Creepiest house on the block

One of the saddest things about The House That Burned Down is that...it was Bertram's house...and Bertram was missing from our lives.

The first few years it was "Fil(thy) the Clown."

When he fell apart, he was replaced with "Bertram the Plague Doctor" and we would go for a walk to see him every night so he could lunge at us and deliver his scary little speech. He was delightfully spooky.

(Who came up with these names? We did. And the entire neighbourhood adopted them.)

Phoebe called him "Berf-pump" because she couldn't say "Bertram." 

She can say Bertram now, and she remembers that he should be there. The House That Burned Down always put a lot of effort into making their house look spooky for Halloween, but this year...Bertram wasn't around. 

Until suddenly...he was...in all his smouldering glory:

Okay, he's far from smouldering at this point. But he is a little bit melted. His electrical components are fried, so he's a stationary decoration, but the kids agree he looked extra spooky in his half-burned-up state.

And then I saw her.

Standing in the doorway.

And...I don't think the neighbours have to put too much effort into making their house spooky for Halloween (...or did they try a little too hard???). Because this girl takes the cake.

We'll have to give her a name. Seraphina? Brighid? Cinderella? Ashley? Ember? Helen? Burnadette?

Rachel was a big part of naming Fil and Bertram, I'm not going to lie. We'll have to discuss a name for the creepy doorway doll on one of our walks...and have Rachel weigh in with her thoughts.

In other news, Miriam is continuing to practice backing into parking spaces. Auntie K gave her some excellent tips while she was out here and I've been making Miriam park backwards...whenever the church parking lot is empty.

She's still practicing organ at the church because our organ still isn't quite functional. It works out well because we just drop Benjamin off at the Y and then head to the church building—it's not very far. Of course, it only works well on days that Andrew is home, otherwise we have to take all the kids with us (or leave Miriam home to babysit while I drive Benjamin). 

Anyway, today Miriam didn't believe that she was in the lines so she kept turning instead of straightening out and...it would have been an excellent parking job if she had just straightened out!

For the record, yes, sometimes I also practice parking in reverse when I make Miriam do it. So I'm getting better at it, too. 

She decided to just leave the car where it was since no one was at the church and it was the middle of the afternoon on a Friday. The missionaries sometimes park crazy in the parking lot—like horizontally or diagonally instead of vertically so we didn't feel too bad about it!