FIRST ASHLAND HALLOWEEN

It's raining. Let me repeat that: It's raining -- on Halloween in Ashland, where it hasn't rained for weeks! Puh-leaze! (Insert sad little pic of Aubs. Note: not her costume; just play.)


Aubrey's gonna freeze. I might have to make/encourage her to wear a pink raincoat under her wings so she doesn't freeze her katooshie. I'll post pix after she actually dresses up for the event, but she's a pink fairy, a costume she assembled from thrift stores, her closet, and Target. She's all pinks (including spraypainted hair and a feathered eye mask) with a little bit of lavender. Super creative and cute.

Dane might not fare so poorly if it's cold. I can probably convince him to wear a long sleeve shirt or two under his top -- his "leather" jacket with shirt attached. That's right, he's embracing another Harrison Ford movie, this time as... The Fugitive.

Just kidding. This time as... Indiana Jones! He's so excited -- and I'm doing my best to be super jazzed with him. Don't get me wrong: I love the idea, but I wish he could've assembled it on his own, with personal creativity. If we'd had any hope of finding hat and jacket at thrift stores, we would've but Target had it all packaged together -- and he really loved it -- so we bought it. I'd love to see him be creative in compiling a costume, and, to a degree, I suppose he was -- but, more importantly, I need to acknowledge this:

He enters an imaginary world every time he puts that costume on! Every time he snaps his little fake cloth whip that audibly cracks and plays the theme song when you press a button. He IS Indiana Jones at that moment. You should see how serious his face gets. So get over it, Mom! (OK, done. Over it.)

I went to bed last night with papier mache'd hair, spraypainted green, and rolled up in curlers. This morning my hair's supposed to look like snakes. That's right, I'm Medusa.

I found a sweet gun-metal gray tunic for $4.99 at Old Navy, and threw on a bunch of gold jewelry, sparkly sandals, and some sparkly face powder with gray lipstick. It's sort of effective -- at least he second graders knew I was that snaky-stone-freezer-lady when I worked with them this morning for Writer's Workshop.

At the risk of seeming totally self-centered, here are pics Mick took of me this morning. The kids weren't dressed up yet (save that for the 1pm Ghost Walk at school), so their pics will have to come later.



See? It sorta works.

And Mick? What about Mick? you might ask. Well, I've just got NINE words for you:

He's going to be treating patients looking like this.

Be very SCARED.

And hope it doesn't rain.