Halloween, take one

I don't know if this is true all over the country, but in Madison, Wisconsin, a halloween costume gets some good wear and tear. No one night stand here. There is a church parade, a street parade next Friday at a community center, and there was a party last night. Julia was soooo excited to get the invitation. She does not get invited to many parties. This is the first this year. She carried around the invitation for days until she lost it and I had to ask her teacher about the party because I had not made note of anything on the invitation. (Of course, this morning, the morning after the party, I found it in the bottom of our library bag and then remembered exactly when she put it there.)

I finished the purple ballerina dinosaur costume on Saturday morning during Julia's therapy. I still have dino hands to make but I'm giving myself the weekend off. Julia added her magic wand and she was very, very happy with our results!

The family that hosted about 30 or so kids in their backyard and house was every so kind and together. I think the rest of us parents should have contributed to a fund to have the house cleaned professionally and deeply. There were outside activities and a trampoline and food and dancing in the living room that was full of smoke (Kids still dance to YMCA.), and a craft table to decorate miniature pumpkins and races and a scavenger hunt for candy. Julia ran around with the best of them. She really enjoyed the trampoline, ate a cupcake, and did some dancing. She had the sign in and making a name tag protocol of all good seminars and some parties down cold. She was happy that I stayed (I was not the only over-protective parent to stay and keep an eye on the ruckus.) but was also happy to be free with her classmates.
The party began at 5 and ran until 8, but by 7:30 I noticed that Julia was working on a pumpkin and didn't really want any more socializing. So, we left. I admit that I had had enough of the noise and frenetic activity as well.

I know I have become much more protective of Julia than I was two years ago. And so, I am so glad that she was invited to this party, that I talked to other parents, and that I had a glass of wine. Julia and I got home, I had a bit of dinner, we watched an episode of Dinosaur King -- Julia's current favorite tv show -- on Hulu, and then went to bed. I thought I'd lay down with Julia and then get up, but I never made it out of bed.

Good times!