A little spooky...

Let me preface this by saying I love you Mom!

One of my sisters (who shall remain nameless to protect the not-so-innocent) asked me the other day if the reason that we all love Halloween so much might not be because growing up, my mom hated it so much.  After school on the day of Halloween, she'd send us down to the dress-up box, where we had our pick of the coveted gypsy skirt and her old jewelery, the hunter-orange clothing that nobody really wanted to wear, but which could double as a giant pumpkin costume if you were desperate enough, or the giant nightgown which transformed you instantly into a big baby (but made you feel weird all night).  We never really ventured out of that dress-up box.  And with that, she washed her hands of the rest of the event.  We would ravish and plunder and fill an entire pillowcase with candy.  Then we would return home to count and sort the booty and eat the entire pillowcase-full.  There was no rationing.  And she didn't even want any because she claimed not to like candy (CANDY!!!  Who doesn't like candy?!!!)  I'd never really thought about it, but maybe that was our big rebellion.  That's right- we embraced Halloween- ghosts, goblins, Reese's peanut-butter cups and all.  Could be.  All I know is that I get a seriously creepy case of fall fever.

So, the other day, in my excitement, I took my three youngest children to the Halloween store.  A fun little outing, right?  Well, I had forgotten that not all Halloween paraphernalia is cute.  There was a ceiling-tall, black robed, droopy-faced creeper greeting us as we walked in.  It almost deterred Isaac from even entering the store.  Then as we got in, we passed by a spooky house with eerie and somewhat life-like, scary-faced children sitting on the porch.  Isaac looked horrified and hid behind me.  Liv was all smiles and waved enthusiastically at them.  At least Caden was oblivious.  I was starting to feel like a bad parent as I was sheltering Isaac from the werewolf and Jason masks, when I saw another parent in there with his three or four year old boy.  Clinging to his leg.  See?  I'm not the only one.  On the way out of the store, I had to choose between dragging my terrified boy back past the grim reaper or through the "adult" costumes.  In the end, the scantily dressed women won out because he definitely understands a scary face glaring down at him.  The other, I'm not so sure. 

But despite all of that, there is excitement in the air!  This year I made a mummy for the front porch, hung a ghost in the entryway, made potion-bottles and witches hats, and I went to a witch-craft party (dress like a witch, make a craft) thrown by my amazing friend Kirstin and her awesome sisters with two of my awesome sisters (and Caden, of course).

                                

So, with all of this, you would think that I would be planning out my children's Halloween costumes months in advance, making them from scratch, dying their hair, painting faces, winning bests/scariest/cutest costume contests every year, right?  Well, notice anything about these pictures?

2009

2010

                      2011                    

That's right.  A tiger for Elias, a three-eyed alien monster for Isaac (we're not really sure WHAT it is) and the chicken suit for Olivia.  Every year.  Although Elias did venture out a little last year and wear a dragon suit.  But you know what the plan is for this year?  A tiger for Elias, a three-eyed alien monster for Isaac, and the chicken suit for Olivia.  And hallelujah, we have two births in the same month, which means Elias' three month size bear costume (sleeper) will live again! 

 

And did I mention that unless it's chocolate (CHOCOLATE!!!), I don't even like candy?  I guess the caramel apple doesn't fall far from the tree.