Pumpkin day

Looking back at last weekend's to-do list, I'm pleased to note that I did almost everything on it -- and what I didn't do, I'll do tomorrow. I worked hard at school today to get ready for Friday, and partially to get ready for Monday, so I can spend most of tomorrow at home getting ready for Kid A's class's Halloween party on Friday. Busy busy.

One reason why I'm being so diligent is that I'm coming down with a cold or some other bug. I have a cough, stuff gathering in my throat, and a general unwell feeling. It makes me so nervous to get sick during the term that I immediately get very productive, trying to leave myself some elbow room in which to be sick.

I thought I'd post some photos of our Halloween preparations so far. On Sunday, the boos and I did go to the pumpkin patch at Cottonwood Farm to get some pumpkins.

It was one of those fake patches where they buy a few thousand pumpkins from Illinois or somewhere and scatter them around a big empty field. We do have real pumpkin patches out here and I probably should have gone to one of them.

But Cottonwood is very good for little kids. They have a corn maze that is real -- but not scary. The boos loved it, and kept running back into it. At first I had to go with them, but they quickly realized that they didn't need me and went tearing off. Kid B even went in all by himself while Kid A and I went in search of a wagon for our pumpkins. He went all the way through the maze and emerged on the other side, by the pumpkin field.

And here we have Kid A pulling the wagon with our pumpkins. I do not know why we needed to get FOUR large pumpkins, but I guess I'll be doing a lot of carving Friday night or Saturday morning. I hope I feel better!

I've been wearing Halloween clothes to school all week, but subtly. I'm sure my students haven't noticed. On Monday I wore my snake earrings and today I wore my little black spider earrings. I've also been wearing black pants and black or purple tops. This has always been a ritual of mine -- wear darker and darker clothes as October progresses. Then, on November 1st, I switch to blue and brown. I'm sure the students won't notice that either, which is fine. I'm doing it for me, not them.

We didn't fully clean the house, so we didn't fully decorate, either, but I did get out my little Halloween Barbie dolls. I now have 22! But the newer ones (I bought two at Target this year, for I think $6.99 each) are not nearly as cute as the older ones. I should buy the older ones that I don't have on eBay and call it quits. Still, the boos think they're a lot of fun and they were the ones who urged me to buy the new dolls at Target. We'll see.


You can also see, on the piano beneath the dolls, my other Halloween toy purchase this year. It's a Playmobil ghost, and it's absolutely adorable. Here's a close-up: isn't he darling? He has a really evil expression on his face, and he carries a candlestick in one hand and a ring of keys in the other. He also has a ball and chain attached to him. There's no explanation included in the box -- he just is who he is. He doesn't seem like an American toy at all -- and of course Playmobil toys are from Germany.

There's a little button to push on his underside which sets off a series of flashing colored lights. He also glows in the dark. When he's not being photographed, I keep him by my bedside, and after I turn off the light, he glows evilly at me. Makes me smile.

I guess that's enough about Halloween, though of course I will post pictures of the boys in their costumes eventually. And now I must go to bed, because it is nearly 10 pm and I'm feeling sicker by the minute.