I’m grouchy; the District has a day off today for whatever reason, which makes it impossible for us to have a full day of school or even close. Claude and a friend are on Sims already. Béla is headed out the door to meet friends at the Further Playground.

This isn’t even our best stuff but in a house that has a framed Alamo Drafthouse “Halloween” movie poster AND a Village of the Damned bunting up 365 days a year…

So this is interesting; heaven knows the “interesting” little things about Béla pile up pretty much by the month at this point; but he can’t seem to see lenticular effects. At least not in this portrait. Which they fought bitterly NOT to go to the basement to retrieve.

We are by no means completely “decorated” and honestly sometimes in our front room it can be very hard to tell that anything new has been added to the avalanche. (There is a huge, incomplete somatosensory homunculus head in there right now after all.) But they were so excited to bring the things out of the bin — it was so fun to watch. They are gearing up to watch “Over the Garden Wall” and I have been reading them Ray Bradbury’s “The Halloween Tree” which we may well zip through in a week, they are so into it. (Then, they said, they will read it aloud to Tucker when he is around, which is not very much.)

My favorite time of the year is definitely here and climate disaster or not, I’m going to have as much of it as I can, and so are my kids. Every sensory, literary and immersive memory I can help provide, I will. Even though they proved them selves old enough to “do” 13th St. without an adult right with them Trick or Treating last year (that’s a rite of passage, but a good one), I’ve got some very Tricky costuming to work on — they are back to appreciating my creativity. I never thought it would happen. (My idea for the kitten even passed muster.)

Time to buy some Ivin’s!