Did you survive Halloween? Honestly, I wasn’t 100% sure we were going to make it through the day yesterday. The kids were completely wired with Trick or Treating on the horizon. At one point they were running laps around the house – which is not an uncommon occurrence, really – and I thought they were literally going to bounce off the walls. Fortunately it was warm enough for them to be sent outside to play. At one point I saw them setting up the small, empty plastic swimming pool at the bottom of the deck steps and taking turns jumping into it. Just when I thought someone was going to break something, they switched activities and decided to take shovelfuls of dirt from one garden and run it across the yard to another garden. Ah, childhood. To have that kind of energy for such busywork.
Finally it was time for Trick or Treating:
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| We carved all four of those pumpkins yesterday afternoon. Nothing like leaving the carving of FOUR PUMPKINS to the very last minute. |
As usual there were very few Trick or Treaters on our street, and that combined with the fact that our surrounding neighbours dote on the boys and get many large treats specifically for them resulted in the boys obtaining obscene amounts of candy. My general policy on Halloween treats is to let the kids have as much as they want for the first few days, and then the novelty wears off and they lose interest in it. My other policy is to help myself to the giant buckets of candy popcorn that one neighbour always gets for them. Nom nom.
Friday night the kids’ school held a Halloween Family Dance, organized by one of my very good friends – the one of the famed cake-making skills – and it was, in her words, EPIC. It was very fun although I did feel somewhat surreal when the DJ played I LikeTo Move It. I felt like I was transported back to 1994 and that I should have been drinking cheap vodka slimes out of a jug and wearing a way sluttier outfit whilst dancing with some guy dressed up as Elwood Blues or similar. As it was I went as a witch:
Scary!
What was your favourite costume as a child? I remember dressing up, strangely enough, as Miss Canada when I was about seven or eight. I just loved that, even more than my gypsy costume at age six. Do kids still dress up as gypsies? It doesn’t seem so politically correct. Remember when everyone used to dress up as hobos? That strikes me as strange now, children dressing up as homeless people down on their luck. I also remember – albeit hazily – dressing as a rag doll in my very early twenties. Ah, there’s nothing like the sight of a grown woman in a rag doll outfit, tearing up the dance floor and doing tequila shots, now is there? CLASSY.
So tell me, how was your Halloween? Did you dress up? Did you Trick or Treat? Or are you a Halloween Grinch, one who turns out all the lights and closes the drapes? I love Halloween, but I can tell you, I’m happy it only comes once a year and that we have another year before the next one. Maybe that’s just my candy popcorn hangover speaking.
We did trick or treating in Vancouver and it was fabulous. No coats! You make a good looking witch.
My favorite outfit was “queen” at age 10ish: it meant choosing my mom’s Best Dress and Best Shoes, plus getting to wear MAKE-UP and a CROWN.
I remember dressing up as Laura Ingalls, and Anne of Green Gables.
The horror though, is that as Laura, my long braids were a pair of pantyhose, worn on the head, with the legs cut in strips and braided. I cannot believe I am admitting this. But I wore an old fashioned sun bonnet over the “bum” part of the pantyhose.
By the time I was Anne, I had matured a wee bit, and had red yarn braids, pinned under a cute hat.
This year we had 52 trick-or-treaters. Loved the weather, we all had a great time… I took Mother Nature, and a wild Cheetah out for the evening, while my husband stayed home with our Princess, who decided she would NOT cover her bare arms, thus forfeiting the right to trick or treat, and she happily handed out candy at the door.
Your costumes are great! You make an adorable witch!
I had really awful and embarrassing costumes as a child. I try to avoid remembering any of them. I think that’s why I let my kids pick out a new one (almost) every year.