So that's how it works

We've been letting the kids watch Doctor Who lately, and Darby's particularly attached to it. On Sunday I gave Darby a haircut, which led Erika to tell him that we'll have to leave enough time to grow it back out before Halloween so it'll be suitable for his possible Doctor costume.

"I keep putting water on my head to make [the hair] grow," Darby offered.

Our First Jack-o'-lantern

Casey and Darby were very interested in helping me carve our big pumpkin today. After I made the incision, Casey pulled the top off. Once he got a look at what was inside, he pretty much stood back and let me and Darby take over. He didn't want anything to do with all those pumpkin guts.

Darby doesn't mind getting his hands messy. He stuck his spoon right in there, although I can't really say he was helpful. First, he wanted to taste the stuff. We were at the table and using spoons--I can see how he would get confused.

 Later I had to stop him from putting the goop I had already scooped out back into the pumpkin. I admire the enthusiasm, though.

While Darby and I worked on extracting the innards (actually, Darby wandered off at some point), Casey made some preliminary sketches of how he wanted the face to look. He decided the eyes had to be circles, and that the nose should be a triangle. He was less specific about what the mouth should look like, though. He just kept telling me it had to be "scary." So I gave it a few teeth.

Casey seemed pretty happy with it. Actually, I was just glad it turned out ok. I haven't made one of these things since my own parents were helping me. And, I remember being pretty squeamish about the pumpkin guts too.

 

Casey likes to take the top off and put it back on. Simple joys, I guess.

Halloween at the Zoo

The zoo had a special trick-or-treating event on Sunday, so we put the kids in their costumes and headed over. The line for the trick-or-treating was ridiculously long, so we skipped that. Casey didn't know the difference. He was just enjoying wearing his costume, seeing the other kids in their costumes, and just being at the zoo, his absolute favorite place in the world.

Casey is a monkey this year. I had some vague aspirations toward making homemade costumes, but in the end I just got him this off Craig's List. I don't even know where my sewing machine is packed. And every day, it seemed like Casey was telling me he wanted to be something different. Batman. Ghost. Lion. I heard giraffe quite a few times.

He never mentioned monkey, but I thought the monkey costume was cute and that I could talk him into it. Unfortunately the conversation went something like this:

"Casey, do you want to be a monkey?"

"No, I want to be a giraffe!"

"Hmmm ... I don't think I can get a giraffe costume. Wouldn't it be cool to be a monkey?"

"Oh ... ok ... I want to be a hippo!"

Seriously, how do you make a kid look like a hippo? Luckily, ever since we acquired the monkey costume, he has been very excited about it. I am still a little ashamed that I didn't try to come up with a giraffe costume, though. Maybe next year.

Isn't he cute? When he was first modeling it, he turned around and made me take a photo of his tail too. But I'm not going to post that.

This was a popular costume. We saw quite a few just like it at the zoo. One of the best costumes we saw was a guy dressed as the Man in the Yellow Hat (his kids were Curious George and a baby banana). And, we ate lunch at the same table as a family of penguins. That was a little odd, actually. They kept trying to make polite conversation, but I just couldn't take them seriously.

Darby's wearing the pumpkin costume that has been handed down to us from the cousins. He doesn't resemble a hobbit in the same way Casey did at this age, so we won't be reusing the Frodo costume I made. (Unless ... could he pass for Samwise Gangee?? I don't know ...)

One of the best moments of the day was when these three macaws knocked this pumpkin off the branch. They all looked down at the shattered remnants in stunned silence for a moment, then simultaneously started squawking at each other in this very accusatory way. Like, "I can't believe you just did that!" "ME?! You were the one shoving your beak in there!" "Now what are we going to peck at?" You kind of had to be there, but it was hilarious.

Fun at the playground ...

Darby intently watches the giraffes. (Giraffes plural! Two additional giraffes are staying in Wisconsin for the winter.)

Stay tuned in the next few days for "Darby: The Year in Review."