There is only one costume to document this year, but it's a doozy. Please take a moment to admire Mona as a Birdhouse:
I miss making costumes. That stopped abruptly in 2020 (along with most things), but now that Halloween events are back, Mona was inspired to make herself something cool this year. After weeks of holing up in her room with lots of cardboard and paint, she emerged in time for Trick-Or-Treat as a Birdhouse, and I am in awe.
As were most people. Mona didn't collect candy, but she did walk around the neighborhood with me and our dog dressed as a pumpkin leading the way. She couldn't see well, but she could hear one person after another say, "Oh, how cute, that dog's a pumpkin, and OH MY GOD LOOK AT THAT!!!!" Several people declared the Birdhouse their favorite costume ever.
Here is Domino the pumpkin:
And here are some details from Mona's costume, along with her doing last minute work on it before Trick-Or-Treat. I love the sewing she did on the wing tips. The feet were actually some claw-gloves she found at Target that she modified into shoes.
Our area gets a lot of Trick-Or-Treaters, and there's always one neighbor who goes out in his roller skates and juggles in the street to entertain everyone. We had fun meeting up with people on our block that I feel like we haven't seen in forever.
We then drove over to the violin store, because the street behind it is a spectacular Halloween extravaganza. Many hundreds of people got to admire Mona's costume over there. Apparently in the minute and a half I ducked inside the store to turn on our Cell-O-Lantern in the window, several little princess girls gave Mona a hug.
Bay View really goes all out for Halloween, and after a couple of Covid ruined years everything was up and going again, including the block that does a whole Nightmare Before Christmas decorating event, and the house that raises money for charity that this year chose the movie Beetlejuice for its theme. I don't have many decoration photos, but I will share this inside joke that was my favorite. There is a man in Milwaukee who looks like Wolverine from the X-Men who strides around shirtless (sometimes with a little dog) and he's referred to as the "Milverine." Milverine sightings are always fun. Someone put up a zombie version of the Milverine and it's excellent:
I'll take a moment here to note that this fall was one of the prettiest I can remember. Warm and pleasant, beautiful leaves.
I'm still considering what I want to do with Halloween going forward. I'm pleased Mona still wants to make a costume, but when she moves on to someplace new, all we'll have left is to hand out candy. I have ideas for how to decorate our house that could be exciting, but no real time to do that soon.
But at least this year we got to experience a truly great costume. Mona's amazing.
