All Hallow's Eve

I love Halloween. I always have: mostly, it's the costumes. I love dress up, I love the game of being someone else, so I love the day that we all do these things, natch. But I have to admit, Halloween has been something of a bummer the last few years. 2 out of the past 4, I was just barely pregnant, and sooooooo sick. When I was pregnant with Clio, I was so wiped out, I couldn't even think about a costume until the say of, then, I ran madly from one idea to the next, trying to find the right balance of "fabulous" and "I can put it together from my closet." After coming very close to a good Mary Poppins, I ultimately threw in the towel and stayed home, tearfully. When pregnant with Eleri, I had a similar run-down, only that time there was a kid to think about. We dressed Clio as a not-convincing Chucky (we couldn't find red hair spray at the last minute, and tried to color her hair with markers- with mixed results) and sent her off to a babies party with her Easter Bunny dad (and Tooth Fairy mom stayed home.)

This year was good. It was very good. Which is funny, because it was fairly unplanned and ultimately low-key. (This is like a completely new things for me: the fact that "good" "unplanned" and "low key" can all be used to describe the same day.) First: the costumes. Because that's what it's really all about. I found this adorable ladybug for Eleri at Marshalls several months ago, hung it in the back of the closet, and was pleased to discover today that it fit.

Clio insisted on being Ariel. There was a while there that she talked about going as the Rose Fairy: Granddad and Bonnie had a special Fairy Tale book made for Clio's first birthday, where the fairies, searching for a child to crown as princess, spell out the name Clio Grace Peterson, with each letter standing both for the fairy (R for Rose) and for a quality (Resourceful.) Clio is particularly enamored of the Rose gown, and I had elaborate plans for recreating it. I must admit, I was little disappointed when she changed her mind, and gave some serious thought to making an Ariel costume, but you know what? She LOVED the one we found at Target, and Dave convinced me to let go and do it the easy way. (Is this where I recount my junior year at Vassar, where I labored over a Falcor costume- the Luck dragon from the Neverending Story- dissembling a feather boa and hand-gluing feathers to cardboard for wings, creating the wing's ribs by sewing and stuffing narrow tubes of blue velvet, transforming the sleeves of a vintage wedding dress into the "inner" wings, and so forth? Guess what? The costume was fabulous, but no one had a clue what I was supposed to be; meanwhile, my friend Sarah bought a second hand dress and did her hair just right, and everyone knew she was the Empress from the same movie. Lesson learned.)

To up the Ariel authenticity, we did get a bright red hair extension and sprayed Clio's actual hair to match; this, together with some "mermaid makeup" was plenty to make a convincing Disney Princess.

But better than the get ups was the day we had. I checked online this morning and discovered the Day of the Dead festival at the Longmont museum; off we went to make paper flowers, decorate sugar skulls, take a gander at the amazing costumes of Native American dancers, and eat delicious beans, rice, tortillas, and Mexican hot chocolate.


Back at home, we designed and carved pumpkins. Clio and I had the chance to make one at Dakota's house last weekend, but Dave and Eleri stayed home sick; in fact, today felt like the first just-us family time in a while, after our trip to NY, a visit from Grandma and Grandpa, and last weekend's work events for me. It was great to hang out and do a project. Clio designed the little guy with the big mouth, Dave made the one that looks like he was beat up, the traditional one was form Dakota's house, and we all collaborated on that big sinister guy.



Clio and Eleri went trick-or treating with Dakota and the dads (and then I took a last lap with the big kids when Eleri went to bed); they sprinted from house to house, belted out "Trick or Treat" and helped themselves to more than one piece of candy per house. In fact, at one house when I suggested Clio take one, she thought that was fine- she was going for one on each kind.

Afterwards, Clio was allowed to sample a few pieces of candy, and we watched It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown on the computer. (Dave is a genius with bitstreams or flobots or whatever it is you have to do to download video that isn't readily available online). I haven't seen it since I was a kid, and I was amazed by the sophistication of the humor and the vocabulary, the long interludes (Snoopy hunting the Red Baron), and the fact that it ultimately ended in disappointment. They just don't make cartoons like that anymore. (I also loved the amazing 60s furnishings in the background!)

I thought Clio wouldn't want to take off her costume or wash out her hair, but she didn't mind. She thought it was pretty awesome that her hairspray turned the water pink, and she went to bed without a fuss. I suggested that we read the library Halloween books one last time, but she chose that fairy story instead. On to the next, I guess.

And one more thing. When I was out going door to door for candy, Justin and I were talking about past halloweens, and I remembered that Clio kept saying something really funny last year--but I couldn't remember what it was. I knew I would come home and look it up on the blog, and I remembered the original purpose of this thing, and came face to face with it's value.