All Hallows' Eve

Yes, we celebrate Halloween. Personally, I think November 1st should be a school holiday everywhere. Not only is it a religious holiday (and All Saints Day is a holy day of obligation so we're at mass part of school anyway), but you tell me what teacher is getting up that morning and saying "it's going to be a great day, kids that stay up late gorging on sugar are always so well behaved". Ok, that's totally a whole other post.

Years ago I loved going out trick or treating with the kids. Camera in hand my first went trick or treating her first Halloween as the obligatory pumpkin. Mind you, she was only 4 months old so I had to eat all the loot. Or rather, I had to fight my husband for all the loot, except the lollipop Nana snuck her. The 2nd Halloween she was a cute bunny (which my youngest will be this year, though she calls it "Oreo", the name of our pet rabbit). Then she was Tinkerbell, every year cuter than the previous. I had no choice but to follow her snapping pictures.

It continues from there. Her sister was born and soon we were matching. Her sister's first Halloween they were Blue and Magenta. Then they were Lilo and Stitch. A third child didn't stop us. That first Halloween the baby was a frog, um, I mean toad. As in Neville's toad, since the bigger girls were Harry Potter and Hermione. They were 3 Pokemon next.

I had big plans for 4, 5, and 6 kids. Fresh beats and their mini mes? The whole Sesame Street gang? The whole cast of The Wizard of Oz. 4, 5 and 6 kids wouldn't stop me. But Tweens would stop me. Apparently a Fresh Beat is not cool to an 11 year old. And they don't make Big Bird costumes for teens.

Halloween is supposed to be scary, who knew?  Soon my kids were creating their own costumes, a Crowl?, a mad scientist, etc. Or they want to be something scary, dementors, phantoms of unknown origin, witches, bleeding Scream, and so on, the more mysterious the better. There goes matching. A 4 yr old girl thinks of nothing but princesses, and a 5 yr old boy wants nothing to do with royalty.

Now I prefer to stay home and pass out candy. I love to admire the creativity in costumes, see the most popular character that year, and admire the cute pumpkins and peapods. My husband has the same thought though. Either that or he wants to eat the Halloween candy after we go out to walk around.

So tonight you'll probably see a rabbit and a mermaid, rabbits swim, right? Scream and his skeleton bride. And 2 unknown phantoms. Me, I just get to pull the wagon that will hold their bags when they get too heavy. I'll take a couple pictures before we leave the house but my paparazzi days are in the past.