Halloween (shannon's debut blogging post)

Aurora didn't know what was coming.

She didn't know that her tights said "troublemaker" on the back, for instance.
And since she's still far from fluent in any languge, no one could have told her.
Such is the travesty of being an infant on Halloween.


Or, any day I suppose.

Another case of infant ignorance: she still doesn't realize that her main nickname "Bug"
(as derived from the Latin root, Snugglebug)
might signify to others like she is an instect.



So, taking full advantage of the fact that she had absolutely no say
on what she wanted to be for Halloween this year,
I turned her Baby Bjorn (carrier) into a caterpiller suit.

And Abe made these fabulous butterfly wings for us parental types. My only complaint was that they were so small.

If you're still reading now that the pictures are over, we had a good time as family bug types.
The leadership and volunteering group that I run with our teens living on-campus was getting together to go "Trick or Eating" for canned goods. After a ridiculous amount of emails back and forth with these kids ("Do we have to wear costumes?" "Should I bring a bag?"), I realized that this was probably the first trick or treating for quite a few of the youth as they are internationals. I think a grand total of 4 out of the eleven that showed up were in some way dressed up, and then they wouldn't take the candy I was offering them! Things are usually hit and miss with teens I suppose, but this population is quite different from the kids we've been working and living with for the last few years (seriously, who turns down free chocolate!)
So, I made Bloody Finger cookies while they were out collecting goods....(they look gruesome, but it's just PB and powdered sugar with almond sliver fingernails). Those made some waves, but eventually most of the kids at least tried one.
It definitely was fun to see how this crazy holiday of ours is received for the first time by newcomers. Our little Canadian neighbor girls (7 and 9) thought the bloody fingers were "coooool" while our 10 year old Korean neighbor boy told his mom they were too creepy to eat, but he did want to take a picture of them.