Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Halloween 2011

Halloween was a whirl this year. I think it is every year. It follows a couple of birthdays in our family and this October was exceptionally busy. We had Fall Break in the middle of the month and spent most of the week at Disneyland and then we came home to celebrate Brynn's birthday. Five days later, we headed to a cabin near Zion National Park with my parents and some of our mutual friends. We came home to celebrate Isaac's birthday and then the next day was Halloween. Whew!

We have a closet full of costumes (not kidding) but every year the kids want to be something other than what we have in the closet. Usually I cave and grant their requests, adding to that closet, but this year I decided to put my foot down and declare that we were using things we had. I am tired of the frantic run trying to find all the perfect things for them to wear one night and then be done with. The kids obliged and except for the fireman costume I bought for Aaron at Costco (yes, the one he wore for a week straight, but wouldn't wear on Halloween), everything came from things we already owned.

Brynn wanted to be a mime, but driving home from Zion on Sunday night I said, "Brynn we've got to come up with something else. We are in no way prepared to make you a mime." I suggested she be a marathon runner. She was excited to do that and she looked really cute.

Abby decided to be a good witch, using a skirt that she borrowed from Grandma's costume bin, her hat from last year, and some of her own clothes. She was a very cute good witch.

Aaron woke up and put on his race car costume from last year. Total floods, but I have no pride anymore. I was really hoping he would wear his fireman costume. He looked so great in it, but no such luck. I'm choosing to let him exercise agency. :)

Isaac wore the pirate hat and cape in the morning for a few minutes and in the evening he became Peter Pan. I think this was the third year he was Peter Pan. Aaron used it for about two years and it was a dress-up that Abby wore before that. Annette gave it to us when Abby went through a 9 month phase where she wouldn't let us call her anything but Peter Pan. It's one of my favorite costumes. I wish it came in my size. I LOVE Peter Pan!

It was a crazy day! I got the kids off in the morning and then rushed to the school to make it there for the parade. Aaron joined the a.m. kinders and then got confused and lost at the end (neither of us realized he would be joining the parade until the teacher pulled him into the parade enroute through the school). After finding him with his friend's mom, he looked at me with a tear-stained face and said over and over, "I didn't know what I was supposed to do." He's all about following procedures and when he doesn't know a procedure or when we shake things up a bit without warning, he becomes undone. After we reunited and talked things over, we hurried home to get the musical activity ready that I had promised to do for his class party. While I prepared, he and Isaac made a HUGE mess putting cereal all over the counter and floor. I was in the same room, but couldn't stop things fast enough. By the time I finished and the preparations and fed my tiger cubs it was time to get Aaron to p.m. kinder. I had yet to shower, but there was no time for that. After the class party, school ended so we headed home to get ready for the kids to go to choir and then after choir it was time to go home to clean the house for Trick-or-Treating. Did we eat dinner? I'm not really sure? I vaguely remember purposely feeding them something sugarless, but who know's? I'm not even sure what the kids wore Trick-or-Treating, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't what they wore to school. I had a relaxing evening at home handing out candy while Joseph traipsed through the neighborhood with the kids. I was happy to say farewell to Halloween and hello to monitoring the kids sugar intake. Halloween is a love/hate for me. I love Fall and Halloween is part of Fall. I love seeing people use their creativity, get outside of themselves, dress-up and have fun. I am not creative and I hate having to think of costumes and spending the money on things they will wear for one night. I hate the fact that they are given a truck-load of stuff that might turn into a soft addiction, ruin their teeth and make them sick. 'Til next year...cheers to you Halloween!








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