It's only in recent years that I started to really appreicate the Day of the Dead, especially since San Francisco does such a great job in honoring it. The procession is amazing, and the alters people make are moving.
I like how Halloween and the Day of the Dead sort of merge together, one full of kid costumes and trick or treating, the other with more tradition and about community. For Tesla and Aila, it's all a fun experience.
This year Tesla wanted both of us to be spiders. I made our costumes, and being her unique self, Tesla requested her spider arms to come off her skirt, not the side of her torso. Initially I tried to convince her that spider legs should come out the side, but I have to say, she made her outfit work well. Below she drew her outfit for a writing assingnment with the note, "For Halloween, I will be a spider. I would like my [arms?] and teeth. Now we can bite." With the added blood coming out of her mouth, I think she'd getting into the scariness : )
Aila was an elephant, and was so cute. The waddly butt of the costume was just perfect.
Tesla decided to paint her pumpkin, inspired by a book she saw. The picture she found was a purple painted pumpkin with one giant eye. T made hers into a 3-eyed monster with a bloody lip.
For Day of the Dead, this was the first year we painted our faces. Aila watched the three of us get ready, and was so happy to be included when we lastly turned to her and painted her face. Dav did the white part, and T did the rest.
Inspite all the fun, these evening parades/processions were tough on the kids. On Halloween, I ended up walking mostly home with Aila wailing in the ergo from being overtired while Dav, T, and Lorene finished up dinner on 18th street. On Day of the Dead, about 15 minutes after arriving, I had to catch a taxi home with the kids since they were tired. Still worth it to share the fun of the season...
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