October was a marked improvement over September. Sure we were running around all crazy between soccer and music and after school choir lessons. But everyone was healthy! And there were fun things to look forward to! And eventually the weather cooled off a bit!

Ian – 2nd grade – age 7

Early in the month, the kids had school photos. I was liking the whole outdoor photos thing that COVID had inspired the past couple of year. Sadly, they were moved indoors this year (I’m sure it’s a much more controlled environment), but the kids’ photos still turned out really well.

Maya – 4th grade – Age 9

Alamo Drafthouse, our go-to movie theater, often has fun events for the holidays. This year, for Halloween, they were offering a Beetlejuice movie party. They show the movie and  provide fun props, and their normally stringent “no talking” rules are relaxed to encourage audience participation. I LOVE that movie, and I truly felt like the kids were old enough to enjoy it.

On our way in, we were outfitted with some rubbery eyeballs, a shrimp keychain, a cool sand worm sticker, and a Miss Argentina sash. We ordered delicious food. We had fun clapping and shouting along with our audience members as favorite movie characters made their first appearance in the film. The kids found Beetlejuice’s antics funny, and I thought they were going to die laughing at the wild Day-O performance.

We had the kids seated at one table and us at an adjacent table since that’s how the food sharing worked out. Partway through the movie, we changed around so that each kid would be sitting by a grown up, since Ian was left off by himself with only Maya for comfort. In this configuration, we made it nearly to the end of the movie, but the scene where our two main characters suddenly age rapidly and start to look sort of skeletal and creepy turned out to be a little much for Ian. I tried explaining to him how the movie ended, to let him know the bad thing would be undone, but ultimately he decided he’d had enough. He and I headed out of the theater and took a walk around the parking lot instead. Parenting fail? Maybe, but I choose to think of it as adaptive parenting.

Maya and Ian on their way into the symphony

As part of Maya’s curriculum at her new music school, she’s required to see some live musical performances throughout the year. To that end, we decided to go see the Austin Symphony’s children’s Halloween concert. We all got dressed up – the kids in their costumes, and Sean and I in holiday appropriate clothes – and headed downtown to the Long Center. Before the show, the kids were able to make a few STEM-esque crafts. In between all that, we talked them into tolerating a few photos with the city skyline in the background – in case it isn’t obvious, it was a bit windy that day. Then Sean loaded them up with treats from the concession stand, and we spent a brisk hour watching the Austin Symphony. They performed a variety of pieces, but Maya’s favorites by far were the ones from the Harry Potter movies.

New glasses!

Ian finally got new glasses – our family COVID infection the previous month had put us behind on scheduled human maintenance. He again went with a purple pair, though maybe a bit more subdued and sophisticated this time. So far he hasn’t managed to smash them or lose them <knock on wood>, so I’m content.

We all got our flu shots. For 75% of us, this is a minor inconvenience, a small fear that could easily be rationalized away. For the remaining 25%, this is sheer trauma. (I’ll let you guess who. Rhymes with papaya. And jambalaya.) Maybe it’s not fair that only 25% of us experienced the trauma of that tiny little barely-there injection. I felt some bleed-over angst, and Sean, who had the unenviable task of staying with her till she got her shot certainly felt some. Worst though was probably our intrepid pharmacist. I’m gonna guess that we aren’t welcome back, at least not if we have daughter dearest in tow. She has a strategy for next year though – she will go first so she doesn’t have to see the other three of us get needles stuck in our arms.

The Cat and the Cobra, in pumpkin form

We were able to continue our tradition of having the kids work with our long-time friend and babysitter Anna to draw the designs on their jack-o-lanterns this year. Maya went with a simple but adorable cat. Ian chose a relatively intricate (for us) cobra. Thank goodness Anna drew that one, or it would never have happened. Even as Ian and I were cutting it out, I wasn’t really getting the full picture – not until we went outside and lit it up. I think they both turned out great, and I was pleased that the kids did a fair amount of the carving this year.

Dad had fun at trunk or treat too

The Friday before Halloween, the kids got dressed up and went to the Trunk or Treat in the  two big parking lots af their school. Maya really wanted us to decorate our car – and I think if we hadn’t COVIDed, we would have, so maybe next year. Some of the families really did a great job. There was a Candyland car, a Harry Potter one, another for Willy Wonka, a really cute Encanto themed one. My favorite was probably the P. Scary’s Burger Stand. It’s a plan on local burger chain P. Terry’s, and it was a work of pun-filled art.

Getting ready to trick or treat

And finally, the big day. Actual Halloween. We plied the kids with a perfunctory dinner, so we could pretend they’d had something with a bit of protein before the candy-fest ensued. We have a more or less standard route at this point. We made it probably two thirds of the way through the path before the kids informed us their buckets were overflowing. Our neighborhood doesn’t usually get a ton of trick-or-treaters, and so most people wind up giving candy out by the handful, especially as the evening wears on. We actually stopped by the house and let the kids dump their buckets so we could finish up our route. I cannot believe how much candy we have.

Yay for bouncing back after a rough COVID month, after a rough summer. The kids got to have fun and be carefree. They got to stay up too late and eat a little too much candy and watch a movie that was maybe not 100% age appropriate. We listened to the symphony and played in the yard and carved pumpkins. It’s been a pretty good month. (Also, the photographed chicken can be repeated by following this recipe: Buttermilk-Marinated Roast Chicken.)