Magic Castle Children's Day

It's becoming somewhat of a tradition that every year Robin takes his local nieces and nephews to the Magic Castle on Children's Day.

This year, Aunt Vicky got to go too!

Our number appears to be dwindling. There was a time not that long ago when four kids would accompany Robin to the Castle. We're now down to two. (Yikes! Does that mean *they're* getting old -- or WE are?!? :-O)

My first picture above is our two charges -- Emily and Ryan -- waiting patiently in the front room of the Close-Up Gallery for the show to start. The magician had just gifted Emily with the lovely heart-shaped balloon.

Click any picture to see it bigger.

This next shot I grabbed in the Hat & Hare room down in the basement -- against the rules, mind you, since no one is supposed to take pictures inside the Magic Castle. But I knew Magic Steve wouldn't mind, so I risked it!

Emily is working hard as the magician's beautiful assistant.

Last but not least, the Magic Castle featured Santa in the Blackstone Room, so we decided to grab a family picture to commemorate the day.



I wish I could show you the magnificent orange parrot balloon animal that Denis Forel made for Emily precisely to her specifications, but it suffered irreversible damage before I could get the camera on it. Ballon animal artistry is such a fatally transient art, sigh.

Here's some film showing Magic Steve working with Emily (6 minutes long):
Ryan's off to the side, mostly in the dark. (And yes, Emily is wearing heels!)



And here's Magic Ian with Ryan at his table (5 minutes long):
Be sure to listen for Emily telling the magician that Ryan is 12 years old.



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2008 Halloween Report

This year's Halloween was absolutely the scariest, most horrific, ghoulish Halloween I've ever had!

I was spooked by one of the worst monsters ever: the blue screen of DEATH!

Boo!

Now, you've got to admit: that's scary!

Bwahahahhahahaha!

I confess I'm still recovering from the fright. Still sorting out what that monster destroyed. Grrrrr!

The rest of Halloween was pretty fun, actually. Click on any of the images to see them a little bigger.

We got our decorations up in plenty of time for once, so we displayed a festive Halloween theme.

Trust me, it looks much better at night. The glass bricks had an orange glow, of course the jack-o-lanterns were lit from within, and I have little orange LED lights wrapped around the bars. It's hard to see, but each little step has its own light, which I covered with orange gel. I even drew little spider webs on each one, complete with a dangling spider, using a black Sharpie pen. Hand drawn!

I especially liked our little touches, such as the bugs crawling around on the house number, and the crime scene tape stretched across the front gate.

Our front door featured bloody hands, which looked delightfully creepy at night when lit from behind. (It really suited Robin's tastes!)

Unfortunately, one of them kept falling off. You know, there's nothing quite as annoying as having your bloody hand keep falling off.

(I confess: even though I've taken them down now, handprint shadows remain on the frosted glass. Windex doesn't seem to faze them. Got any suggestions for cleaning them off???)

We got so into the Halloween theme that even our flamingo was garbed in a witchy costume!

Eat your heart out, all you ghosts and goblins. Flamingos rule!

Now let's talk about the good stuff -- costumes! Yayyyyyy!

Robin recycled the Halloween costume he wore last year since he liked it so much. He's really into the magic thing. Me -- I did something a little different. I was disguised as a peacock!

We attended the Halloween party at our favorite clubhouse, the Magic Castle in Hollywood.

When I arrived, I learned something about my costume. It's funny -- anywhere else in the world, I would be simply a peacock. But in Hollywood, I was THE famous NBC Peacock!

One guy came up to me and did a big double-take. Then he exclaimed, "Whoa! You look really different on TV!" Then he did another double-take like he just couldn't take it in. He was hilarious.

Did I mention that my costume was convertible? Check it out!

To top the evening off, Robin and I were both finalists in the Best Costume competition for the category of "Most Mystical Costume." That took us both by surprise! (Robin was secretly thrilled.)

I hope your Halloween was as fun as ours.

Trick or treat!

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Halloween 2007

Trick or treat! Trick or treat!

Believe it or not, these were our "work" outfits. We helped out at the Magic Castle Saturday night as volunteers. We got to see all the marvelous costumes, and helped collect ballots for the Costume Contest.

We also helped people find their way around, answered general questions, and got the dancing started for the deejay!

I can guarantee you I won't be wearing those high heels for Trick-or-Treating on Wednesday with my nieces and nephews!

Robin will be reduced to celebrating with a festive necktie, as he will be teaching in Chicago. Sigh!

Or is that "Boo!" ??

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Halloween 2006 Report

Halloween was a tad bizarre this year. We didn't do pumpkin carving OR trick-or-treating.

First of all, we had a guest in from Germany this month, so that required some attention. Second of all, the house is still in mega-pieces from all the remodeling projects I'm into. Third of all, Robin and I alternated coming down with a truly nasty cold that landed us each in bed for several days in a row (albeit not the same days, which is good and bad news -- figure it out).

So the Halloween celebration turned into a variety of mini-celebrations strung over a number of days.

We attended the Magic Castle costume party on Friday night, where we also worked as volunteer Castle Knights. We got dolled-up for that party. He's a magician and I'm the Queen of Hearts -- of course! (Click any picture to enlarge it.)

We had a lot of fun, although I think Robin nearly passed out after I pushed him a little hard on the dance floor. He turned a shade of green I don't think I've ever seen before. He actually had to go lie down and recover for a bit.

It was fun to see all the costumes, and I always enjoy the amazing creativity that gets generated on Halloween. I used to love attending the West Hollywood costume parade, but usually we go to my sister's house and enjoy Trick-or-Treating with her kids. But since Robin was out of town on Halloween this year, we went up and did a little costume parade on Saturday afternoon at my sister's home. The whole family got in on the costume parade! We have the Superhero Parents, of course. The boy on the left is a "chick magnet," the little girl down front is a butterfly, the boy is a knight from "The Chronicles of Narnia," and the girl on the right is a half-dressed "Tokyo Pop Princess."

I had to get in on the act (of course), so I donned a little witchy-poo costume for the Saturday soccer game. The umbrella isn't normally part of the ensemble, but man it was HOT that day. I thought those striped stockings were going to melt right off my legs! ("I'm melting, I'm melting!"...)

I hope your Halloween was happy! BOO!

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