Halloween Part 1

For the first time, we are celebrating Halloween in three parts. This is one holiday that I didn't expect to grow wild, but I suspect it might in the years to come.

In addition to official trick-or-treating (this year at the mall with some friends), Maya will trick-or-treat around her school building for her preschool party... and last night we attended the Halloween Carnival at the Community Center.

Of the many costumes we already had, Maya chose to be a firefighter, and Elliot giggled and danced around in the puppy costume that used to make Maya cry.

With each new parenting experience, Joe and I have more and more respect and gratitude for our own parents. Of COURSE we LOVED buying all of the raffle tickets we were expected to sell, dressing the girls up, and spending a Friday evening in the sweaty gym playing the Succor Tree and Treat Walk games. Joe even worked in time to volunteer, running the Hockey Shoot game for an hour, and then returning to help Maya win a prize.

But by the time we laid our exhausted party-goers in their respective beds, we were beat too.

The best part of the evening for me were the flashbacks to Veblen's Halloween Carnival, just add a couple of bouncy castles and remove the fantastic haunted house we used to build in the creepy basement of the high school. I guess big city life isn't all that different when you get down to the basics.