Happy Halloween!

This was BalletBoy’s third year running of being a book character.  This time, it was Origami Yoda from the Tom Angleberger series of the same name.  He made the costume himself.  It was clear no one knew who he was supposed to be.

Mushroom was a pinball machine.  We made it together.  It’s hard to tell in the bright afternoon light, but his costume lit up all over.  He got lots of attention.  People leaned out of their cars to give him props on it and he won the costume contest for his age group at the corner park.

The kids have such a different Halloween than I had growing up.  We trick or treat our way down to a massive street party that’s wall to wall people, performances, speaker systems, a live band, and a fire pit set up in the street to roast marshmallows.  It’s an overwhelming affair that goes pretty late.  We usually leave just as things are really getting moving.  But this is one of the many benefits to life in the city.

Advertisement

Obligatory Halloween Photos

BalletBoy is dressed as Emily from the Amulet graphic novel series by Kazu Kibuishi and Mushroom is dressed as Sensei Wu from Lego’s Ninjago line.  Images below for context!

 

As the evening went on, they got better and better at explaining their costumes to the many people who asked about them.  Apparently one person (I missed whoever it was in the crowds) actually got BalletBoy’s and several kids got Mushroom’s.  One kid cried out, “Hey, it’s Sensei Wu!”  But mostly, they were dressed for themselves, which is pretty cool.  BalletBoy is now keen to wear the long black gloves with the fingers cut out of them “forever.”

 

Obligatory Halloween and Rally Post

It was a busy weekend at the Rowhouse.  First, we took a trip to the Rally to Restore Fear and/or Sanity on Saturday.  Here’s BalletBoy boogieing to The Roots down on the Mall.  The rally would have been way better if we’d had cell phone service and could have hooked back up with the husband after losing him on a Metro train so crowded that I feared we’d be crushed.  Oh well.  BalletBoy agreed it was fun to read the signs and he was thrilled to get free stickers in his favorite colors.

Then we ditched the political theater for Halloween celebration Saturday night and, of course, Sunday.  Some magazine just rated D.C. as in the top ten trick-or-treating cities in the country.  We always trek over to what I think must be the biggest party in town: Lamont Street Halloween.  Weird but elaborate shadow puppets, crazy decked out houses, wall to wall people, costume contests (BalletBoy won in one of the children’s categories), and free marshmallow roasting on a bonfire in the middle of the street.  It’s a pretty sweet Halloween setup.  I kinda love our city.

Finally, we did do “Halloween School” this morning with pumpkin dot-to-dots and Halloween themed pages from Lollipop Logic.  Plus, we sorted, counted and made bar graphs to show what Halloween candy we’d be giving out later.  Here’s Mushroom gleefully sorting and counting.