Before I do my first of the month report, I have to share Halloween. My OCD tendencies have been in overdrive lately.
The elementary kids had a parade in the afternoon. It was outside this year, and it was a little chilly. My kid is the one in the blue Lego trying to hop skip along without falling. The parade started out with the kindergarteners and worked up through the grades. It was pretty loud and rambunctious by the time they got to Wendy's class.
At about 4:45 last evening - an hour and 15 minutes before the kids were to head out the door - they had dumped both large Rubbermaids of Halloween crap stuff all over the living room floor and picked pieces to deck themselves out in. Our Halloween boxes are a variety of old clothes (Mark has a skirt on that I wore quite a bit in the early 90's), cheap and easy costumes (Allan wore the Robin costume over ten years ago) and cheap garage sale purchases (Wendy). The Bob Marley hat that Wendy is wearing is from the days that I worked at A.J.Cheers! in 12 Oaks Mall back in the 80's.
As is my mask.
I don't invest much into Halloween - but enough so that the kids have some fun memories.
Our neighbor across the street (the same neighbor I apologize to regularly because I get to look out my window and see her nice blue ribbon gardens, and she has to look out her windows and see, uh - us) informed us that the adults were to dress up this year. When she informs - we listen.
Just ask Dawn, my other neighbor. She hopped right into her horse costume. Dawn and I text late into the night about how to get skunk smell out of the house and if we should stop the lost pizza guy driving up and down the street.
Ingrid, another neighbor, thought it counted if she dressed up her dog - but the jury is still out on that.
We had 88 beggers this year, about 35 down from if Halloween is on a weekend night, and a couple hundred down from when we moved in here 14 years ago before all the other subdivisions went up.
The kids have way too much candy
And they weren't at all interested in selling it for a buck a pound at the local dentist.
Wendy's will be gone within a week
Brian just finished last years lot - he'll make his last a full year.
Now to try and wake them up. It won't be easy.
p.s. The Lego costume wasn't easy to walk in, and almost impossible to do steps in. If I were to make it again I'd cut it above the knees. Learning curve.