Good Witch

For the record, Zoey was a good witch this Halloween, not a bad witch or a scary witch (and especially not a green witch, an idea that was planted in her head but fortunately didn't stick--thanks mom). I got a simple $5 witch costume and hat at the Party Pig almost two months ago, so you see, I was prepared, but not overly ambitious with the costume. But then, I'm rarely costume ambitious. Hell, I'm rarely costumed.

She was an adorable witch though, and on cue would rock out the "I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog, too!" I had though to get her a little broom to carry around, or her little stuffed grey cat, but was glad I never got around to it, because you see, while accoutrements are cute with our little costumed ones, we are the ones who end up carrying these things around. And I had my camera with me, so I couldn't be bothered with carrying anything else.


We did manage to get a few days use out of the costume though (I mean, besides all the times at home when Zoey just wanted to wear it around the house). On Saturday, we went to the neighborhood elementary school Fall festival. Pretty much your standard school festival, lots of game booths (including a cake walk! Wow, hadn't even thought of that one for years), inflatables, and sweets. It reminded me of the old St. Vincent festivals we had every year, only there was no apparent gambling and no Vietnamese nuns selling delicious things to eat. Zoey had a blast in the moonwalk--oh she loves the inflatables these days, and got a few little stuffed animals as prizes.



My favorite part of the festival was the classic rock cover band they had. Oh my god, these guys did spot on renditions of Kansas, Rush and Journey, etc. Spot on. It really enhanced the overall 70s flashback of the experience. For me.






Halloween night, we went for the second year over to my friend Kelly's friend Amy's party in South Austin. She (Amy) lives in this really cute little neighborhood just south of 71 in the 45 zip code, and has an annual Halloween shindig that, as she says, just keeps getting bigger and bigger. We go so Zoey can trick or treat with her friend Olivia--you know, her oldest and dearest friend since birth.

Course it helps that Amy and her husband and two kids are all really cool. This year, being the oh-so-experienced Austinite I now am, I opted to drive down early to miss the traffic, as last year I'd left N. Austin at 5:30 and was in stop-and-go traffic all the way down MoPac. At 4:30, thankfully, it was merely slow most of the way, but at least we were moving.

Some of you may remember that last year, trick-or-treating was a bit too scary for Zoey to handle--we had to quit after about three houses. It didn't help that one of Amy's party guests had painted his face like one of the Misfits. Every time Z saw him she ran into my arms and buried her face in my neck, whimpering, "no more! no more!" This time, she trick or treated as well as any overly excitable 3 year old: more than a little bit confused and overwhelmed by the lights and spectacle of some of the houses, thrilled at being allowed to actually walk on the street untethered, distracted by all the strangers around her, and bewildered to find that no, she couldn't just walk into any of the houses. Still, she got candy. She and Olivia both had their "Trick or Treat" down, though Z preferred to reach in to grab her own candy, while Olivia was happy to just open her really big bag. It was fun to watch them have such fun. (I actually didn't watch her all that well, because I kept trying to take pictures, most of which didn't come out because when you have a DSLR, you can't see a thing when you look through the viewfinder. and I didn't have any little light to see what settings I was using. It was truly a total crapshoot. Oh well.)



Overall, a very fun and exciting evening for the little ZIPster, and I am more than happy to have it behind us. Her little pumpkin is keeping me flush in sweets--I'm going to try and eat them all before she realizes what has happened. (Also, there are more pictures up at my smugmug site, including a smattering of Halloween pics, and some pictures from zoey's Dance class.)



Harry the Pumpkin says "Bye!"