What a night. It’s close to midnight and Elihu and I are just getting to bed after a very full and happy Halloween. Our day included a play by the ninth graders, a school costume parade, and a fine night of trick-or-treating topped with a moment of magic and mystery as Elihu won a $100 bill from Mrs. Riggi (the unofficial ‘queen’ of Saratoga).

A room full of joy as the ninth graders get ready to perform Brer Rabbit for the Lower School, an annual tradition.

The girls.

The play…

…and the audience.

With a nod of his head, Mr. Fron leads the students in a four-part round of ‘The Ghost of John’ as he plays along on the recorder. Elihu can be seen on the right behind his Roman shield.

The pumpkin relay – you can only use your arms to hold it as you run.

Ethan shows some seriously clever costume-making, bringing the sub-culture of ‘steam punk’ alive.

Now we’re out, doing famous Caroline Street. Every kid in town is here!

This was the spookiest house on the block. Over the top and perfect in every way.

Look! It’s our friends from Greenfield – and they’re piano students of mine, too!

Waldorf kids.

A gorgeously spooky house.

Abe Lincoln sits down to have some spaghetti and meatballs.

Elihu ran into some old classmates he’d known from back in Kindergarten – some had even left Greenfield. That we saw all four of these guys was a fun and completely unexpected surprise.

I must taste this before I can serve it…

Oh dear, is that a head in my linguini?

Everywhere we went people were crazy for Elihu’s getup. At first it kinda suprised us, because in years past his costume has been far more elaborate and structurally sophisticated, but at the end of the day, an obscure comic book character just doesn’t have the same kind of crowd appeal as a good old-fashioned plate of spaghetti.

Elihu was really getting into his character, and if you listen carefully you might be able to hear him saying ‘that’s-a one-a spicy meat-a ball’ as well as other little improvised ditties about spaghetti…

Now we’ve moved across town to North Broadway; the Riggi Mansion

In spite of an hours-long line, we somehow found ourselves quite close to the front – and no one objected, so off we went… Before ten minutes had passed we were presented to the King and Queen… Kinda looks like they might even take a break for some pasta!

Whew! Thank goodness this selfie worked! Ya got one chance, then the line just keeps movin on… But hey, this shot will be nice for the memoir, huh?

This too.

Cinderella Riggi and the golden ticket. Wow. A magical ending to a magical day.

And now – to bed!