Halloween 2011

It was a very piratey year! Three in our own trick-or-treating party plus the neighbor kid and at least a dozen other random people out that night.



Kirk was Captain Jack Sparrow.


Cousin A2 was Elizabeth Swann.


Mama was Anamaria. And Ronnie was Princess Leia. (Who of course likes pirates and scoundels.)


Mr. b really got into character as gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.


He was quoting Fear and Loathing lines all night.


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Halloween 2010

It will come as no surprise that Kirk went as Indiana Jones for Halloween this year.


Continuing the apparent new tradition of father-son costumes, Mr. b was Henry Jones Senior.


They looked great!


Ronnie was not happy about being a Sith baby, which is weird because she was loving the cloak as I was trying to put finishing touches on it earlier in the day. She'd try to grab it out of my hand and shout "Mine!"


I went as a Doctor Who character, River Song, which of course no one recognized, as expected. It was fun playing with spongey rollers and ringlets in preparation.



I think it turned out great!


Once again my sister and A2 and A3 joined us and we all had a great time trick-or-treating.

Blended

My blender got a work out this weekend. I was on a roll making stuff out of the borderline questionable produce on the counter and in the fridge. I’ve always been pretty good about either using or freezing the overripe bananas. I want to get better at finding things to do with the other fruits and vegetables before they just have to be tossed.

First I used up the pumpkin puree I had made for the Bundle at Halloween. I’m not sure why she didn’t like it. She likes squash. She likes zucchini. But she definitely did not like pumpkin. Her brother has been getting some serious mileage out of the fact that he ate an entire pumpkin when he was on baby food his first Halloween. I had pumpkin in the freezer for ages and he ate every last bit. Anyway, I also had a bunch of baby carrots way past their prime so I made pumpkin and carrot and ginger (leftover from Mr. b’s fad diet earlier this fall) soup and it was simply divine. Definitely going into my regular rotation. Really easy and utterly delicious.

I had another giant zucchini on the counter that our neighbors gave me and unlike the first one they had passed on, I had just zero inspiration for what to do with it. So it kept sitting there. Finally I realized I had to use it so I just made puree. Ronnie liked it the last time I pureed the leftover zucchini after I made bread and I figure hey, I can always make carrot and zucchini soup, right? HA!

My aunt recently sent me this article - featuring a picture of her granddaughter, my cousin’s daughter - so I’ve been thinking about baby food for a while. I’m not really a baby food making machine. I don’t have any philosophy behind doing it. I’m not trying to control the food my child intakes. I don’t have to work around any allergies or dietary restrictions. I’m definitely not brainwashed by the hippie organic bullshit. (Because I hate the bastardization of that word. We are all carbon based life forms. Period.) I don’t necessarily think it saves *that* much money, though it certain saves some. Mostly I do it for two reasons: 1) I like to cook and so it scratches that itch if I don’t have time for a big fancy meal and 2) I can introduce Ronnie to foods that aren’t available from Gerber.

But that doesn’t really explain the third puree I made this weekend. We had a half a sack of bulk dried apricots (again, left over from the mister’s weird diet fad) and they weren’t really getting eaten and were taking up space in the cupboard. So even though I can buy baby food apricots, I decided this was the best thing do to with them. I boiled them up to rehydrate them and then blended them and then I fell in love. Seriously. The frickin’ best tasting thing ever to come out of that blender. I want to have puree of dried apricots in my fridge at all times. I think it could possibly be the most versatile food product of all time. It would make a great sauce for pork. It would make a great ice cream topping. It’s delicious just plain as it. It would be great in a jelly roll. Or a pin wheel. Or a tart. I can’t stop thinking of ways to use it.

And of course after all that industry I ordered pizza for supper.

Hallowe'en

Kirk decided early on this year that he wanted to be Superman for Halloween.



Naturally Mr. b then realized Jor-El would be the perfect costume for him.



I wanted to get a hot dog bunting for Bundle, because that’s hilarious, but didn’t want to spend twenty bucks when she doesn’t care yet. Thankfully we still had the baby demon costume that A3 wore last year and Kirk wore three years ago.



I couldn’t find the horned hood thingie though but found the Santa hat to be even funnier. She was Satan Claus! I was out of inspiration and so just wore festive black and had green hair.



My folks and my sister came over with A2 and A3 to trick or treat with us while my dad passed out candy.

Man of Steel

Kirk is all about Superman right now. Mr. b got the idea into his head that he’d enjoy the original 1978 Superman. Which he most definitely did. So we’ve been slowly Netflixing them all, and some Justice Leagues thrown in for good measure, just watching Superman III this weekend. Kirk is dead set on being Superman for Halloween and has already scoped out the costumes at Target. But I won’t even consider buying one until it’s at least October. Which means that everyday Kirk has asked, “Is it still September? Is next day October? Then I’m gonna get my Superman costume!” (Complete with fist pump into the air.) Yeah, like I’m running down there on the First to buy it for him.

Mr. b, being the genius/sucker that he is, figured we could buy some time if we got Kirk some Superman pajamas. Obviously Kirk was totally down with that idea. And honestly, he needs new jammies anyways. While we were picking them out last night we also checked the DVD aisle. Because Daddy remembered seeing a special DVD set of all 4 movies for a mere $9.99 and sure enough, we went ahead and bought that, too. Supergirl is coming next from Netflix.

Clearly some Superman had to be watched before bed, while wearing brand new pjs. Kirk wanted to see “baby Superman, his hair is so funny” so the first movie it was. During which time he announced to us that “Jor-El is a really great name for a daddy. When I’m a daddy I’m gonna name my son Jor-El.” I don’t really have a problem with that. I mean, my son is named Kirk.

Halloween

Mr. b compared my making a costume for Halloween to him learning a bunch of cover songs for the various charity concerts Mercurial Rage has been playing lately: hours and hours of work for a very short pay-off. I rather liked that. I’m mostly pleased with how my costume turned out. I should have shortened the bodice and I could nitpick the placement of the tassel and if I had a dressmaker’s dummy I could have done the beading a bit straighter. But really, it’s just a Halloween costume and it’s Good Enough.

Halloween turned into a major family event.



My sister moved on Tuesday so I had invited her girls over for trick-or-treating.
I figured she needed one less thing to worry about while sorting through boxes and cleaning and all the rest of the shit that goes with a major move. But then I also realized that since she’s always lived in apartment buildings, my nieces have never experienced neighborhood trick-or-treating before!



My parents both came down, too, (my brother had car trouble so his boys couldn’t join us) to enjoy the costumed festivities. They live in the boonies now so this is the first Halloween they’ve had in years. My dad said he most missed passing out candy so he manned the front door while Mr. b and Nana took the kids around. I was the floater and both went out as well as hung out with Dad and carved my pumpkin. By the end Dad was wearing a scary mask and just terrifying the older, late-comer kids, which was never not hilarious.

Trick-or-Treat

My boys were just adorable as a pair of skeletons. Kirk kept talking about how Daddy is a big skeleton and Kirkie is a little skeleton.



We decided that hats really made the costumes. Who actually likes wearing those masks anyways?



Though by the end of the evening, when Kirk also carried a light saber with him, he was more like a Sith Cowboy Jedi.



My homemade DeeDee Doodle costume was a huge hit with the little ones. Several wee lasses were convinced that I actually was DeeDee and asked me about being on TV and where Rooney and Moe were. I even heard them fighting with their dad further down the street about wanting to go back to the Doodlebops house! Hee!

The Devil

We wanted Kirk to be a skeleton for Halloween but couldn't find an outfit in his size. Demon was an excellent back-up plan.


Kirk was quite enamoured of his Jack-o-Lantern bucket even before we went Trick-or-Treating. We only went to a handful of houses, maybe 8 in all. He didn't quite get how it worked, and Mr. b had to hold him the whole time, but it was still fun. He got so cold by the end though that Mr. b gave him a bath while I passed out candy.

On Saturday we attended Suctionprint's annual costume party.



Kirk spent most of his time playing near, but not necessarily with, the only other little guy that attended.



Kitchen implements were the favorite toy. Naturally.

Trick or Treat

It makes sense that a pirate and a witch would spawn a Sith lord.

Kirk wore his dinosaur costume the day before Halloween.

We had so many hand-me-downs to bring home from Texas that they had to give us another piece of luggage to check! This mirror has really helped make Tummy Time be slightly more tolerable.

Besides his black cat pajamas and My First Halloween shirt, Kirk was also wearing his Little Devil outfit all throughout October.

It's the tail that makes it.