Halloween night!

The older my kids get, the better the holidays get (I'm gonna assume this continues on an even trajectory; do not dare to disabuse me). Eleanor wanted to be Zita from the Zita the Spacegirl graphic novels by Ben Hatke, and I wanted to LET her because those books are fantastic and I recommend them to everyone. Strong female protagonist! Various misfit companions! Derring-do! Anyway. I took this suuuuuuuper sketchy ghost costume I got on the cheap

and turned it into a tunic and glued a Z to it. Made her a cape,

dyed her hair 'black' with some awful spray-on dye I got at the dollar store (it turned her hair a powdery grey and got all over EVERYTHING but she was like, My hair is so black! I'm just like Zita! So basically it worked) and bought her a pair of sick boots I was going to buy her anyway.

Geneva was Zita's animal companion, Mouse. I took a rat costume that we had lying around, made the eyes and ears bigger (and one ear tore up, because Mouse is an outlaw who has seen some shit), gave her a collar made of a toilet paper tube and some pulled-apart Christmas ornaments, and a saddle that ended up being more trouble than it was worth. Presto, instant Mouse.

I let them run around the yard in their costumes for a while, pretending I was the bad guy.

Look at these two pals.

My parents asked to come out for Halloween, which would never have occurred to me because I keep forgetting that we live near people we know, even though we see them all the time. But it was so damn magical.

Joel was working late, so it would have been me alone with the girls, like every other year, and they were being so adorable. Literally every woman who opened the door to Geneva-as-Mouse crooned, Ohhhhhhhh, aren't you cute. Especially when she's like, Twicka tweet! Fank you, happy Halloween! And Eleanor and her Everyday Excitement cranked to eleven, and I had other people there who love my kids to be like, Yes this is excellent, they are being excellent.

IT WAS MARVELOUS. Because the reason I've kept this blog going for so long is for the same reason any parent will tell you long-winded stories about their kids, because we just want to SHARE OUR KIDS with like literally anyone will do, but primarily with the people who care about us and our progeny.

Also, there was a house down the way with a fire pit and marshmallows, and that ain't nothing.

We met up with the girls' cousins and some other friends near the end of the night, and a mad horde of children darting from house to house (with Eleanor in the lead, and Geneva bringing up the rear and telling other kids, 'Das enuff' when she thought they were taking too much candy from the bowl) is everything I wanted it to be.

We got home LATE, but I let Eleanor stay up an extra half-hour to peer out the window and hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. Most of today was spent sorting and re-sorting their candy

and crowing over their loot. I have eaten so many tiny Oh Henrys I can barely see straight.

Oh hey look it's Dinovember already.