Halloween 2011

Ella 2010

I've never been one for certain things. Baking creative desserts and sewing are two such things. Thus, I've not been one for making my kids' costumes. I'm not that artsy, first of all, and I'm not that patient. My mom, however, used to sew our Halloween costumes when we were little, and she did a darn good job, too. Thanks to her, I have that standard set for costumes today: a parent should make them. It just seems right. Since I don't do it, I see myself as kinda sucking in this department, but I do think that Matt could work it out, too. (Notice I said "a parent should make them.")

Ever since Ella was a baby, I've loved getting her dressed up for Halloween. In fact, for her first El Dia de los Muertes, Americana version, she had a wardrobe change because I couldn't settle on just one costume for my sweet girl. Maybe it had to do with the fact that her nickname was pumpkin head... who knows, but it was so much fun to see my sweet love in these cute outfits. Over the years she's been a duck, ladybug, butterfly, kitty...all these cute little things. I suppose it was about the time she turned 5, when she was a baterina (what?), that the cute wore off, and the tacky wore in. I blame it on Halloween Express, and us parents who don't sew the costumes, thereby selecting the costumes, thereby preventing the questionable ones. I dn't even know what the heck the outfit she chose for this year was; all I could tell is that it was supposed to be some kind of punk-rocker thing. I don't know if she knew what it was, either, because she turned herself into something vampire-like to make it more relatable.

Summit's always pretty easy. For his first Halloween he was a lion, second a spider, third a tiger, fourth a dragon, and this year he was a pirate. There's nothing tricky about any of those. No makeup. No freakouts. And, you can always tell what he is.

Despite the costume questions, this year's Halloween was great. The weekend before, we carved some pumpkins, which is always AWESOME because I heart baked pumpkin seeds. I remember Grandma baking them for Popa when I was younger, and I swear I can taste a little bit of my childhood everytime I eat them. And, we went to some parties. Who doesn't love Halloween parties where adults dress up in crazy disguises and kids eat more candy than dinner? I think people's alter egos show in their costumes. Because I'm not one for dressing up, I suppose my alter ego is either deeply protected or I'm just really transparent.

On the Monday of the big day, Summit's class at school had a class party in the morning. I signed up for the sweet treat, truly believing that I have what it takes to make something clever and scary out of sugar cookie dough, Reeses Pieces, and gummy worms. Guess what? I don't have what it takes. The worms, in my vision, would be crawling out of the tops of the cookies, which would be the heads, and the eyes and mouths would be the Reeses Pieces. Well, clearly, I failed, because after 4 batches of cookies and gummy worms melted EVERYWHERE, I ended up with 12 cookies with Reeses Pieces eyes and mouths and nothing else. Oh well. In the evening, the Harpers came over...because our neighborhood has no hills...and the kids got into their completely worn out costumes... hey, after 4 parties over multiple days there's no way those things are gonna stay complete. We ate chili and did the trick-or-treating thing and our neighbors took the kids on a hayride! The kids ate way too much candy and stayed up way too late.

All in all, it was a success. Thankfully, Ella had a standardized test the morning after Halloween. I mean, really, how smart was THAT?! I've been force-feeding myself candy non-stop since Monday, and I see no end in sight. Usually, I send the stuff to school with Matt, but this year is different, so it's just sitting there, on top of the refrigerator, calling my name. I think it's using hypnosis over us. That's some powerful stuff.

 

Lesson for this year: Throw the candy away immediately. Do not take Ella to Halloween Express. Write a letter to whatever genius decided that the day after Halloween is a good time for cognitive ability testing.