Nov 1, 2009
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Thought I’d share my pictures. Due to the cold weather, we decided not to take Henry & William out, since neither one really cares one way or another. I took Maggie & Steven down to the square to trick or treat there. MAN, was it freezing!! Steven insisted he didn’t need a coat, so I decided to let him suffer the consquences of his knowing better than me. Within the first leg of the square, he was begging for a coat. Silly boy. After going around the first corner, we ducked into Starbucks for some hot cocoa & a Chai for me. Which helped exponentially! And here is Queen Cleopatra waiting for her coffee:
and Anakin Skywalker annoyed with the wait.
Oh, yeah. Steven was supposed to be a Bionicle for Halloween, but at the last minute, he decided to don his old Anakin one. Sorry, Mom.
We continued around the square, seeing some people I used to do shows with doing a “Dr. Frankenstein & the Monster” live tableau in a window. Which was cool. And saw this awesome pumpkin.
We made it around one more leg of the square before the kids decided they were too cold and this was foolishness. So, cut through the square and head back to the car. Which meant I was just in time to spot Henry’s OT rocking this amazing getup:
Is that cool or what?? Awesome idea and excellent execution!
We went back home and got ready to go around the neighborhood. Again, the cold made me decide to leave Henry & William home with Daddy – especially since Daddy was doing a good job helping William with some pooping trouble he’s had. He’s good at knowing where & how to palpate to make it easier for him. So, I take the kids trick-or-treating & Daddy helps the boy poop. The kids wanted to go by Great-Grandma’s house, so we planned our route & set out. Steven, ready for battle…
…and Maggie walking like an Egyptian.
Lots & lots of good costumes out there and lots of kids who were SERIOUS about their task. Literally RUNNING from house to house. Steven was trying to move fast, but Maggie wouldn’t, so we kept at a pretty slow pace.
We got halfway around our little neighborhood when we came across a werewolf passing out candy from the back of his truck. Which was funny. Mr. Werewolf was having trouble seeing and working his paws, to which I said, “Ah…the troubles of lycanthropy…” Mr. Werewolf stands up straight, looks right at me and says, “Christy *My Maiden Name*???” Whoa. Whoa. “Yeah…..” I said. He reveals himself as a guy I went to high school with. How funny is that??
Went by Great-Grandma’s and she either wasn’t home or wasn’t passing out candy, so that didn’t work out. Stopped at the house of my friend Tim’s parents (they live basically right behind us) & got to see them. Then back home to pass out candy. Steven took that job with much happiness, calling each group of kids his “customers”. Unfortunately, we missed most of the kids due to being out ourselves, so that stunk. That’s my favorite part – seeing the little kids in their costumes and how cute they are.
It was a pretty low-key Halloween. I didn’t get to dress up & show off Will & Henry, but it was probably for the best. I think I will put them in their costumes to get a couple pictures. Because when you see William in his, you will fall into a diabetic coma and never come out. From the cute, y’know.
Nov 2, 2008
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Well, I posted the pictures on Friday night and now I need to share the stories – right?
Friday was Crazy Hair Day at the kids’ school, so we got several cans of colored hair spray. Maggie chose pink with glitter. Steven chose green & orange. Here’s how they looked.
Steven totally dug the green mohawk with orange sides. Cuz he’s cool like that.
I think it was the longest day in the history of days. The kids only had 1/2 day of school, so I spent the morning finishing up the November customer appreciation kit for NDISB, cleaning and doing my workout. Then, ran and got the kids at 11:15. I actually got to lie down for about 30 minutes, and then waited for my BFF, Lori, to come with her 2 boys. We planned to trick-or-treat together and possibly visit the Fall Festival at the kids’ school.
Maggie had decided to recycle her costume from last year. If you remember from last year, she was Alucard, Queen of the Undead. She wore the same costume, but I did her makeup this time. Daddy did a better job last year. He showed up after I was pretty much done, but then he added the red around her eyes this year. Plus, her vampire teeth were better last year. Oh well. As you can see when you compare the 2 pictures, I think she looked better last year. She was trying to look all scary last year, but this year she seemed to go more with a sullen, annoyed, attitudinal teenage vampire vibe. Or, as I like to call it, “Emo-pire”.
Steven decided to be Darth Vader, which was extra-cool because he friend Jason was Luke Skywalker. There was a lot of “I’m your father” stuff going on. Steven was all serious about it and Jason was the happiest Luke Skywalker who ever Jedi-ed.
But, of course, like all boys who decide (or decided) to be Darth Vader, the mask is just too annoying so it had to come off. And how did he handle that?
“I’m not Darth Vader….I’m battle-damaged Darth Vader!”
Bwahahahaha! So. It’s 2:15 or so. Time to start Maggie’s makeup. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I looked at last year’s picture and just tried to copy it.
Got her makeup done, got Steven in his costume and Henry in his and off we went to the costume contest on the square. Look at her OWN this costume and the whole day.
We entered the contest, but Maggie didn’t win. She wanted to really badly, but it wasn’t meant to be. But Henry enjoyed checking everybody out. Like these kids:
And the cleverest costume I saw:
Yes. She’s a spaghetti dinner. The plate is on her head. There’s a hole in the table and she can push her head up to see or pull the table up to cover it.
Steven & Jason did a lot of this while we waited:
Then we trick-or-treated around the square. Got much candy. Oh, by the way, I was a sparkly vampire. I sprayed glitter all over my arms, chest and face. When Maggie got tired of her teeth, I put them in. I’d stand in the sun and twirl, singing, “I’m a sparkly vampiiiiiire!” Cuz I’m dorky like that.
We went back to the car and drove home. Maggie decided she was done being a vampire, so she went upstairs to wash her face. Lori offered to take Jason & Steven around in the neighborhood. Then maggie came down and threw a fit because they had gone without her. Even though she’d said she didn’t really want to T&T this year. So, Mommy to the rescue. Daddy came back with food and stayed with Henry so I could take Maggie around – now dressed as a pop star. Quick change artist, she.
Though, of course, halfway around the neighborhood, she slid down somebody’s driveway and fell on her tush. Gave herself a driveway burn on her knee – through her jeans. So….back to the house.
Got everybody rallyed and off to the church for the much-anticipated Fall Festival. Which turned out to be nice, but not so amazing. They had stuffed the gym with a bunch of stuff – inflatable jumpy houses and and an obstacle course, a bunch of games – including one of those horrifying things where you hit it with the hammer and the weight flies up to ring the bell? It was so loud in there – an AC/DC concert had less decibels. My headache, which was marinating nicely under the surface, burst out the top of my head covered in thorns and vines and hooks and claws. Horrifying.
By the time we got home, I was so tired that there were no longer words long and descriptive enough to fully encompass my tired. I had to take a shower to de-glitter myself (and then clean the bathroom counter, sink and floor). I couldn’t get to sleep fast enough. And now, again, I must sleep. Now. For the tired, it kills.
Sep 10, 2008
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Apparently Halloween is about a month away and somehow I didn’t know. Because I’m so busy trying to get through one day, I forget that we keep moving forward.
So. Halloween costumes. We do participate in Halloween, though I wouldn’t call it “celebrating” Halloween. The kids dress up and we do the costume contest on the square and they get to trick-or-treat. We don’t decorate our house or do much in the way of scary-scary stuff. I really just love seeing all the little princesses and Power Rangers come to the door, all earnest and serious about the business at hand. My daughter loves being creative & coming up with something original. My son wants the most accurate, authentic costume for his choice of character.
But, we’ve GOT to find costumes. I almost always go online for Halloween Costume Stores and this year is no exception. We’ll have to find something Star Wars themed for Steven. Probably something obscure like Darth Venturius or General Grievous or something I don’t even know what is. Maggie, I think, wants to be something scary-ish, but I don’t know what. But there are TONS of Childrens Costumes at Halloween Adventure. Cute ones for Henry (who will be a cute animal until he can tell me otherwise) like, maybe Hedwig the owl? He loves owls and hasn’t been one, yet, so this might be good! And WAY less expensive than those Tom Arma ones.
Maybe I’ll make Steven be Jason from Friday the 13th. THAT won’t unleash too many nightmares. I hope some kid comes to our house dressed in this. That’ll ensure Steven will never sleep again. It seems like a good site, though. The prices are reasonable and they have quite a selection. Makes shopping for the average kid way easier. And! They have plus-size women’s costumes!
For Maggie, we’ll probably have to make something. She can’t fit into the children’s costumes and since I don’t want my 10 year old going as a sexy nurse or sexy alpine girl or sexy archeologist or sexy redneck, we’ll have to be creative. Seriously. Are there any costumes for females that aren’t “sexy architect” or “sexy janitorial staff” or “sexy zombie chick”? I’m so over the whole “Halloween is an excuse for girls to dress like sluts” thing. How crass.
Oct 31, 2007
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Fun & crazy day! The morning brought a Costco run & moving the new desk from my parents into our house. It’s still not put together, since we need to fish the phone cord under the carpet first. Then we can finally use the desk we bought MONTHS ago. Thankfully, Halloween was low-key.
Kids came home from school & got dressed up. There was a costume contest on the Square that Maggie really wanted to go to, so we headed out – only 15 minutes late. To our dismay, they were all finished by the time we got there. Which is unfortunate, because I think Maggie might have had a chance. We came back home & Steve took the kids around the new neighborhood because my toe hurts. Painful hangnail. Don’t ask. They were back in about an hour, we had pizza with my parents & that was that! We ran out of candy, unfortunately, so we had to turn off our light at 7pm. I hope our house isn’t all messed up by morning. But we’ve never had this many trick-or-treaters before, so we just didn’t get enough this time. Next time, we’ll know better.
Okay – time to share pictures & that’s it for tonight. Enjoy! Henry as Little Bear/Brown Bear, Brown Bear. It’s the first costume he’s ever liked.
Steven as “Venom” – one of Spidey’s villains. He took this very seriously – I had to sneak to get this one picture. And when he came across a couple kids dressed as Spiderman, he started confronting them by going all tarantula on them. He bent his knees & started hissing…kind of freaking the kids out.
And this is absolutely classic. The first time Maggie’s been scary for Halloween. She called herself “Alucard, Queen of the Undead”. And sister-girl played it to the hilt.
Sleep easy, tonight. For my daughter will eat your soul.
