Halloween 2011

Halloween 2011 is in the bag (the pumpkin?), and it was about as grand as you can get. As we headed out of the house at dusk, Clara spied the crescent moon, pointed up at it, and said "Moo!" Then, the bambini piled into the wagon and we began our abbreviated and selective tour of the neighborhood, the scent of woodsmoke in the air. Our first stop was Celebrity Babysitters Sara and Emily's house where Emily, dressed as a cat, was dolling out (full-sized!) candy bars. Clara motored up to the doors by herself, hot on Joe's heels, like this wasn't her first time at all. Of course, trick-or-treating is all about gathering things into a bucket and as our Devoted Readers know, Our Birdie, is all about gathering things into a bucket. We hit the twins house on the corner, Graham's old house, Darby's house, and a few others along the way that looked inviting. Between houses, in the wagon, Clara kept poking her little hand into her pumpkin, popping out with something, and then plunging her hand back into the pumpkin to pull out something else.

Once home, Joe said we had to get ready for our trick-or-treaters and ran off to et his pumpkin. Fans, he was all set to offer his candy to our trick-or-treaters! Presumably the confusion stemmed from the fact that many people distributed their candy in the same vessel in which Joe was collecting his candy: your classic orange plastic jack-o-lantern. Once that confusion was cleared up, Joe asked if he could have a treat. We told him he could have as many as he wanted so he and Julie settled in on the porch to wait for trick-or-treaters while Ted gave Clara a quick bath. He began with M&Ms. From there, he moved onto an (organic--we kid you not, Dear Readers) sour apple lollipop. Our Hero maintained he liked it, and Julie thought, "Better you than me, Pal-o."