Toads-in-the-Hole

October is one of our favorite months of the year. The wind has a bite, the leaves are crunchy, and Halloween is nigh! We carved four pumpkins in the backyard the weekend before the the big. This year, Adelaide cleaned the guts out of her pumpkin all by herself, but still got a little help from Joel and I for the carving part (Joel has a poorly functioning pinky on his right hand from a pumpkin carving accident when he was but a lad, so we've always had the kids draw their faces on their pumpkins, then grown-ups wield the knives.).

The day before Halloween, Henry stomped around his dance class wearing his dragon costume. Miss Leslie, Henry's teacher, chirped when the class assembled for a photo: "If you're a dragon, say 'ROAR!' and if you're a princess, say 'Hello!'" Hysterical.

Henry's tap shoes were the perfect accompaniment to his costume.

On Halloween day I joined other parents in Adelaide's classroom to help host a Halloween Party for the first graders. We had a ball!

And, I finally snapped the first photo of Adelaide with her teacher, Miss Beuter, who cleverly dressed as a Lego for the party.

We bustled home after school, had an omelet supper and then got all dressed up for the big Trick-or-Treating fun: Adelaide, a witch; Henry, a dragon; and Joel, Doofenschmirtz from the Disney's Phineas and Ferb. They looked superb.

After trick-or-treating for about an hour around the neighborhood, the kids came home and rifled through their loot. Henry ate about seven pieces of candy. Adelaide ate about three. Joel squirreled away all of the kids' Almond Joys and I ate the first Butterfinger I've eaten in probably 20 years ... Just as stick-to-your-teeth-delicious as I remember ...

Happy Halloween!