18 Pumpkins and a String o' Lights

The snake is lit. The party's over and the squirrels are not yet attacking. It's been a bit warm where we are - and the pumpkins are suffering. Forget squirrels - it's warm weather rot we're talking about. And now that our pumpkins are carved and assembled into the snake, we are hoping it lasts until Halloween.

The little guy hosted some neighborhood families Sunday afternoon - for worms on a bun (shriveled hot dogs) and mummy pizzas. Yes - when stressed I tend to overdo it. And the adults made do with bratwurst and oktoberfest brews. There was even chocolate cake and the kids sang happy birthday to the witch decoration.

Just after dark it was time to light the snake. No candles for this effort. Make those white lights year round and break them out for summer nights and fall pumpkins too.

Everyone was home by 8 pm - which explains why we overslept on Monday and had exactly 27 minutes to wake up, dress, eat, pack lunch and get to the school line. I gave up on make the train - which as it turns out - I did sort of make.

Because it's right that when my regular train breaks down...my holy-crap-I'm-not-going-to-walk-into-my-office-until-11am-train stops to help out the passengers from the broken regular train.

Duct tape, balloons and fusible webbing

Halloween is fast approaching. The first years - cute animal costumes from a large box store - because - well - I don't sew - and I was strapped for time. He looked great - a sleeping elephant, a pumpkin, a duck. All washable, and wearable for many occasions. Like grocery shopping and leaf raking.

You'll just have to turn your head sideways to catch the picture. It's enough that I actually had a picture...

And then he asked to be a volcano. That's right. A big, exploding volcano. With a little help from the fabric department at Wal-mart and some stiffy stuff - I created a volcano. 2 semi-circles, fusible webbing and one very large bucket later the label on the stiffy stuff said - let dry until stiff. (I should mention this stiffy stuff had it's heyday back when Martha Stewart was making the lecture rounds at area Junior Leagues. Way back in the eighties.) After applying a little heat courtesy of an underused appliance - the hairdryer - the costume was sort of volcano shaped - and even included holes for arms and head. Throw on a red sweat suit and voila - volcano.

Oh - but you ask - the hissing and spitting rocks. Yes, I admit, my no sew costume got carried away here. Lots of fabric strips and some sparkling foam balls attached to a fabric headband. He vetoed the headgear and instead wore it around the neck. With the exception of the papermache ravens in the nest at our town's parade - he was an original. And it came in handy last year when the the kindergarten class was studying volcanos. He took it to school where all the kids tried it on...and most of the mothers wondered if they would have to make one over the weekend...

Then, one year there was the "I want to be a hot air balloon". The costume looked great but he came down with a 102 fever - and the costume never made it any farther than our living room. And finally, last year - he asked to be a power ranger. And I caved. No more duct tape and fusible webbing. No more balloons. No more glitter and pvc piping (the balloon costume). Only the best ebay can buy.

And so we come to this year - and he's asked to be Harry Potter. Complete with glasses and the nice Hogwarts robe - "not the one from the the weird store". In our neighborhood the weird store is the seasonal real estate that transforms for large holidays with retail dreams - you know - like Christmas City - or Halloween House.

The sweet part? He request a working wand as well. Not a fake one - but a real magic wand. I asked him if he'd been practicing spells and he said no - kind of shyly. But I think maybe he's been thinking about it. Twice now I've walked into the kitchen to see him waving a spatula like a wand at the dog and saying words that sound faintly like Hermione Granger's incantations.

The dog's still here. And so is he. And that costume will be arriving like all good costumes do - from the underground of ebay.

Remember those Book Club Days?

Yes, it happened. The first Scholastic book club catalog came home in the backpack about two weeks ago. It's still old fashioned enough to be a paper order form and check list...but the kid is as excited as I was when I was six. He carefully selected his item - looking at the pictures of the covers - and recognizing words like POKEMON and EXCITING. No classics were selected this time around, just some short easy readers and the coveted Pokemon series...

The main event - delivery of the books happened at the end of school yesterday. He had his story time while he was in the bathtub and even hair washing went well. He fell asleep with most of them still on his bed. He's happy and trying to read. What's better than that?