fifteen minutes before the concert.  Family Dollar had two costumes left, he chose one, we threw in some face paint and he was suitably scary-looking by the time he went onstage.  I loved seeing my little vampire boy up there playing some of the songs he has worked so hard on.  Last concert (in the spring), he didn't join in until the Twinkles.  This year he joined on Minuet One and played that, Allegro, Long Long Ago, O Come Little Children, Song of the Wind and the Twinkles.

No fall season is complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch, even if we did have our own little crop of pumpkins, and even if Freestone was the only one who got to go.  Freestone chose the best pumpkin and started making big plans to carve it with Daddy.  When we got home, we had just enough time to have some of the taco soup I made for the ward party (you think I'm going to stand in a 300-person soup line with six costumed kids when there are glazed donuts sitting right there?  Eat before you go is my survival tactic, then go straight for the donuts) before we threw the crock pot in the car and took off for an evening of trunk-or-treating.  Freestone's night ended the way we wish every perfect day could end:  sorting, trading and bartering candy with your sister.

Freestone is such a great kid.  His constant nonsense chatter can addle my brain, but I'm learning to slow down and listen, look into those big, sweet eyes and see the boy who will one day disappear and the man who will one day take his place.  I love them both.

Halloween Party - You're Invited!

Yes, it's at the same time and place as always.  4:00 at our house on Halloween.

Each kid can bring a bag of candy to contribute (and a bag to put candy in). We'll do the trick-or-treating loop, the candy toss, Ghost Gully, the field, etc.  There will be more candy than last year, I promise!  We're doing a trunk-or-treat in the Oxford and Sherwood cul-de-sacs, too, for maybe families with older kids who would rather hand out candy than do the whole party thing. If you want to participate in that, just park in the designated area. If anyone wants to help, we need cupcakes.  Lots of cupcakes!  Because a big bag of candy just isn't enough sugar!

Tuilleries

I love Araceli's one and only journal entry from the trip.  She wrote several drafts of it.  The theme is, Paris isn't big mansions and rich ladies with pink and blue poodles like you think it's going to be.  It's tiny apartments on narrow streets and more poor people than you've ever seen in your life.  Ari was strongly affected by the beggars.  There were very few of them compared to what I remember.  We didn't see a single Gypsy child, and I hope that's a good sign.  But every time we passed an old woman with a dog on her lap, Ari gave her some change.  Adults get so jaded, myself included, that's it's good to see through the eyes of a child the simple truth:  "But he's hungry."

Each morning, I was the first one up.  Every day seemed to be garbage day, so it was impossible to sleep, especially when glass was being collected.  I got up and roamed, got a pastry or sat in a cafe as the world was waking up.  Sometimes I even had time to go back and get the girls for a hot chocolate before Coco and Bill were ready to set out.  I appreciated that solo time as well as the hot chocolates with the girls.

 On Wednesday after two outings to the cafe, we all set out for the Arc de Triomphe.  (The last time I went there, in 9th grade, I literally saw a man jump to his death.  Awful.)  We got there by Metro, walked around in the wind, then strolled down the Champs-Elysses.  We went in the Swatch store where I bought a Swatch for old times' sake and the girls picked out one for Scott. 

We walked all the way from the Arc to Place de la Concorde, Coco with a broken toe and Bill with his ailing ankle.  My parents are superhuman.

From Concorde, we headed to the Tuilleries.

There were all kinds of art installations in the park and some - most - were totally bizarre.  Dad stopped by this wrapper surrounded by leaves and mud and started expounding on the artistic merits of the "installation."  We thought the weeds sprouting up through the mud symbolized the life force, while the wrapper represented the destruction the human race causes to our planet.  We were pretty funny.  :)  Seriously, the mud puddle was on par with some of the art.

 I have always loved the little sailboats that kids can rent at the Tuilleries.  I wish I were a kid so I could have a stick and sail my own boat.  Ari asked the boat guy and he said it was only two Euros to rent a boat for an hour.  It was such a balmy, sunny day that we all relaxed and watched Ari and the other kids pushing their boats around the lake.  It looked very therapeutic to sail those boats!  And it was so picturesque.  Ari was thrilled that she had worn "sailing clothes."  I guess the stripes on her shirt seemed nautical to her.  Curiously enough, the sailboats were one of my favorite moments of the trip.  It just seemed like one last and final whimsy of childhood for Araceli as she stands on the brink of growing up.  Briefly, she was just a little girl without a care.

This was the last time we sat down for about the next six hours because the Louvre was next.