WORKING BACKWARDS II

Pg. 66 of my new favorite book:

"It is always cruel to laugh at people, of course, although sometimes if they are wearing an ugly hat it is hard to control yourself."

Enough said.

Halloween came and went this year in glorious, hideous, hilarious style.

It was fun for me, since I got to be at Joshua's school the whole day long. We started off with our Owl Chorale Halloween Concert--a performance of which you will never see a picture because I am either directing the choir or playing the piano, neither which activity lends itself to photographic evidence of the event. Just know that it was marvelous, as per usual. The kids sang lots of great new songs, and one old favorite. See if you can guess what it was: the song's title was my inspiration.

(Thanks, Tasha, for capturing the memory...)

Then I got to substitute in third grade, allowing for ample opportunity to see and participate in the Halloween parade and other elementary school festivities.

"Here comes Joshua, here comes Joshua, right down parade route lane..."

It was frighteningly fun to see all the students and teachers dressed up all day. My favorite costume, by far, was the picnic table:

Clever! I can't wait to try that some year!

Do you see the handsome Rastafarian guy behind the picnic table? That's our friend J.B. He told me that the picnic table was EVERYBODY's favorite, and that everyone behind the picnic table was completely ignored. Probably true. I didn't even know J.B. was in the parade until I saw the picture...

I got to see J.B. lots that night, though,

since we went trick or treating with his family. Here are Mom and Dad Trick-or-Treaters (they stole J.B.'s hat, I see):

We also had in our group a princess,

a penguin,

two scary (and constantly trying to scare) skeletons (Joshua ditched the clown costume after school and went back to his great green stand-by of 3, or is it 4? years now),

and...

Michael.

I've often thought that Michael has the most fun of anyone on Halloween. Here are a few pictures to prove it:

There happened to be another gorilla out in the neighborhood that night, and the two of them did a monkey dance right there in the middle of the street. I wonder if the other monkey man was as popular as mine with the junior high crowd...After Michael scared these girls they wanted their picture taken with the great ape.

This may have been Michael's shining moment, second only to the time he went to my friend's house to pay his annual visit, and the first thing she said/yelled when she opened the door to the furry fiend was, "Keri! Come and get your husband!!!"

So, yes, Michael had a good time on Halloween (thanks again, Colin, for saving the day...I mean, night!). The only one having more, or at least an equal amount of fun on that street was either a) the other gorilla or b) this spook on stilts

who walked the neighborhood, moaning and groaning as he grabbed at little peoples' heads. This spook on stilts also happens to be a 64-year-old Grandpa. With inspiration like that out there, just think what I have to look forward to with my own husband for Halloweens to come!

Hopefully, it's a bit more of this:

And not so much of this!

(Just in case anyone was wondering, Lane was at a Halloween party and Evan was working--by choice--at Wendy's. Later they came to our friend's house and watched stupid scary movies and ate Halloween candy by the bucketful with us. See, we do love them, too! We just don't take pictures of people not dressed up as well as we were...

(I went trick or treating dressed as a Halloween elf, btw.)

See you next year !