"Tick or cheat!"

Happy Halloween! This video shows Isaac and Laurel rehearsing their lines prior to trick-or-treating tonight. Our whole family went out together this year, which was fun. We left a bowl of candy on our front porch for anyone who happened to come by during our absence. We left our house at 7:00 p.m. and returned about half an hour later, and there was still a lot left. Our neighborhood was full of trick-or-treaters, but not many made it out to our house, which involves going up a hill and almost to the end of an unlit cul-de-sac.

We went to about ten houses on our street tonight. Last year (when Isaac was four and Laurel was ten months) Craig took both kids to seven houses, and the year before that (when Isaac was three and Laurel was unborn) Craig and Isaac went to three houses. Our scope is increasing. Next year we may have to do the entire neighborhood.

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Isaac dressed up as a Dream Machine, a character of his own invention. It is sort of a dream delivery service. At night while you sleep, tiny winged vehicles fly into your room and whisper good thoughts in your ears; these thoughts cause your dreams. If you wake up and try to find the Dream Machines, they quickly hide under your pillow or behind the ceiling light fixture.

He has been telling stories about Dream Machines for three or four months now, and imagine the challenge I faced when he told me he wanted to dress as one for Halloween this year! How could he be a tiny flying vehicle? Anyway, we pulled it off with a tiny truck glued to a spring fastened to a headband, glittery angel wings, and glittery letters across his chest announcing "Dream Machine." Nobody understood it, but Isaac didn't seem to care. Is he iconoclastic or oblivious? Or both?

And does Laurel's elephant costume look familiar? Ah, hand-me-downs. Here is a picture of Isaac wearing it when he was 14 months old.