A Halloween First

What a beautiful night. You never can tell what the weather is going to be like on Halloween. You can plan a costume well in advance, but sure enough whatever you have painstakingly put together is exactly what you don't need to wear for the weather we end up having that night.

As we discussed costumes a month or so ago (I need plenty of time to put off making whatever the big costume selection will be each year), we ended up perusing the corner of the closet where the plethora of costumes have collected over the years of my handmade Halloween costume obsession (those plastic masks we had to wear when we were kids scarred me for life).

The girls were all delighted with trying on as many costumes as possible. I realized at that moment that I had created something wonderful. I no longer had to give each child a needle and thread at 5pm on Halloween to finish sewing the last little bit of their costume (you laugh, but there was one year of serious insanity). We now had so many costumes to choose from that they could all still wear something from the past and I was not going to be making any type of Halloween costume this year. I heard bells. I think I saw a bright light. After the little bridesmaid/flower girl dresses, I could SO handle this insane disappointment. (insanity seems to be a recurring theme here...)

I had no idea what everyone was going to wear this evening. It was kind of fun being surprised and seeing what they would come up with. (not fun cleaning up after it...)

Bit's getting to that age where "costumes" are in question. If you have a dramatic personality you can get away with an outlandish costume. A fat lady ran down the street earlier this evening and Santa even visited us. They were both taller than I was... So, Bit's non-dramatic personality chose to wear her cross country uniform. Of course, it was complete with make up and shimmery hairspray. Heidi has a Halloween bandana on here, but it's hard to see. I really wanted to find her a fluffy ribbon-y type thing, and I haven't had much luck making a decent looking one myself.



Bear actually stuck with her original decision to wear one of my old cheerleading uniforms. Although, she went through a few other choices this afternoon - most of which are still in disaray on her bed.







Little Buddy really surprised me. Costumes aren't as easy (and in as great a number in my closet) for boys. I thought he would end up wearing his taekwando uniform again, but he ended up getting out his old baseball (from 3 years ago - guess it was a little big for him...) and putting together his own costume. He got out his baseball pants, Yankee hat and matching blue socks, a navy baseball jersey and some old cleats we happened to have in his size. He even drug (banged) his plastic bat all the way around the block with him.


Little Girl actually dug something out of the dress up box! One of Bit's old dance costumes from when she did a song from "Cats". We had thrown away the ears at some point, but shimmer hairspray and a funky up-do make everything good. And a pink nose with whiskers were at the top of her list to complete the look.






And so we went to our next door neighbor's house as we do each year first thing out the door. But that's where things got weird. We didn't stop there. We actually went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. It was very odd. This was the first time since I can remember (had kids) that we haven't had a big event at our church on Halloween for the kids to go to. It was very odd.

I actually had to coach them in the ways of trick-or-treating. I think some other parents need some coaching too. Like only going to houses where you know the people and only if the porch light is on. (Hello! If the porch light is off and it's 8:30, that means stop punching on my doorbell! We're going to bed!) I'm serious!

Thank goodness it was a low-key Halloween! I had to do it alone since Dad's in Las Vegas. Definitely where I wouldn't want to be on Halloween!