The Substitute Diaries

Yesterday was Storybook Character Day at the elementary school where I've been working lately. It was so much fun. The teachers and staff dressed as storybook characters. Second and third grade students who met their reading goals for last six weeks also were allowed to dress as their favorite storybook character. Pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade students lined the hallways for the parade of storybook characters.

Here are a few of the outstanding characters I saw and the books they represented. I was delighted to hear the principal remind the students that many of their favorite movies were books long before they were movies.

School principal

Resource teacher

One of the first grade teachers

I'm pretty sure this is the school nurse.

Student teacher ... please make note of the fact that she is en pointe.

The office staff

There were several Cats in Hats and Things 1, Things 2, and probably enough to make it to Things 8 or 9.

These two little girls wore my favorite costumes of the day.

These are just a few of the other costumes that the kids wore.

After the parade, all the storybook characters met in the cafeteria where they were treated to a screening of Puss In Boots.

I love seeing kids who are excited about reading. This love of reading will serve them well for the rest of their lives. I know they will be in for a lifetime of enjoyment thanks to the encouragement and enthusiasm they get at this exemplary school.

The Cutest Little Brown Bear Ever

Grams volunteered to make a Halloween costume for Our Little Princess this year. Her Mom decided she should be a little brown bear. If you ask her what a bear says, she curls her fingers like claws and says "rowr!" I made it out of micro-fleece so it will double as a pair of winter pajamas.

I think she's the cutest little brown bear ever! And look at those beautiful big brown eyes.

 

Since they live in San Antonio, we weren't there to see her trick-or-treating for the first time. Her Mom reports that she was kind of mystified by the whole process. When a front door opened she would very softly say "trick or treat." And, anytime she saw kids in scary costumes, she would make about a 10-foot arc around them and grab firmly onto her Daddy's knees. I wish we had been there.

Instead, we went to a local production of the Rocky Horror Show. It was great fun. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. I hope you had a great Halloween, too.

Today is the third and final day of the SITS Girls Halloween link-up. Participants in this link up have a chance to win a fabulous state-of-the-art Canon Rebel DSLR camera, so I'm participating. Today's assignment was to post about what we or our kids dressed up for this Halloween. As you can see, I wrote about our grand-daughter. This SITS girls is a "group of more than 7,000 women bloggers dedicated to supporting one another by leaving comments. Lots and lots of comments." 

Ghosts of Halloweens Past

Grams was distressed this week to hear on the news that some cities are limiting trick-or-treating to children under 12 years old. In our neighborhood, children have always trick-or-treated well into their teens and I like it that way. Kids and teens are in such a hurry to grow up that I love to see them acting like kids for a few hours on Halloween night.

When our kids were growing up, Halloween was much anticipated and details were planned for weeks if not months. Kids and adults looked forward to it. Our neighborhood has always excelled at Halloween, often throwing huge block parties. Yards were decorated, candy was purchased, costumes were planned, games were set up in driveways.

Our neighborhood costume contest circa 1986. Katy is the punk rocker in blue and Nick is the cowboy. Nick won best costume that year.

As the kids got older costumes progressed from ballerinas and cowboys to punk rockers and zombies, but that didn't bother me in the least. It's a normal progression and part of growing up. These block parties provided my favorite memories of Halloween. Our neighborhood was alive with kids and teens running around and having good clean fun.

Usually by 9 o'clock the kids would be off the streets back safely in their homes. About that time, the adults would gather at the corner house with bottles of wine or margaritas and spend an hour or two sharing a few drinks and a laugh or two. Then we'd all head inside to tuck the kids in.

We continued to participate for a few years after our kids left home, but it made me sad because I missed the fun times we had with our kids. So, although the neighborhood still has a big block party, we usually choose not to participate. We usually go out to dinner and a movie for Halloween. This year, we're planning an early dinner at P.F. Changs and then we're going to a live performance of The Rocky Horror Show. We've seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show dozens of times on television, but this will be our first live production. I can't wait for Dammit Janet, The Time Warp, and Sweet Transvestite.

Happy haunting to all of you!

This post about a Halloween of the past is linked to www.thesitsgirls.com. By the way, I also want to tell you the “Tiffany is Pretty” although I'm not sure exactly how that ties in to this post. ;)

We're Really Good at Halloween

My neighborhood is really good at Halloween. No, I mean it. We're really, really good at it! And we've been good at it for a long, long time.

The Halloween frenzy started innocently enough. Years ago, when the neighborhood was new, there were not many children. In fact for a long time it seemed like ours were the only ones ... not literally, but it did feel that way for a while. As more people moved in and the younger couples started having babies, the Halloween festivities grew.

On Halloween night we would block off the street and there would be carnival games in every driveway. Kids could bob for apples, go through a spook house, toss bean bags, etc. There was even a costume contest. Some years, after the kids were put to bed, parents would meet at the corner and have wine and cheese to wind down.

These photos are from Halloween around 1987 or so. The kids in these photos are in their late twenties and early thirties now. Some of them come back and bring their own kids now. The old carnival has evolved to a huge party at my next-door neighbor's house. Everyone brings a covered dish. We usually have hamburgers and hot dogs and we eat dinner before the trick-or-treating begins. In addition to all the Halloween candy, there are homemade popcorn balls and decorated cookies.

Neighbors bring lawn chairs, ice chests and our own bag or basket of candy. Kids trick-or-treat by walking from person-to-person around the driveway. Then they head out, accompanied by a few adults, to knock on doors around the area.

In our neighborhood, trick-or-treating often continues well into teenage years. We love that and we embrace it. Teenagers, with fangs and fake blood run through the neighborhood, toss water balloons and spray silly string at each other. And ... some of them still trick-or-treat. It's good clean fun and I love the fact that they're not too grown up to participate in the festivities. Most of the adults and parents are sitting outside and everybody is keeping an eye on everybody's kids. My kids embraced Halloween well into their high school years.

Several years ago when our baby left for college (that's him bobbing for apples), we felt that it was important to keep doing the activities we had always done. For the first few years, Grams made a covered dish and around sundown on Halloween we would head next door to participate in the neighborhood festivities. But, Grams soon discovered that it's just not the same and I didn't really enjoy Halloween any more. I missed my kids and I would get a bad case of the blues when Halloween came around. Grams soon concluded that this was one of the areas of my life where adjustments were called for. So for the past several years, Grams and Grandad have opted out of the neighborhood festivities and gone to the movies. That way I don't have to resist eating any Halloween candy and I don't get the blues. With just this small adjustment ... Grams made it!