feelin' halloweeny

t and i were running errands today, one of which was picking up my suave new motorcycle helmet, which i will need to expound upon at a later date. i'll give you a hint what i feel like in it... "luke... i AM your father!" anyhow, as i said, we were out, and had lunch at a phenomenal philly cheesesteak place that we used to frequent but haven't been to in ages. at first i thought my ears were deceiving me when we entered the restaurant but NO! i really truly heard the strains of george michael coming from the stereo system crooning, "last christmas, i gave you my heart... but the very next dayyyy, you took it awayyyyy..."

heck, i don't know about the rest of y'all, but i feel like the only person left on the planet that really doesn't want to think about christmas until december. or AT LEAST give me 'til thanksgiving. i mean, i love christmas and carols and santa as much as the next girl, but WHOA man! back up! it was halloween two days ago! it's fall, the leaves are gorgeous, thanksgiving's coming and i DON'T WANT TO SEE SNOWFLAKES painted on store windows yet! am i nuts?

here's to halloween, whose photos i am just now posting and i must say a prayer to the gods of blogger that they ALL LOADED at the SAME TIME on the FIRST TRY. yeeeee-HAW! now to see if they all post properly... hmmmm... immediately below is s carving our pumpkin. we used a whole lot of brain power, but it didn't turn into a coach to carry us in style from house to house while we trick-or-treated. eh, it was worth a try.
the finished product, well designed by h, is shown below. we toasted the seeds with olive oil and salt and they were soooo delicious! and surely they will keep us regular for at least a day. mmmm! fiber!!!here are the finished costumes: s the bat and h the pirate. we had so much fun getting dressed up and painting faces. the pirate jacket i made ended up really nice, and i actually didn't want to tear my hair out at the amount of sewing. but i'm still picking fuzzy red boogers. ha! just kidding.below is my melacholy looking pirate. it's hard to tell, but he had on a black wig, a bandana, the big red hat, a dark red velvet jacket, a glow in the dark skeleton shirt, an orange sash, a pistol, and black pants tucked into cowboy boots.

s's makeup worked out really well, i modified a vampire design that we found in a book of face painting. she's carrying her little plush bat from the zoo.

after we were all prepared, we headed over to our friends' jen and ray's. ray was dressed as darth vader (he needed to borrow h's mask!) and t went as qui-gon jinn. what geeks! i haven't loaded the photos yet, but i'll try to get one soon... very funny. their 3 daughters, our kids, and the dads all loaded into a truck to trick-or-treat... the houses in this neighborhood are too far apart for walking. in other words... lots of walking for not lots of candy. jen and i stayed home with their almost 2 year old who was ill with pneumonia, and we decided to pick up and clean up while we drank red wine, yum! earlier in the day they had to put their 14 year old dog to sleep, and jen was pretty upset at the loss of her first baby (if you're reading this jen, i'm still sad about rover!).

the kids were on fire, and completed a massive amount of trick-or-treating by nine o'clock-- a full hour and a half past their usual bedtime. y'all know that the vomiting incident followed, but other than THAT, the night was a resounding success. it's nice to have the kids getting a little older, a little more responsible, and a little more FREAKED OUT at how fun halloween really is. it's about time! and they've already decided their costumes for next year... darth vader and vampira. say cheeeeeese!