My own trick or treaters, circa 1997

Happy Halloween!  I hope all the little ones on the East Coast had a chance to trick or treat last weekend, before Hurricane Sandy wreaked her havoc. What's not to love about the day?  Yummy treats (I loved the little Tootsie Rolls and packages of Sweet Tarts), and a chance to try on a different persona for a night.   I loved the costumes my mother used to sew when I was little--one year in particular I remember a great Pilgrim costume, complete with long braids made out of nylons!  She is an incredibly creative seamstress and my siblings and I always looked pretty 'cool' out on the streets.  Well, to be honest, we looked cool if you looked past the winter coats, hats, boots and mittens that we were also sporting---trick or treating in South Dakota could be a frosty affair!

I also enjoyed making my children's costumes.   The little witch costume above was particularly memorable, but certainly not in the way I had intended!  I waited until late at night to finish the costume the night before, and was kind of punch-drunk tired.  The costume called for orange glow-in-the-dark fabric paint (the kind in the little tubes) to be applied in little swirls on black tights.  So I cut open the tip of the tube and squeezed.  And squeezed.  And squeezed.  And (you probably know where I'm going with this, right?!) all of a sudden the tube BURST open and who knew a tube of paint could spread so far?!  My face and hair was covered in orange  splotches, and looking around the family room my husband and I found splats of paint on the fireplace, the carpet, the sofa, the window blinds, and even on the ceiling fan!  And let me tell you...this was high quality paint, because it glowed for a long time past Halloween!  

Here's a fun little poem from Carl Sandburg in celebration of all things pumpkin.  And speaking of pumpkins...check out the new recipe I tried last night for pumpkin cake on my recipe page!  It was spookily good!

Theme in Yellow

I spot the hills

With yellow balls in autumn.

I light the prairie cornfields

Orange and tawny gold clusters

And I am called pumpkins.

On the last of October

When dusk is fallen

Children join hands

And circle round me

Singing ghost songs

And love to the harvest moon;

I am a jack-o'-lantern

With terrible teeth

And the children know

I am fooling.

My own little Batman and Pumpkin, circa 1988.  Note the hooded sweatshirts underneath...I wasn't kidding about SD October weather!