Happy Halloween!

Halloween is here!  Halloween is here!

In case I had forgotten, the girls were ready to remind me as soon as they woke me up.

MADELEINE: (barging through my bedroom door and leaping onto my bed) Mama!  It's Halloween today!  (jumping up and down on my bed) It's Halloweeeeen!  It's Halloweeeeen!

JULIA: (bursting out of her bedroom) Happy Halloweeeeeeen, Mommy!

Since it is finally Halloween, I can rest assured knowing that tomorrow morning I can take Julia's Emily Binx gravestone picture off of the bathroom mirror.  As awesomely spooky as it is to have such a creepy decoration greeting me each time I go into the bathroom, I will certainly be happy to actually be able to see myself as I style my hair in the morning without having to stand on tiptoe.

And speaking of this gravestone picture: I gave the details a bit more attention recently, and realized that Julia had even given death dates for poor old Thackery and Emily Binx.  Knowing that in the movie "Hocus Pocus," the Binx kids die on the Halloween three hundred years before present day, Julia inscribed the tombstones as thus:

Emily Binx October 31 300
Thacory Binx October 31 300

Apparently, the Binx children are older ghosts than we thought.  Although I have to say, in the year 300, I'm assuming that kids in Salem would more likely have borne names like Sakhonteic and Kewanee rather than Thackery and Emily.


The girls were excited for school today; for Julia, she had pajama day and a Halloween party to look forward to, and for Madeleine, the chance for the teachers to finally carve the classroom pumpkin and toast pumpkin seeds for snack.  And speaking of pumpkins, the girls deigned to pose by our own pumpkins this morning before we headed off to school:

Both kids were in great moods after school, and Julia showed off her goody bag and Halloween bracelet from her school party.  As part of the party, the class got to do a Halloween-themed packet of worksheets, among which was a blank page for writing a poem.

Here is Julia's masterpiece:

Pumpkin

Pumpkin shinny and big now you are a griining Jack-o-lantern.

LOVE it.


And: speaking of loving it, the girls THOROUGHLY enjoyed tonight's Halloween experience.  Hermione spoke in a British accent throughout the entire trick-or-treat route, while Ballerina Cat (who insisted we call her Emily Binx) saw opportunity to grab fistfuls of candy when allowed to choose her own pieces out of the neighborhood bowls.

All in all, it was a great Halloween for the Rowes!