Halloween, that sugar laden pinnacle of the child's fall calendar, has come and gone, blessed by the orange rays of a miraculously warm fall sun. We're holiday fans here, and Halloween is no exception, so after breakfast we packed up and headed into Ann Arbor for the costume parade and trick-or-treating along Main Street. Calvin chose his own costume this year (from an array of offered ideas, of course), opting to be a scarecrow - the easiest (and cheapest) home cooked costume ever: 
I got a number of fabric swatches from my godmother, Lonnie, and used thick thread and large stitches to put patches on a $2 resale shirt; for his head, a $1 straw hat to which I added ribbon from my craft collection and a couple of additional patches; and for the icing on the costume cake I added handfuls of straw (from the farm down the road) to his sleeves and hat. He was pretty excited about the costume, and everyone else seemed to enjoy it, but he was nervous about approaching strangers to say trick-or-treat. The candy collecting process, 
however, was a big hit. In fact, having made rounds in both Ann Arbor and later in our own neighborhood, he came away with copious amounts of candy, none of which we thought he needed to eat. In the end we made a deal with him and he traded in all of the candy he collected (which we promptly passed back out to kids at our own door) for the opportunity to pick out a new toy. Therefore, today, instead of a sugar rush, he has a brand new carton of wooden eggs for his kitchen, with which he is at least equally as happy (the toy lasts longer anyhow) and we are much happier. I think next year we will be the dreaded house in the neighborhood that passes out raisins.
More pictures in the Halloween 2008 album.