Costume Parade

It's a costume parade! Madison goes to pre-school three days a week, but we made a special exception today, because all the kids got to wear their costumes to school today. Not only that, but they also got to parade down the hall in a quasi-line, and go trick-or-treating from door to door, and class to class. For the occasion, Madison got her own trick-or-treat bag, which you can see her holding above. It is decorated with "ghosts," which in fact are her footprints in white, and by the end of the parade, the bag had plenty of candy inside it!

As soon as the trek around the school was over, it was time for a party in the room, where there were cupcakes and other tasty items. Madison enjoyed spending time with her classmates, and eating snacks as well.

In case you're wondering what her costume looked like, today we wanted to let her wear the big one. That is to say, the one she's been waiting to wear: Pocahontas. She was adorable in her Pocahontas costume, and she knew it! She enjoyed wearing that dress, and of course it won't be the last time she does either. This is something she's wanted to be for the past few months:

"What do you want to be for Halloween?"

"Pocahontas!"

Same answer every time. And so, today was her first official outing as Pocahontas, and it was a great success! Let's see: last night, she was a cat. Today, she was Pocahontas. At the Halloween Party on Saturday, she's going as Catwoman. And then for Halloween itself, she's going to be Pocahontas.

We'll save the official "portrait" style pictures of Madison in her costume for later, but for now, here's one below that Daddy simply adores. It's of Madison with one of our pumpkins on the porch.

The houses around our neighborhood are all decked out again: Massive balloons, inflatable ghosts, spider webs, orange and purple lights, and instant cemeteries in people's front yards. We were touring the neighborhood while listening to one of Madison's favorite October tunes: "Boo to You!" We watched Mickey's "Boo to You" Parade online again, and she loved it.

We did have ballet practice again today, which was a lot of fun as usual. Madison is learning to leap properly as a ballerina would. This, on top of the other things she's been enjoying to do as a dancer. It is a small class for the autumn, but that makes it more intimate. She loves Miss Jenny, her teacher. Only a few weeks to go until this class is over, at which point it is time to register for the next one!

Tonight we made seasonal cookies again! Mommy got everything ready, and Daddy and Madison put the orange and green sugar onto the pumpkin shaped cookies. Can you believe we used self-control and didn't eat any of the cookie dough?

I didn't say we didn't eat any of the sugar though!

______________________

"You can't just throw some half-baked costume together at the last minute, the way we did in my childhood, when 80 to 90 percent of us kids stumbled around blindly on Halloween night wearing bed sheets with poorly aligned eye holes. We were supposed to look like ghosts, although this never made a ton of sense to me. I mean, ghosts are the spirits of dead people, right? Why would dead people wear bed sheets? Did they all die in an explosion at a hotel laundry?"

- Dave Barry