INDIANA JONES and the PINK FAIRY

No, it's not the latest George Lucas movie, it's Dane and Aubrey's
h a l l o w e e n .

We had a full day of festivities -- and, fortunately for us, it quit raining around 11! At noon, Aubrey's class had an hour of cookie-decorating, bat cutouts, ghost puppets, popcorn gloves and witches broom pretzel crafts.

After that was the all-school Ghost Walk, where every single kid in the school wore a costume and they did this elaborate parade through the halls -- where one class would stay at their room, posed like statues, while another class would walk around them.

Then, at some point, the posed statues would form their own line and walk through all the other classrooms. I have no idea how they organized it, but it went smoothly and was absolutely amazing.

THE ASHLAND HALLOWEEN PARADE

We left the school at 2:45 and headed straight to downtown Ashland, where the whole town seemed to be costumed and ready to celebrate. No kidding--there were thousands of people there.

The parade started at the library and went about 8 blocks to the downtown plaza. The road and sidewalks were jam-packed the entire way and these terrific marching drums led the whole procession. It was so much fun.

TRICK OR TREATING, etc.

We met up with the cousins -- an organ grinder monkey, a genie, and two space aliens (handmade showstopper costumes by their Grammy Linda):

(Isn't he the cutest little monkey ever?)

After mooching loot off all the local vendors, we went to the cousins' house to eat lasagna, goof around, and go trick-or-treating in their neighborhood. Here are some goof-around shots:

POST TRICK OR TREATING

When the treat bags were full and the kids were ready to spill all their spoilage on the rug to count the candy, we parents ditched the kids, leaving them all with (the cousins') Grammy and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

We headed for Alex's Restaurant for a spookylicious time downtown. We were Medusa, a space alien, a priest, and a who-knows-what -- joined later by Rainbow Bright and Where's Waldo (Mick's fellow associate / dentist, Nicole, and her husband, Chris).

And... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEdusa!