Halloween

Ah, darkness, masks, and candy... is there a more perfect combo?

My poor children do not get to decide what they want to be for halloween and go pick out a costume like normal kids. They get whatever was 75% off at Target last year, or whatever leftover costume is in the halloween tub. None of them wanted to be what they were, except Joel, and that was just because I wanted him to be something different.

Hope was Supergirl. Target special from last year. Almost too small. But for one night, she can wear it. She wanted to be a ninja or a zombie. Vetoed on both counts. But I did tell her I'd look for a ninja costume for next year. (didn't find one, although with some black clothing and some sort of mask, it might be pretty easily faked.)

Naomi was supposed to be an angel. She even had a costume party two weeks ago and wore the angel outfit. But for some reason she saw Hope's old dance outfit and wanted to be a ballerina instead. The sleeveless shirt was much too cold, so we added an ultra-classy black teeshirt underneath. Hey, she stayed warm, or at least didn't complain about being cold.

Joel just had to be Darth Vader as soon as he saw the costume. It was way too big but I bought it because it was a pretty nice costume to still be on the 75% off rack. I just wanted to see if he would fit into it next year or if he had two more years before it would fit. But no. He had to be Darth NOW. So, some creative tucking and safety-pinning and a hunt for a red light saber, and he was maskless Darth. For some reason he'd never leave the mask on for more than ten seconds. I figured a basic costume and red light saber- even star-wars-illiterate me could figure out who he was dressed up as.
And Daniel the skunk. Every kid has worn this outfit, so I had to make him wear it too. But he was less than pleased about it. I got him dressed and he lasted about 10 minutes before the fit-throwing began. So we took him out of the skunk suit. The only problem was we hadn't done pictures yet, so after a few-minute break, he had to get dressed again. No trick or treating for him; after the outfit was off the second time, he got a bottle and some quality time in his bed. My last little skunk. Maybe I'll use it again next year for him. One last baby skunk...

Zach said he wanted to take the kids trick or treating this year. I intended to go, but I figured Joel might be better without me, so Zach took all three of the munchkins by himself. I think he just wanted first dibs on their candy.