Halloween

I know you've all been waiting with bated breath for the last month to see the kids' Halloween costumes.  I'm behind on photos everything but I won't deny you any longer.

In order of how much they cared about it....

Henry was Indiana Jones.  He gets so deeply invested of the details of his costumes and I love it.  We spent hours, HOURS, looking for the perfect leather jacket.  He really does notice whether the collar folds down or stands up, whether the pockets are zip or flap or slit, whether the leather is shiny or weathered.  We assembled hat, bomber jacket, safari shirt, utility belt, khaki pants, brown shoes, messenger bag, and real whip.

Heidi the roo-ster was -- what else? -- a rooster.  I shamelessly copied a DIY costume from Pinterest by hot-gluing feathers to a onesie and sewing the red thing onto a cap.  Rounded out with yellow leggings courtesy of Grandma's new gig at Hanna Andersson and some cute fringed mocs that she can wear all winter.  Huge hit with the neighbors.

Ingrid doesn't care at all about the costumes.  It's going to take me some time to accept this.  I kept asking her what she wanted to be and she kept changing her mind.  And then she just started naming whatever random object she happened to spot first.  And then she said elephant, which seemed plausible.  Okay!  And then it was pink elephant.  Okay, I can probably find that.  And then it was pink and blue and orange and yellow elephant.  Okay! that exists! but not in child sizes which I know because I spent TWO HOURS looking for it before Karl was like, "You know she's messing with you, right?"  So I put three cute animal costumes in the Amazon cart.  She chose a lion.  She wore it for the school party and the block party but refused to put it on for trick-or-treating.

I took the big kids to the big party at their school.  At one point, Ingrid went off with a friend from class while Henry and I waited in line for the haunted house.  When they didn't return after about three minutes, I went looking for her and found her standing stock-still in the middle of a crowd of dancing middle school students, her eyes as wide a saucers, but she said she didn't want to leave.  Henry was the one who got freaked out by the crowds and panicked if he lost me for a single second. Funny kids.

This guy was a hero.  Had to show him.

The neighborhood block party was on Friday night.  As usual, we attended because we (I) felt like we should.  As usual, the lines for the bounce house and food were too long to bother with any of it.  Note to my 2016 self: skip it.  But we had a fun dinner with the Skidmores afterward.

No-mane lion, Dr. Jones, and Drew-nana

Take me home for chili!

Trick-or-treating was awesome.  The big kids ran our whole block with Julia before heading down to another short block that gets really festive.  Heidi and I visited our nearby neighbors while Grandma handed out candy.  Then Henry and Ingrid came back to pass out the goods, which is really their favorite part of the whole thing.

Worked at this Almond Joy for half an hour before getting the candy out.

Really?  Your parents let you watch Temple of Doom?

Of all the things Capitol Hill is known for, Halloween should really be its claim to fame.