It's now officially November. Or as it's better known around my house, the day after Halloween, or my mom's birthday (happy birthday, Mom!).
We hosted a Halloween party at our house for the second year in a row, and despite it being cold and rainy, it was fantastic. A bunch of friends and their kids came by. I totally decked out the house with decorations, inside and out. And Lydia made an incredible spread of themed food, plus some veggie and chicken chili, and it was a big hit.
It was cold and rainy, and still everyone that came over braved the weather and got out for some trick-or-treating for at least a little while. It was really impressive. We also had a lot more trick-or-treaters knock on our door than expected, and they were rewarded mightily with hands full of full-size candy bars (I don't skimp on that).
As far as costumes go, June wanted to be a "sparkly chickadee" (the "cheese-burg-er" bird, very common here), so we did her costume with a combination of Etsy-bought wings and mask, and a feathered body that I made by cutting up a few cheap used shirts in a feather pattern, gluing them onto another cut-up shirt, and spraying it all with glitter spray paint (which is a thing!).
I, upon discovering the absolutely incredible musical performance by Tim Curry in the 1986 movie, The Worst Witch, knew immediately that's what I wanted to be for Halloween. So I found a pink velvet cape on Etsy, a gold jacked from a costum shop in Chicago, and then I cut out the bat bow-tie from a faux leather desk mat of all things, and Lydia made the crazy cape collar from that as well. I was pretty dang pleased with how it turned out.
Lydia had a whole lot of other things on her plate, so she fell back to a Chewbacca onesie costume, and yet still somehow surprised us all when, halfway through the party, she emerged from the bedroom in a pretty great disco/raver(?) getup.
We were up late prepping in various ways just about every night the week leading up to it, and on top of it I committed to posting a highlight every day this month for my spooky little side project, Spoooky.biz (I'll post about that separately, soon), which was far more time-consuming than I assumed. So, for it to go so well and to be on the other side of it, with the high of good times with good people still fresh, it really good.
It's also a bit sad for me because it means the end of my favorite time of year, and the beginning of winter. And Tahoe let us know it wasn't wasting time—we woke up this morning to a fresh layer of snow over our yard, and all of our Halloween decorations. Despite the rude awakening, it still is quite beautiful, of course.
We spent today mostly taking it easy. Lydia made pancakes for us and some friends who stayed with us last night. I started putting our house back in order after the big party. June and I went swimming at the rec center. June drew the face of a jack-o'-lantern that I carved (she's only three-and-a-half)—she looooooves scooping out the guts. Then we went out into the street and smashed another one. She had an absolute blast. Can't wait until next year.
