Lvov and her buddies paraded around the neighborhood as myriad archetypes. In the four years that we've lived here, this little neighborhood has expanded and become much more Americanized.This year, our Germans neighbors all seemed to know proper trick-or-treat etiquette. A couple of year ago, our neighbors would be caught off-guard and run into their kitchens scrambling for some kind of treat. One man was famous for giving handfuls of walnuts, and another person gave something like sandwiches. It was so funny, and so sweet of them to make the effort!
Here's my goth prom queen. She's a little sad that this will probably be her last year of trick -or-treating, but we've assured her that teenage Halloween parties will be ample consolation! Life is strange. I was so fascinated by everything "goth" when I was 15, and my infatuation lasted many, many years (I still seem to have a little vestigial gothness, actually). Akychame, on the other hand, was full-blown goth at age 10, and now at 12 she's almost sort of, well, bored by it. A little.
The kids had a blast. Their traditional "Let's pour all of our candy onto the couch and then see who wants what" mayhem went particularly well. The kids have mega bargaining power because as vegetarians they don't eat gelatin (gummy candies). So they can trade those like crazy and not feel an ounce of regret.
As you can see, Phil is still in his "soldier" phase. ; )Later, after trick-or-treating craziness, Phil and I attended a costume party at our neighbor's. We weren't sure if we really felt like going...it was getting late...all of our neighbors had ordered their costumes online a month prior (holy organization!) and we couldn't dream up costumes for the life of us. We're the people who wait until the day of a holiday and say, "oh my god, that's today???" and who get nauseous from all the punctual neighbors setting up holiday decorations a month and a half in advance. That is so not us. Despite our hesitation and sleepiness, brainstorming costume ideas led to some really good memories, like these:
* When Lvov was two, she wouldn't let us put a costume or make-up or anything on her (she was quite the little temper-tantrum girl) so we put a single red dot on her forehead to make her an Indian woman - voila!
* When the kids were 7 and 5, Phil and I made their costumes. Phil made Lvov a bat-girl costume out of old cereal boxes, her ballet leotard and rain boots. I made Akychame's statue of liberty costume out of sheets, spray starch, paint, and the torch was made from a flashlight covered in papier mache. Man, that was a fun night. Just scrounging whatever was in the house and being creative...fun, fun.
* When Akychame was a baby, we were trying to think of unusual costumes for her. We ended up getting so tired and goofy that we were saying we could just put a sheet over her head and call her the "ghostest with the mostest." It is so un-funny, but for months all we had to do was say that, and we'd both laugh until we cried or peed.
OK, back to our brainstorming session on October 31, 2007. Phil had a really great idea: we would be Cornelius and Bob from "Fight Club." Do you remember Bob ("man-boob" Bob, the big guy whose breasts Cornelius cried on in their "Remaining Men Together" self-help group)? Well, I was " man-boob" Bob, so I detached two little rubber nipple-like things from my IKEA metal closet thingy and hot glue-gunned them to my bra. Phil dressed like Cornelius, and we both wore name tags as if the Halloween party were a self-help group we were going to. Phil really wanted to bring a coffeemaker, some styrofoam cups, and a box of donuts to complete the self-help group vibe.
The most hilarious thing was, nobody had the faintest idea who we were supposed to be. After about two hours at the party I removed the nipples from my bra (under my shirt) and everyone gasped, "Oh my god, I thought those were actually yours!" Ha, ha. We ended up winning the prize for most clever costume. Name tags and nipples. Genius!
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