Halloween 2008

According to the news, we are having the warmest Halloween in the last 54 years. Last year I was grateful that Brandon's costume consisted of decorated sweats so he wouldn't be too cold. This year I worried that his lined western shirt would be too warm. We braved the 70 degree weather (45 last year) to head out in Boulder. Both Brian and I have had a long, tiring week, and the thought of door-to-door trick-or-treating was a little too much. I met him at work, and we headed over to the Munchkin Masquerade at Pearl Street. The kids had fun getting their candy from the local businesses, and seeing all the other people in costume. There were a couple of cool costumes that I only later realized weren't costumes at all. It's Boulder. People are different. But the weird ones here aren't all that different from the weird ones in California. Probably why I wasn't all that surprised when I was hit by my realization!

For more of our adventures at the Munchkin Masquerade, click here:


In other Halloween related news, Brandon had his Nursery Rhyme Festival at school yesterday. Schools here are weird about Halloween. Last year several elementary schools didn't allow the students to even wear their costumes to school on Halloween. Mind you, these are public schools, and the Boulder valley isn't known for its conservative ways! Today all the Boulder Valley School District schools were closed for a teacher staff day.

So back to yesterday - Brandon's kindergarten class had a "Nursery Rhyme Festival". Each child got a little nursery rhyme, had to memorize it, and have a costume to go with it. Brandon's was "Diddle Diddle Dumpling, My Son John", which is about as obscure as you can get! He had no problem memorizing it, but finding an appropriate costume for his 20 seconds of glory was a little more challenging! I managed to find some black and white "stockings" (i.e., striped tights) at Hannah Anderson last week. Even though I had his height and weight from our earlier doctor's visit, the tights were several inches too long for him. He wore them with a pair of size 3 girls black knit pants (he didn't know they were girl pants), a long white shirt, and a stocking cap. He wore one shoe on, and left one shoe off, just as the rhyme says. I also let him take his blanky with him, to convey the sleepy time aspect of it all. When I got to school for his little shindig, he'd only put on the cap, and was carrying around his blanky. He looked like a little thug! Luckily his teacher let me dress him in his little outfit. When I asked him why he didn't change into his costume, he said because he didn't have to. Lovely.

The teacher had all the kids sit down on the rug, and called them up one by one to recite their poem. Imagine my surprise to learn that most of the kids had recognizable, easy rhymes! (Okay, Brandon's was easy, but made no sense). Even the gruesome rhymes, like "Ladybug Ladybug", where most of the ladybug kids die in a house fire, or "Rock-A-Bye Baby" were easier ones to make costumes for! I noticed that the girls all got cutesy ones, like "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" . Honestly, it would have been a lot easier to outfit "Baa Baa Black Sheep"! I ended up putting together two completely separate costumes, since Brandon's nursery rhyme outfit made little sense in the real world.

Brandon did manage to recite his poem in front of his class. The boisterous, loud child that I live with turned into a meek and quiet child on the stage. Still, he did it, and I am proud of him. And Caitlin, who has not learned the social behavior of being quiet during recitals, was happy to color with markers and paper at a table in the classroom. I think she felt like a big girl in school. She clapped vigorously after each recital, and was very excited to see Brandon, who was close to the last presenter. I was just as proud of her for behaving in public as I was of Brandon for getting in front of 30 parents and reciting a silly poem!

To see our Nursery Rhyme Festival pictures, check out our October pictures here.