Trick or Treat

IMG_1603, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

Here they are, from left: Fireman, vampiress, hippie (?), soccer ball, medieval queen. Not pictured are D. (14) who did not go this year, and A. (23 months) who went as herself, an obstinate almost 2 year old who refused to wear a costume or pose for a picture. A. rode in the wagon but wouldn't go to the door. After about 30 minutes she wanted to be carried, so I took her to the van and we caught up to the others. By then K. was done, so he got in and we ate animal crackers and read books while the older 4 went on for another 30 minutes. It was cold, 43F and windy.

I wasn't in the Halloween mood this year. We didn't have a party, although we hung our decorations, and we didn't purchase or carve any pumpkins. No one comes to our house due to our set back location on a busy road, so no one ever sees the pumpkins anyway, and sometimes it just strikes me as a waste of time, money and energy, not to mention the mess it makes. Do I sound like Scrooge?

The kids did have the costumes they wanted, however, and face it--Halloween is all about the costumes and the candy. L. wanted to be a soccer ball, and we found a rubber mask but failed to order it in time, so had to come up with our own design, which was a real soccer ball cut in half with eye and mouth holes, attached to a black ski mask, combined with a white t-shirt with a soccer ball pattern drawn on it with black fabric marker. He wanted to win the most original costume award in his class, and he did! (Pat me on the back for that idea!) J. waited until the last minute to decide what to be, so those 2 costumes involved visiting 4 stores on Oct. 30.