best Halloween in years

i have very fond memories of Halloween as a kid, back in the day when we ran up and down neighborhood streets with siblings and friends acquiring unholy amounts of candy in an old pillowcase or paper sack.

i'm the red clown in the middle (i'm pretty sure i'm wearing a winter coat underneath)

then there was those teenage years when i still really wanted to be involved but had the decency (or the pride... or the shame) to refrain from trick-or-treating. the older sibling tax came in handy those years and i enjoyed them too.

Halloween is still fun as we get older and we have the opportunity to see incredible costumes like the eight-foot Satan i saw one year at a party (actually, i'm convinced it was either Satan or thee best costume i shall ever see). but some of the magic inevitably gets lost and try as we might, some Halloweens are just barely not a drag.

my best friend and me as an old couple in '92 | English as Johnny Appleseed and me as Jim Henson in '05

not this year though. Halloween 2009 rekindled the spooky spirit like nothing before, thanks to a small close-to-three Grover, an 8-month-old Ear of Corn and the chance to do some good old-fashioned trick-or-treating.


i have to toot my own horn here and say that i made both of these costumes. Ash's is entirely from scratch using an old shirt of English's. it was quite then endeavor since i hadn't done any sewing in over seven years. needless to say i was so excited when it fit... and didn't fall apart! and Tom's well, he had a yellow shirt and some green pants and i love felt. he is the cutest ear of corn of all time.



because the costumes rocked, the pumpkins lacked some of the creative flare seen in years past but they lit up nice and smelled good as the candle flame singed the lids.



it was our first time participating in a trunk-or-treat and i wish we could have had a bit more daylight but the neighborhood trick-or-treating was great and Ash felt good about the stash (and so do i as i collect my Mom tax every once and a while).

i believe this is the rebirth of Halloween.