Halloween

This Halloween started out sadly. This morning I got an email that one friend just died of cancer, and Wander also attended the funeral of another friend who died of cancer.

However, for the girls, it was still Halloween, and that meant dress-up, candy, and scary decorations. Sparkle enjoys spooky decorations, but is okay without them. Glitter, on the other hand, is terrified of Halloween decorations. She won't even walk past them and makes Wander carry her by them on their nightly walks. One day when riding her tricycle full steam ahead, she suddenly found herself in front of a mildly decorated yard and burst into tears. Not wanting to terrify his little girl, Wander chose to not decorate out house this year. Instead we just carved pumpkins a few days before the big day.



Then Wander set up the pumpkins in our driveway.


As for the dress-up, the girls had a hard time deciding what to be: ballerinas, or fairy princesses. The past few years they have been fairy princesses. However, this year Sparkle had her ballet costume from her spring recital. Glitter didn't have a tutu, but she was satisfied to simply wear her black leotard and pink tights from dance class.



A glow-stick fit nicely around each girl's bun, making them more visible as darkness fell.


Of course, the candy was the most important part of Halloween for the kids. Glitter asked, why couldn't we "have Halloween with candy spread all around, and we get to pick up the candy, and no skeletons?" I asked her if the candy should be spread out in little plastic eggs, to which she vigorously agreed. Wander burst out laughing. "Sure," he told her, "but we call that 'Easter' and it happens in the spring," he told her.


The trick-or-treating started early this year, and lasted longer than usual. We had superheros, soldiers, princesses, ninja, and storybook characters trooping through the neighborhood for three hours. Wander herded the girls through the neighbors and I stayed at home to pass out candy. After the girls had done their rounds, they hung out with me to help pass out candy. I think they liked that as much as getting their own candy. Glitter would grab two fistfuls of candy to drop in kids' bags, and then Sparkle would want to give them candy too. Good thing I had bought three really big bags of candy.