this was halloween, this was halloween

halloween for us has been a pretty low-key holiday the last few years, and 2022 was no exception.  the bean did make an effort and wore a costume to school, though.  they've known that they wanted to dress as encanto's mirabel for months, like ever since they got their hair cut.

as for me, this was what i wore for the day - since the first day of the mcrib's return was more important.

after i picked the bean up from school, we stopped at home so they could change out of the costume, put out a bowl of candy for the four trick-or-treaters we'd get and then we decided to head out to grab some burritos from an old favorite spot.  

this sign has been up for months. their sauce is kind of a big deal.

no worries, though.  that ground beef burrito is still mighty tasty without it.

on the way home, we stopped at the bean's favorite boba spot for a drink:

and that was our halloween.  the very next day, we put away the few spooky decorations we'd dragged out and pulled out something much more festive:

and since i don't have much more than this photo to share from the bean's very first homecoming dance, i'm just gonna drop this here:

i adore this outfit.  and even better, we cobbled it together a few days before with a trip to nordstrom rack, kohl's and the fabric store for the velvet i used to make those pants.  score!

never too late to recap halloween 2021, right?

as the bean gets older, i find that our collective interest in halloween is less and less every year.  i think most of us love to costume it up (even the hub, to a point!), but halloween really isn't a thing for us.  although this year, her cheer team decided to put on a "trunk or treat" in the parking lot of the gym, so we decided to join in the fun.

well, sorta.  i'd picked up a "peanut butter and jelly sandwich" costume for the bean that we thought i'd be able to alter so that she was the peanut butter on one side and jelly on the other.  but when we opened it up i realized it wasn't very easily doable, and so i offered to wear one piece while she wore the other.

"that's weird, mom.  it's like a couples' costume!"

and so instead, she picked up the tortilla blanket i'd just ordered on amazon for shits and giggles, wrapped it around herself and called herself a burrito.  hey, whatever works, kid.

she and the hub had run into party city on our way to the gym, leaving me in the car to continue listening to a zoom meeting about one of the high schools she's interested in applying to.  and when they came out, it was with a cart full of all kinds of halloween supplies to decorate the truck.  the only contribution i had was the mickey-themed halloween banner i'd just thrown together with that new embroidery machine, and everything else was all them.

there was something for everyone.

the hub and i threw on that peanut butter and jelly costume, and he'd also picked up a "k-pop star" wig that he happily wore the entire evening.  so weird.

they had a pretty good turnout, and the car next to us went all out with an elaborate setup.

the bean spent some time with some of the girls on her team, running around in the gym, along with one of her oldest friends from school.

when we got home, she wrapped the dogs up in the blanket.  stevie wasn't really having it, especially when cocoa decided she was gonna hop on for a ride.

we didn't really have plans for actual halloween, but had managed to score tickets to mickey's not-so-scary halloween party for the night before.  the girls had decided to dress as characters from "the emperor's new groove," which is not one of my favorites but i didn't really care and went with the flow.  i'll be honest - my costume was pretty half-assed.  i'd ordered an actual costume, but when i tried it on i found that it really wasn't comfortable, and definitely not so for walking around a theme park.  oh well.

didn't matter.  we still went and had a good ol' time. AND we got to see "zombie captain america," which is kind of a novelty since disneyland isn't really known for scary characters.

and that pretty much sums up halloween 2021 for the house of wan.  exciting stuff, ain't it?

a very 2020 halloween

halloween for us was very...2020.  well - like, nothing went wrong or anything like that.  it was just really low-key and not like halloweens of years past.  the bean didn't even look at costumes, we didn't put out our decorations (other than joe and steve, our skeletons that served as our security guards outside), bought zero candy to hand out, didn't go trick-or-treating with our friends.  i didn't even torture the dogs with a costume of any sort.

i did, however, start the day off with some barre.  two of the instructors from my old studio decided to put their talents together and offer virtual classes, and it's been really good to get back to plies and first and second position and sweating my face off.

the rest of the day kind of just slid by, with the bean concentrating on reading for a book report and the hub puttering around in the garage.  we did decide to head out that evening though, making our way out to the west side and just get out of the house.  the sunset was really pretty as we drove along.

we ended up in santa monica, snagging a reservation for dinner at ivy at the shore with a little time to stroll through the promenade.

the bean was elated when her dad stopped here and said "let's have dessert first, shall we?"  she hadn't been to somi somi in ages, and with soft serve ice cream served in a fish-shaped waffle, you can't really go wrong.

i'd opted for a fresh waffle filled with custard, and the hub threw in a second one filled with nutella.  so good.

i stopped to take this across the street at santa monica place because i'm a dork like that.

the bean squealed a little when she found this store, full of soft squishy plushies shaped like all kinds of things from avocados to pizza to sloths.  and with a BOGO half off sale - well, yeah.  she may be 13, but she still can't resist cute plushies.

from the third level of the mall, you could peek over and get a fun view of the lights at the promenade.

and by the time we got back down to ground level, it was time for the short walk over to the ivy.  with only patio dining available, it was a little sad to see the empty restaurant as we checked in for our reservation.

we did have the patio almost all to ourselves.

but first:  wash your hands!

i gotta say, i'm pretty impressed with the night mode on my phone.  pictures like this would always turn out really crappy before.

we ordered some crab cakes for our appetizer, and it was the first time the bean had tried a crab cake before.  she picked a good one, because these were filled with real crabmeat and no filler.  pretty delicious.

i washed mine down with this delicious rosé sangria.  yum.

somehow, the night mode didn't kick in as i took a picture of the hub's dungeness crab salad.  either that, or the sangria had really taken effect.  heh.

my lobster ravioli was really good (and filling!), while the bean was quite satisfied with her fried chicken.

and since we'd had dessert first, we decided to take home a box of their chocolate chip cookies.  but not without sampling at least one first.

bye, santa monica!  happy halloween!

back at home, the bean was excited to tear into a fun halloween surprise from one of our favorite friends.  look how cool this is:

it's a big chocolate pumpkin that comes with a little mallet to smash it open and find more treats inside.

she started out with a few tentative taps, but it took a little extra oomph to get the job done.  and when it was well and truly smashed, she was happy to share some of her treats with me.

so i guess we weren't completely devoid of halloween fun this year...it was just abbreviated.  that's okay.  maybe next year.