Monday, October 31, 2005
Halloween at the House of Fielding
We carved the pumpkins at the appropriate time -- the witching hour -- and David finished his in a fraction of the time it took me to do mine. You can see why. I don't know what I was thinking when I started carving; I had a loose plan for the eyes, but I was stuck on the nose and mouth. I took a marker and started something vaguely Maori-ish, then freestyled with the knife and ended with Easy Serrated Teeth in a Big Mouth Because I Was Tired. The appendage hanging down the middle started off as an uvula, looked more like an unmentionable, so I cut a couple of nostrils into it.
It was a perfect night for trick-or-treating -- barely a breeze, almost balmy. The plan was for me to wear David's pirate costume, but to make things easier I just threw on the leaf garlands from our wedding and turned us into trees. This didn't last long -- David didn't find the leaves comfortable, so he put on his baggy trousers (now baggier than ever!) and musket, wore his tam, then switched to his tri-corner hat.
I'm a fallen tree. If Hugh wasn't such a fraidy cat with kids, I'd have put him on my shoulder. Or put him in a bow tie, if I could. This is who came to our door:
1 SpongeBob Squarepants
1 witch
1 princess
1 hula girl
2 ghouls
1 Luke Skywalker
3 Darth Vaders (2 of them were the neighbour twins)
1 Harry Potter
1 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
1 monkey
1 Tin Man
1 mouse
1 fairy
1 tiger
1 Playboy Bunny*
1 accident victim
1 very cute pink sheep
1 mummy
1 cowboy
... and some we couldn't identify. David won the bet that the first child would be SpongeBob Squarepants. The Harry Potter kid wasn't so obvious to me, but his dad said the little guy's glasses kept fogging up, so he took them off.
* If you're old enough to be dressed like the Playboy Bunny, you're too old for trick-or-treating.
