Let the festivities begin...

Two days and counting! We're never able to commit to Halloween costumes more than a few days in advance, so I feel like it's always a last minute scramble. I'm happy to report everyone is locked in.

Wyatt decided he wanted to be Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, but Hadley couldn't make up her mind. She's not big into princesses so she just kept landing on characters from PBS kids or Disney. I told her it was more fun to be something unique and creative since everyone would be a princess and it's boring to be like everyone else. For one thing, I'm too cheap to pay $30+ for another plastic costume when we already have a trunk full of them. Plus, I'm disappointed that all the creativity is gone from Halloween. Remember the days when your mom MADE your costume? Surely we could come up with something using the items in her costume bins. She was game. All it took was a styrofoam ball from Michael's, some paint, an empty brie container and a hot glue gun. Voila! A fortune teller is born... She was so proud of the idea and talked about it all week. When her friend came over to play, Hadley asked her what she was going to be. She proudly said "A princess!" and Hadley's reply was "That's what everyone is going to be. How boring! I'm going to be a fortune teller and that's unique!"  Ooops, I guess I need to watch what I say sometimes.

Hadley's school party was today. The kids come in costume and head to class. The parents wait outside while the classes are paraded out one by one for all to admire. She was so excited to be a fortune teller and proudly marched up to school carrying her props. When we walked in the door and she saw all the sparkly princesses, I could tell she had a bit of costume remorse. She started acting shy and kind of embarrassed which is so unlike her. I know she was just doubting herself a bit as girls tend to do when they're doing something a little different than the crowd. It makes me sad how young this self consciousness and insecurity starts. Several teachers and moms complimented her outfit and one of the kids said "I wish I had a crystal ball!". This seemed to reaffirm her choice a bit. It kills me that we need so much validation, even at such a young age. I told her she looked great and to stand proud. When it came time to parade around, I noticed she'd forgotten her crystal ball and sign. When I questioned her about them later, she said she didn't like them because they weren't pretty and sparkly. Darn you, princesses. I promised to jazz them up a bit before Halloween and she liked that idea. She still looked cute and I loved seeing her parading around with her friends. The kids all looked so cute, even the princesses. It's everyone's special day and all that matters is they're happy. One other boy bucked the superhero system and wore a homemade scarecrow costume. It was fabulous so I snapped his picture as inconspicuously as I could without being creepy.

Post-party sugar rush. I squelch my inner food control freak and let her enjoy!

Wyatt's party is actually on Halloween. The kids were instructed to bring their costumes in a bag and change into them right before the party at the end of the day. I guess it's too distracting to wear them all day. I had to tweak his costume a little to make it easier for him to put it all on himself, but I'm sure he'll look great. He's very excited. We're dusting off Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat again for another year. Dayven was reluctant since none of the other dads dress up, but I convinced him to wear it for an hour and let me get some pictures at least. It's so cute and I have a short window of time before Tate wants to be a superhero like all his friends. 

We're a little more prepared this year. We had only moved into our house the day before trick or treat last year and we ran out of candy the first 30 minutes in. We're the people that gave away a handful of pennies with some dryer lint. Yep, we're that house. Dayven said we have to redeem ourselves so we got full size candy bars and juice boxes when those run out. All the sugar and artificial dyes surrounding Halloween kill me, but I won't bore you with that rant.

We spent Sunday night madly carving our pumpkins. The kids are in charge of scraping the guts since we don't want them wielding sharp knives, but they quickly lost interest because, well, it's hard work. We always let them pick the designs so they have some input. Hadley wanted Katerina Kitty, from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Wyatt wanted Olaf, from the new Disney movie, Frozen. I did a minion and Dayven made sure we had the token scary one in the bunch.

We're all ready over here - bring on the trick or treaters!  

Everyone uses power tools when carving their pumpkins, right?