Of course the biggest event of our week was Halloween, but we had a pretty busy week. Tuesday, Evie had her filming portion of her dance company's Nutcracker Movie which they are producing this year instead of doing a performance. I have been impressed with her company's innovation in these pandemic times, finding a way for everyone to still put on a production without sacrificing safety. They have been filming scenes at different locations all around town, and Evie's shoot was at the Botanic Gardens in a field. So we had to get done with school a little bit early on Tuesday and get into hair and make up. We drove to the Gardens, got her in costume and walked quite a ways to the middle of the gardens where they were filming in a field near a chapel. Her shoot was supposed to be from 3:30 to 5, and about 4:15, a man in a nice suit comes up to us and asks how long we are supposed to be here for and then says, "Oh I guess we're double-booked. We have a wedding in the chapel at 5." The girls rushed over to shoot what they were planning to shoot in the chapel so that the wedding party could have their space, but we jokingly offered the angels as flowers girls for the ceremony. The bride and groom got their pictures with the girls, so I guess that was good enough.
Hair and make up at home
The prettiest angel I've eve seen
Angel Corps
I have an angel on my shoulder
On Friday, Evie had tap class and then her school was doing a drive through trunk or treat. I honestly did not even want to take her to the trunk or treat thing, so I wasn't going to tell her about it, but apparently her teachers made a big announcement about it and encouraged everyone to attend. It suddenly became important to Evie to go to this, so of course I took her... She was allowed to dress in costume at tap class, so she chose to be Bo Peep from last year and then kept her costume on for the trunk or treat event. We got in line for trunk or treat at about 6:00. It started at 5 and was supposed to be over at 7, so when the line hadn't moved very much by 6:30, I told her it was possible we were not going to be getting any candy and they may close it down - her poor teachers had been teaching since 8 am and were out in the cold to do this. Evie was disappointed, but understood my point. We were about 20 cars from the school main entrance by 7:15 and then suddenly the teachers came pouring out of the back of the school where they had been doing the passing out of candy, and they started walking the line of cars to make sure that everybody got some candy and got to see their (masked) faces. I was so impressed at their dedication, and we got to see Evie's 2nd grade teacher from last year. Evie, who had been concerned about not getting to see anyone and had been bemoaning (but not unreasonably so) how long the line was, suddenly perked up and kept saying "Oh wow!" as more and more candy was dropped into her treat bucket. After we made it through the line, she said, "That was totally worth it!" I wouldn't normally agree that getting some candy and seeing some teachers for 5 minutes was worth an hour wait, but I guess for a kid who's been confined to a house for 8 months, it was a magical experience. She came home and started sorting out the candy into piles of chocolate vs. non-chocolate, and then candy that we (Daddy and Mama) would like vs. candy that we weren't interested in. She's so thoughtful.
Tonight, of course, was Halloween during a pandemic. We weren't sure how it was going to go, but we were pleasantly surprised. Evie dressed up as Mary Poppins this year and since we weren't doing much else for Halloween events this year, Daddy and I agreed to dress up as penguins when she requested it.
We waited until about 5 pm and then embarked on our hunt for safe candy. We figured that if people had candy out on porches or in buckets, we could take it, but we wouldn't knock on any doors and wouldn't walk up to anyone. Fortunately, we found lots of people who had left candy or treat bags out for the taking.
We also saw a couple of genius people who had created their own candy delivery system. A boy from Evie's first grade class lives nearby and he was outside with his siblings and mom. His mom had a cart on wheels, the kind teachers used to use for projectors, and she had tied down a bucket of candy to the top, then tied a rope to the cart. She pushed the cart so it rolled over to us, Evie grabbed some candy, and then the mom reeled the cart back in with the rope. I thought that was clever. I also noticed that Evie's former classmate was staring somewhat agape at Evie, mouth hanging open, and was speechless. When we started to walk away, Evie said thanks and bye, and then once we'd gotten about 15 paces away, the boy seemed to suddenly regain his speaking abilities and called out, "Bye, Evie!" after her. She turned around a gave him a little wave. I think he might have a bit of a crush on her.
We then encountered an older gentleman sitting in a lawn chair on his sloped driveway. He had an 8 foot long piece of gutter pipe resting on a folding table. He told us we were his first customers for his candy chute and he was extremely excited to try it out. He loaded the candy into the top of the pipe, then lifted it into the air and down it slid right into Evie's bucket. She squealed with delight and the man roared with laughter and we all applauded. It's funny how something as simple as that could bring smiles and make a weird Halloween suddenly seem more fun. He was our last stop and as we rounded the corner back home, Evie declared that this was the best trick-or-treating ever!
At 6, Granna, Grannadaddy, Kathy, and Rickie came over for an outdoor meal on the deck. We showed off our costumes and had dinner. Granna, of course, had brought Evie a treat bag, and we had fun watching her look through that. Then, when Evie went inside, I hid the plastic pumpkins that Seth and I had stuffed with candy so she had a Pumpkin Hunt in the backyard using a blacklight flashlight. I also saved a special one that had a $10 bill in it.
Even though it wasn't Halloween as usual, I think it may have been all the more special and all the more appreciated.
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