Halloween

We've been spending Halloween with friends for the past four years. It's a great tradition: The boys, who have known each other all their lives, get a chance to stay up way past their bedtimes, play, and eat candy.

The adults get a great meal (Elizabeth always makes something good), have a few drinks, and eat candy. Everybody wins. 

This year there was a parade, which Jane was very excited about. Samson was more interested in running around to make his cape all flowy. He also kept coming up to tell me not to worry, that it was just a costume and that behind the mask it was really just him. 

Trick or treating was terrific. Our friends' neighbors are great; the kids were all polite; and I think by the end of the night Jane had figured out the whole trick-or-treating thing. Seriously, she was moving like a SEAL at those last few houses.

Like her brother before her, Jane doesn't really see the firefighter outfit as a costume. Rather, she looks at it more like a wardrobe option. So she's been wearing the pants around the house for the past few days. Which is funny for a lot of reasons, among them the fact that Jane is obsessed with putting her hands and other things in her pockets.

Unfortunately the firefighter pants don't have pockets. But they do have suspenders.

Watching her walk around  with them on has been like watching a mini Andy Dufresne. Every few steps she takes around the living room shakes something she's just pocketed loose --- crayon, matchbox car, hair clip.

If she asks for a poster of Rita Hayworth, we'll know she's planning something...