Halloween

The grant went in just in time to handle the insanity of a full-blooded American Halloween. Costumes: Eliot has been requesting to be "a blue lion" for about three months. So a blue lion she was, thanks to help from Jessy: a blue sweat suit, with a beautiful yarn mane, light blue felt ears and a cat tail long ago souvenired from Miles' third birthday party. Anselm was a pirate, with some assembly of inputs from around the house, including his old, lovely, velvet pirate hat and cape from a few Christmases ago, one of my frilly white shirts, a new pair of black rainboots, and a black velvet jacket that Jessy found at a thrift store for $5. The look gained inspiration from Adam and the Ants' Stand and Deliver! that both kids have been enjoying on youtube (how we love youtube). [Speaking of which, Blaise pointed out how deeply Johnny Depp is indebted to Adam for his Jack Sparrow. I would have liked Anselm to paint the white line, but he didn't agree.]

Anselm and Eliot both went trick or treating with Blaise; Eliot ran out of steam before long (though the candy was of intense interest), but Anselm met up with Tova, dressed as a perfect Frida Kahlo, and the two of them waltzed the light fantastic through the streets for hours. At our place we had what seemed like a lighter crowd of trick or treaters than usual, though in the final accounting it seems we handed out candy to many hundreds of comers. Our yellow pepper jack o'lanterns were much admired, as usual, as were our pumpkins. (Blaise and Anselm had carved two at Rachel's carving party, a dismayingly low yield because of Anselm's intricate design involving dozens of tiny squares.) Some fraction of Anselm's class and parents came by for a very festive party. A lot of fun-- and the house looked beautiful, with help from a whole team of helpers in Jessy, Patricia and Rebecca. We starred in many photos.