Happy Halloween

 Everett's class had a raging party for Halloween. Between arts and crafts and musical chairs, it was a total blast.

On our way home from school, Everett told me "I'm a grown up. I have to go to the store."
He led me straight to Rite Aid and b-lined for the Halloween aisle where he selected two trick-or-treat jack-o-lantern buckets. Then he announced that he needed soap. We found the soap aisle where Everett surveyed literally every option before deciding on a hand-pump soap and getting in line to pay.

(I found out later from our Au Pair that he was recreating an event from earlier in the week, even buying the exact same soap she got.)

On our walk home from our grown-up shopping, Everett got so much attention for his costume, especially on the subway where he could hardly sit with his tail in the way. It was hilarious, a practical comedic performance, as he slid left and right with his tail folded behind him, wagging back and forth and his elephant backpack.

 What a happy dinosaur!

Or maybe he's a cat.

 Alice ultimately did refuse to wear the adorable lamb costume I got for her. All week we'd talk about Halloween on Friday and wearing our costumes and she would even agree that "I gonna' be a sheep." We'd read our Curious George book with the story about Halloween and talk all about how fun it's going to be when we wear our costumes. But, of course, the moment finally came and she flat out refused to even consider putting it on. So I put her in the "backup" that I had been planning all week – a black kitty-cat dress that looks Halloween-y enough, which she was really excited about! And as we were putting on shoes to go out trick-or-treating, she grabbed the fireman hat that we've had forever and popped it on her head. "I wear fire hat." So we paused for a sec: "hey, Alice, do you want to be a fireman?" "Yeah. I'm a fireman." So I opened the closet, got Everett's fireman outfit (a Christmas present from last year) and asked her if she wanted to put it on. She practically jumped with joy, so we put it on over her dress and voila! Alice went from no costume to head-to-toe fireman (which we didn't even remember that we had!) in about 45 seconds flat.

And she was a big hit around the neighborhood!

I kinda' love that it was a bit of a tomboy costume, and I totally love that she kinda' put it together on her own. And she took it so seriously.

 Trick or treating in the neighborhood is so fun! We were going to hold out for the parade and I wanted to take them by a neighborhood fire station, too, but the littles got tired pretty quick, so we just walked up and down the main drag. All the shops give out candy, and the sidewalks get packed with giraffes, pirates, flappers, princesses, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We even saw an R subway train! We passed the cutest little boy dressed as a policeman and both his family and we stopped to admire him and Alice as a pair. I really regret not taking a picture of them together, but she probably wouldn't have let me anyway. She wouldn't even let me take a picture of her with our friend, Monte, who we bumped into... and just happened to be wearing the exact same costume!

On duty, responding to a fire at fourth street.

Everett had such fun asking everyone for candy, saying "trick or treat!" Alice just walked along, content to be carrying two toy spiders in her bucket and nothing more. These two have been so sheltered from junk food that when Everett tried a Milky Way, he said "yuck." They each had a lollipop (ok, several lollipops!) and then we actually put the rest of Everett's candy in our candy bowl, and gave it all back out to trick-or-treaters who came by. That probably sounds so mean, but they actually prefer filling their buckets with toys, dumping them out on the floor, and putting them back in again.

Lollipop number three.

The kitty-cat dress!
Girls and their dresses: Alice put this on and instinctually started twirling, singing "I pretty! I pretty!"