Halloween in the Neighborhood

Halloween night afforded us perfect weather. Cool, not too cool, and clear. At 4:00 it was 65 degrees and by 7:00 it was 45.

Our neighborhood holds an annual Halloween parade with costume contests, pumpkin contest, police car, hot dog vendor, face painting and photographs. The kids dress up, some adults dress up, heck -- even some dogs dress up. This year a family brought their pony!! We also have a float contest, meaning, kids can decorate their wagons, bikes, sister's stroller, and these are judged as well.
Here are two of the costume winners. Our little gf with the umbrella won the prize in the middle school category. In case you can't tell, she was a jellyfish.











We took third place this year with our pumpkins. I am proud to be one of the last holdouts who still carves by hand, without a purchased stencil. We tied for third with our NDN's, who, btw, did use stencils. I used a linoleum cutter to give my large punkin spectacles, large round ones, and I gave our smaller punkin curly hair and eyelashes, also using the lino cutter. Unfortunately we forgot to take pics of the punkins before discarding them on Wednesday. The mayor and a councilman drove through the neighborhood on Monday, the night before Halloween, and picked their winners, and then made a brief appearance at the parade to announce the winners.

Little One had her BGFs over for a Halloween get-together before and after the parade and trick-or-treating. I believe 6 girls came in addition to LO. This was the first time ever she chose to be something scary, also the first time she wore a purchased costume. I have always sewn them in the past: last year she was Pocahantas, the year prior, Laura Ingalls, the year prior, Queen Isabella. She has been a jester in teal and purple lame', Glenda the Good Witch of the North, a pumpkin, and her first costume ever was the infamous Cow Costume, made of spotted flannel, with feet and a pink tummy. (Used it for jammies afterward.)

The girls arrived at 4pm and we had hotdogs here at the house before heading up the street at 5. After the festivities, the girls trick-or-treated the entire neighborhood, all 24 blocks, then returned back to the house at 7:50. Moms were due to pick them up at 8:30 so they spent the last half hour or so, trading their take. It was great to hear them: "I've got Snickers up for offer: I don't like Snickers." "Ooh, I love Snickers! I'll give you 2 Tootsie Pops for a Snickers..." and on it went.

Here are more pics: