Halloween 2007

This year I thought the girls were old enough to decide what they wanted to be for Halloween. I was a little afraid that they would change their minds a zillion times before trick-or-treat night, and that we'd be stuck with a bunch of half-started costumes or crying kids because they no longer wanted to be what they said. Originally one of them suggested being a t.v., which I tried not to take as a commentary on how many On-Demand shows they watch.

I let them get a bunch of ideas out and then they settled on ideas that stuck: Sophie wanted to be a happy clown and Riley wanted to be a happy tree. I jokingly asked Sam what he wanted to be, knowing that he had no idea what I was talking about. He answered with one of the few words he knew -- "Apple." The girls and I were amused picturing him as a round little fruit and hence, that became the plan for Sam.

Being both frugal (I'm not buying anything expensive for them to use for a few hours on one day) and overwhelmed (not enough time in the day!), I enlisted the help of the drama teacher at school. She loaned us a clown wig and nose, as well as let me rummage through the costume room for anything we found useful. And then on Sunday afternoon while watching football, Jon willingly worked on Riley's tree trunk -- which I was having difficulty envisioning -- so that worked out well. The girls were set.

When I tried to put Sam in his apple-suit, it was clear that he wasn't buying it. He could not visualize the abstractness of my vague apple costume and instead opted for the store-made, hand-me-down dinosaur suit. It looked like a dinosaur. He was willing. Plus, it saved me time -- I was willing to give-in and give up my idea of all home-made costumes, all the time. I decided I could live with cutting corners here and there.


Sophie the happy clown






















Riley the happy tree
She made the owl at school and we thought it was a perfect addition to her tree.






















Samasaurus Rex


Across the street at our neighbors











The kids had a lot of fun trick-or-treat night. We went up and down the whole street. Sam insisted on walking the whole way and carrying his plastic pumpkin all by himself. He was strutting down the road like he really was a dinosaur. It was amusing. The funniest part for me was when Sam realized we were headed back home. He threw a tantrum. He was having too good of a time to quit. Imagine the little green dinosaur screaming and flailing his arms while jumping up and down. A little dinosaur roaring with anger in the middle of the road. Really was funny. Jon had to talk to him about it, because I couldn't stifle my laughter.

And we discovered we have very generous neighbors. The kids ended up with tons of candy -- which their parents ended up enjoying. We figure we won't get away with that next year.