Goblins and ghosts and princesses, oh my!

Darling daughter wanted a Halloween party, so she's getting the crafty-est Halloween party of all time. We've learned the hard way that if you have a dozen kids over and nothing planned to do, chaos will ensue. So I have paper for making jack-o-lanterns and wizard hats, and lots of straight sticks and feathers and foil for making magic wands. The only game we came up with is the old grapes-and-spaghetti-in-a-covered-bowl game. Is it brains? Guts? Eeeew!

DD also wants dancing, so we'll pull out the Best of the 80s CDs and let them boogie down. She's going to dress up as a princess; the other kids were asked to dress up, but DD has a pile of dress-up clothes, mostly princess stuff, that they can swap if they want.

And what's Halloween without goodies? I got the coolest Halloween gummis—black ones shaped like skulls and rats, white skeletons, pink and white fangs complete with gums, spiders—and some small wrapped chocolates. I'm going to make some chocolate cupcakes; the ones with orange frosting will be mini-pumpkins; the ones with black licorice strings poking out of them will be spiders (I couldn't find black food color for the frosting). One of the moms offered to bring veggie kabobs—lovely husband managed not to laugh at her over the phone. Silly woman! Halloween is not about nutrition! It is about gluttony! Sheesh.

L.H. brought home a pumpkin, but we're just going to draw a face on it with a black marker. I am not to be trusted with a knife, and we want to cook it later, so intact is better.

D.D. will be out of school next week, but I think we figured out that she'll only have to come to class with us a couple of days. Monday is a state holiday (All Saints), so we can all hang out at home, then Tuesday I have no classes to attend, and Friday L.H. has no classes to teach. One of my instructors has school-aged kids, too, and she said she might bring them to class, or let them play in her office down the hall, so D.D. coming is no problem. The other classes are large and anonymous, so no problem there, either. Of course, poor D.D. has been dragged to the university so often in her life already that she'll probably not want to go to college by the time she's old enough. It's that boring place.

She said the funniest thing the other day. She wore her new corduroy dress from her Grandma to school, and the after-school teacher asked her if it was her birthday, since she was so dressed up. And she got a book from a classmate (long story). So when she got home, she told me it felt like her birthday, particularly since she was so pretty. No confidence problems there!

Weather-bitching level: I can't decide.
It didn't actually rain today, but we've had a weird mix of slightly overcast and sunshine. The overcast was not even that distressing since the clouds were big and puffy instead of a solid layer of smothering gray. So I guess I can't complain. Drat.