I'm happy, and somewhat relieved, to report that the kids had a wonderful Halloween. I was a little worried about how the 'costuming' would all work out.
I have fond memories of my childhood costumes. My mom always made me the best costumes. I remember when in a preschool play I desperately wanted to be a cat but was selected as a witch. My mom appeased me by making my costume a 'friendly' witch complete with orange fringe and pockets which held a special place in my heart at the time, perfect as they are for unexpected treasures. And anyway, I ended up happy as a clam.
Well, I too wanted my children to adore their costumes.
The problem is that three year
olds are not terribly decisive, or rather, they are extremely decisive yet fickle.
Evan had the broadest fluctuation in costume ideas, from fireman to cupcake, with red ballerina and captain hook somewhere in the mix.
Will wanted to be a pumpkin, then 'i want
whiskers and a tail mommy', then 'a captain', then a 'witch'. The last couple days before Halloween he became insistent on the pumpkin costume with 'a green car vitamin'
hmm, that one still has me stumped. But I resisted because my mom intuition told me that if I had a pumpkin for Will and then he saw Evan's fireman jacket that he would not be a happy camper.
Lily wanted to be a pumpkin, a ballerina, a princess, and Wendy from Peter Pan.
Lily had some good options in her dress up box and I was leaning towards fireman costumes for the boys. They love fire engines just like every other three year old boy. Luckily Clare found two jackets on sale at Target so we had that option ready for them.
Just before it was time to go trick or treating I laid out two choices for each child. It was touch and go for a moment. Lily selected a princess dress, then took it off and opted for the ballerina princess that
GG had given her last year. We quickly coerced the boys into their fireman jackets and Holden handed me his bee costume from last year. I buttoned him in and shooed everyone out the door, not even bothering to change Will out of his pajama bottoms for fear that someone would have a change of heart. I was shocked how smoothly it went and that everyone was happy.
Once we were outside they were dazzled. They were amazed by all the other children's costumes and were having a blast saying 'HAPPY HALLOWEEN!' at each house.
They were delighted and sweet, proudly displaying their costumes and saying thank you for their treats. They quickly learned that if the light was on they would be giving out candy. And they wanted to go inside every house.
Will started saying 'Ah, man!' if the house was not open. I think he picked it up from one of the bigger kids trick or treating. I also thought it was pretty cute when Lily told one little girl, 'I like your costume'. It is so funny to see your babies turn into kids.
We did one lap around the block and returned home. The boys had even more fun giving out candy and were calling out to people to try and get them to stop by our house. 'WE HAVE SOME CANDY FOR YOU!' And of course if they chose to pass us by, Will would say, 'Ah Man!'.
I can't think of a time I have seen them more excited. It would be a close call between last night and Christmas morning. It wasn't really the candy, it was more the event itself.
David carved our pumpkins and they looked great, very festive. I prepped the seeds for toasting. The kids were intrigued by the candles in the pumpkins and kept looking inside seeing a few straggler seeds saying 'why did you put the seeds in there?'. I'm tried to explain, but not sure they absorbed that the pumpkin seeds were from the pumpkins.
We also had a bunch of family and friends over relaxing and watching the UT game and just having fun watching the children enjoy
Halloween. It is always nice to have a full festive house on holidays.
We went to bed tired and happy that they kids enjoyed their night.
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