Boo

Owen started Halloween a full week early. The weekend before the big day, this little avocado got on his costume and went to a local event.

On actual Halloween, Warsaw got a head start thanks to their time zone. This little bunny got dressed up for daycare.

Owen got a lot of mileage out of his first Halloween and met his first jack-o-lantern.

Up in Minneapolis, Lloyd and Freddie were not left out in the cold. They enjoyed some Halloween fun, including trick-or-treating and a party at John's office the night before. 
 

Flashback Friday

This was Mary's first Halloween in 1992. I'm happy to report that she survived the trauma. By the way, that's 4-year old Peter as Ernie and 2-year old John as Bert.

Flashback Friday

In today's edition of "who wore it best" we have an old favorite, the pumpkin costume. On the left is the original wearer, Peter, at age 2. And on the right we have the adopted wearer (she's worn it off and on since middle school), Mary, at age 32. Yes ladies and gentlemen, it's the SAME costume. In Mary's defense, she's fit not only herself but also her unborn child into this costume that was, literally, built for a child. I recently realized I still have the pattern for this classic, so I've promised to make Mary an adult version of the pumpkin costume for next year. A mother's work is never done. (Peter and John, I'll make you and/or your children one too if you'll wear it.)

Halloween Weekend

 Lloyd got a jumpstart on Halloween. On Saturday he dressed as Maverick and they tried to go to a parade, but it got snowed out. In Lloyd's character's language I think they call that getting your wings clipped.

Over here in Tucson we visited Aunt Joyce on Sunday and went to the "fall festival" event that took place in the garden area that's outside her building. It was a lovely day and we had a nice time together.

Rosie stole the show in Philly, dressed up as the cutest little pumpkin imaginable.

It looks like she did a great job of handing out treats on her very first Halloween. Next year and for every year from now on, she's going to want to eat all that candy. I hope Peter and Jessa enjoyed the serenity of this Halloween.

Flashback Friday

Let's party like it's 1992! Happy Halloween! 

Let's Talk About Last Week

I feel like I've been in a time warp. At least that's my excuse for being behind on my blog journaling. Not sure I ever called my blog a journal before, but that's most definitely what it is and I'm going to try not to hold back so much on the journaling side of things. Anyway, I digress. Let's talk about Halloween! In Baltimore, Andy wore a longtime Harrison favorite Halloween costume. There's a loooong story behind this gem from 1990. (Yes, the costume is older than the person wearing it!) Back in 1990 I sewed this costume for Peter, age two. Needless to say, it was a bit large on him but we stuffed it with newspapers and he was a chubby pumpkin. I don't think John ever wore it, but Mary got lots of mileage out of this costume in middle school and beyond. And now she's the caretaker of it.

Andy shared the pumpkin top with Tikka, who seems to have had her fill of Halloween for the year.

I didn't hear about any trick-or-treating happening at Peter and Jessa's house in Philadelphia, but these two seem too cool for such shenanigans.

Fast forward to election day Tuesday. Troy worked as an Election Judge in Fort Collins. Jessa was a Vote Guardian in Philadelphia. Mary worked multiple phone bank shifts making calls for Mark Kelly and Joe Biden in Arizona. (As did I.) I love that Harrisons all around the country were involved in this Presidential election.

On Saturday I ran a 5k. It was virtual and it was the first time that I really and truly ran a 5k for time. I wouldn't exactly say it was fun, but I ran a good time so when it was all over I was happy. And it was nice to get out of the neighborhood and run somewhere else in town, which is something I need to do more often.

Also on Saturday, Peter and Jessa drove down to Baltimore to have lunch with Mary and Andy. And of course also to see their new house! It'll be many months, if not longer, before it's safe for us to travel to Baltimore and Philadelphia, but I am glad that Peter and Mary and their partners live fairly close to each other.

The weather was nice and they could distance outdoors with a beautiful view on Mary and Andy's deck. 

Our hummingbirds have been shy for awhile, but they came out again this weekend it was good to see them. We have about a dozen feeders so there is no lack of sugary fuel for our favorite furry fliers.

 

Flashback Friday

For Halloween in 1994—when we lived on Charles Street in Racine—we had a vampire, a Muppet, and a scuba diver. The kids were 6, 4, and 2 years old. Now they're 32, 30, and 28 years old. 
 

Flashback Friday

Swan's Pumpkin Farm was a fun place to visit when we lived in Racine. Not sure why Mary wasn't in this picture. She was about a year old at the time. Slacker? Or maybe napper?

The Halloween That Peaches Dressed Up As Simba

It was another great Halloween in Long Beach, thanks to the festive party that our downstairs neighbors held. The front of the house was starting to get decorated the day before when Allie, fresh off a nasty stomach sickness, went on her first walk in four days.

Allie had to inspect all the decor. These inspections included any barking she deemed necessary until such time as she concluded that the decorations were harmless.

About fifteen of us had a dinner party under the portico and gave out candy. By the time everything was well underway it was too dark to get a decent picture so this is about as good as I could get.

These were some of the early trick-or-treaters. We had hundreds of them, lined up from the portico to the sidewalk at times. The costumes were terrific and just like last year it was a really fun evening.

But I think the star of Halloween was over in Morocco. Jessa told me that Peaches dressed up as a lion for Halloween.

But wait, that's no ordinary lion. She's ..... Simba!

Flashback Friday

Happy Halloween! It's Mary and Mrs. Singer from Halloween of 2000.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween decorations around here are pretty good. Last weekend the three of us walked to the grocery store on Sunday morning and Allie got to meet Casper.

We also had some cute Halloween decorations at our house, thanks to my mom.

The guys who live below us own our house, and they pulled out their Halloween decorations on the afternoon of Halloween. As you can see, it's pretty extensive.

They invited us to join them for Halloween, which I'd been warned would have literally hundreds of trick-or-treaters. Even so, I figured we'd sit on the stoop, they'd sit on theirs, and we'd give out lots of candy together. Not quite. It was crazy. Kids lined up starting at about five o'clock, and going strong until nine o'clock. There were some great costumes, and I didn't get nearly as many (or as many good) pictures as I should have. In this photo, kind of hard to see, but on the right and in the front are the best Super Mario Brothers of the evening. (Best because of their great moustaches.)

This kid had one of the most imaginative costumes of the evening. He's an eagle. It's kind of hard to tell in the photo, but this costume was fantastic, and homemade.

We had a total of about fifteen adults in our group (friends of our downstairs neighbors) who gave out candy, who took turns controlling the spooky parts of the yard (there was a live zombie, a mechanical Freddie Krueger, and a spider that we'd drop over the kids' heads), and partook in the adult party under the portico. We had a lot of fun.

Another photo of the line for candy. I gave out candy for about an hour, and I'm not kidding, I went through bowl after bowl after bowl. One piece per kid (until the very end, when we realized we'd end up with a surplus of candy). Based on how much candy we had on hand to start the night, we estimate we had more than 500 kids. (We also had some dogs, and some of them in costume, so Allie graciously donated some of her dog treats for us to share with the festive pooches.)

Great Panda costume, or greatest Panda costume?

My personal favorite, the Donut Girl. I might borrow this costume idea for me to wear next year.

I take it back, I think this mother-daughter duo might have been my personal favorite. I wish the Wicked Queen would have stood up for the photo, because her costume (and makeup) were utterly fantastic. (And Snow White was no slouch either.)

This is some of our group, under the portico during a lull in the action. We had food, drink, and dessert to sustain us through the night. (That's Cowboy Brad in the center.)

And this is our scary spider, which the guy behind me could raise and lower on a wire. On the far right of the photo you can see Freddie Krueger's arm. The live zombie was off on the left (unpictured).

So that's a wrap on this year's Halloween, definitely the biggest we've ever experienced.

Flashback Friday

At the Harrison house in 1996, we had Count Dracula aka Peter (age 8) in his trying to look scary phase, Mary (age 4 and wearing a soccer medal) as that year's Disney princess Esmeralda, and Dr. Harrison calling Dr. John Harrison (age 6). Good times. Happy Halloween!

Halloween Plus a Bonus

Here's the bonus! I never had a chance to blog about Mary's visit to the White House Gardens. One of her friends from Stanford works at the White House and got a couple of tickets to a White House garden tour. On a beautiful Sunday morning in October, Mary and her friend got to walk around the Rose Garden, the vegetable garden, and whatever else is back there. She really enjoyed it.

And then there was Halloween. As you can see, Mary and Peter got into the spirit. Mary is dressed as Wednesday Addams (from the Addams Family) and Peter is . . . . . Carl Sagan. (Don't ask me what inspired him.) Their costumes are great and . . . . .

so is Jessa's! She and Ana went as one of everybody's favorite Emoji—the dancing bunny girls!

Meanwhile, John and Troy took Sirius on a weekend trip to a cabin in the woods. Here's the traveling dog, all ready for adventure.

The city dog got a taste of the country.

Meanwhile here at home we gave out Tootsie Rolls for Halloween. This is our third Halloween in St. Louis. We basically weren't at home for our first two Halloweens. This year we were home and I dressed up in a costume and had Halloween music playing in the entry way. What I'm trying to say is that this was our first "real" Halloween here. So thank goodness that earlier in the day I was talking to some locals who clued me in on a St. Louis tradition. Turns out that around here it's a custom for the kids to arrive at the door with a joke to tell in exchange for their treat. I had no idea! So the first group of kids knocks and I open the door and this cute little girl in the front has this huge smile on her face and she blurts out, "I got a joke!!" So she told her joke and I kind of figured maybe that would cover the entire group. But no! Each and every kid told his/her joke. And from then on, and I am not kidding, every single kid had a joke, save for two. I'd answer the door and ask, "Who's got the best joke?" and they'd all raise their hands and try to be the first one. It was really cute. The only downside was that we didn't have quite enough joke tellers to take all of our candy—I bought 150 Tootsie Rolls, and we didn't get 150 trick-or-treaters. Yikes—we've got to get rid of this candy before we eat it all!!

Flashback Friday

It's no mystery what Peter, John, and Mary dressed up as for Halloween in 1995. (In this picture the kids are in front of our house on Charles Street in Racine.) The big mystery is . . . . . what will they dress up as for Halloween in 2015??!!

Flashback Friday

Happy Halloween! John and Mary (grades six and three) dressed up for Halloween in 2001, when we lived in Warsaw. (I'm guessing that Peter (grade seven) was too cool either to dress up or too cool to have his photo taken by me - or maybe both!) I hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween!