Although he made it look like a much more foreboding experience than it actually was, Béla and Claudia went to Termini’s bakery for the infamous “dead bones” cookies. Of which I doubt they ate more than one.

Claudia’s YouTube makeup tutorial searches landed us with a formidable shopping list, but we amended it to be more Claudia-friendly. She does have the special custom-fit fangs, although we will see how that goes. And we are still planning to use our special cartoon tutorial explaining how a person of color, if having become a vampire or zombie, would not become “white” or “green”. We think we are ready to make her a believable little black vampire girl in the grandest tradition.

Both kids also decided they can’t use the pink and orange trick-or-treat pumpkins they have always had, and I had to get black ones. Fine.

 

We haven’t made it to the pumpkin farm yet, but we did make it to Electric Factory to see… Ministry!!

Okay, we were a little over-hopeful, because apparently Ministry hasn’t played “Every Day is Halloween” live since 1987. But we were REALLY HOPING. Claudia even sent a direct message to Al via my phone (well, she held it up in the air):

And we did have fun. It was really everyone’s first exposure to that much live industrial sound and it was… assaulting. The kids, however, explored it with their standard curiosity.

Still eleven days to go and much to do! Claude has watched “Poltergeist” and “Sleepy Hollow” and we went to the Halloween store even if Béla didn’t open his eyes once.