Boo!

OK, I'd like to put in my order right now for the next five years' worth of Halloween weather.

Make it just like that again, please!

We had a nearly-70-degree day on Friday, clear and sunny, which meant that trick-or-treating weather was in the 50s. The girls each wore a few thin layers of clothes under their costumes, which was plenty. (For comparison's sake, sometimes the temperature has been below freezing. It makes costuming... challenging!)

Speaking of costumes, Rose went as Lucy the Diamond Fairy from the Rainbow Magic series of "chapter books" by Daisy Meadows. Joy was Lucy's diamond, which meant wearing a big diamond-design of sticky-felt on a black sweatshirt, both chest and back. (Yes, yes, I know, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and all that. Just a little inside Beatles joke for the aging-hippie parents/grandparents of all those young chapter-book readers, I guess.)

Joy didn't have much interest in holding her candy bucket, and she really would have preferred to hang out and stim in fallen leaves rather than go from door to door. However, Rose and her friend were great about letting Joy take turns ringing the doorbell, and Joy also did do a good job of putting candy into her bucket.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for: the pumpkins!

First, Joy's jack-o-lantern. You'll remember that Rose had drawn a bunch of choices for her, and then gotten her to pick one. Here's the one she picked:


And here's how it turned out on a somewhat rounder pumpkin:



Then we had Rose's pumpkin. I had talked her down from wanting to carve "Happy Halloween" to just the word "Boo!" However, not content with just a "Boo!" she went on to draw a creative face as well for me to carve.


Next came my Obama-lantern. The stencil worked very nicely, although the next day I had to shore up the sunrise-bit with toothpicks, because the crosspieces were so slender.


Finally there was JoyDad's contribution. I think that if you're applying pumpkin-carving to the election, his comment may have been even more apropos than my own...


Finally, here's the full lineup in all its glory:


Hope you all had a happy Halloween!

P.S. Women's Retreat was most excellent.
Will post about it later in the week.