Celebrating Halloween {2008}

I’m a big fan of after-holiday sales, and last year Nicholas and I hit Target when the Halloween stuff was 90% off – love that.  When he saw the costumes, even though Madeline had not yet been born, he started thumbing through the baby ones and asked if he could choose one for her.  How could I say no?  And it didn’t hurt that the costumes were $1.29.  Yup.  $1.29.  He chose a Tigger costume for her and when we packed up our Halloween stuff last year, I packed up the costume too, so it would be easy to find this year.  I couldn’t remember what size we had bought at the time, and when I went digging for it a few weeks ago, I held my breath that it would fit her.  It turned out that we had bought the 9 month size.  As we told her to suck in her belly and zipped carefully and slowly, it fit.  Barely.  Give her a few more days and it wouldn’t (especially after she hosed two pancakes this morning!) as her toes are down to the very tips of the bottom and there is no belly room left.  I loved that he was so excited for his baby sister to arrive, that he wanted to buy her a costume before she was even born.  Underneath, she wore a black onesie that has a cat’s green eyes, pink nose and whiskers, along with black leggings.  That ended up being perfect because the weather, in true Jersey style was unseasonably warm at 60 degrees, so we tried to keep her stuffed-into-a-tiger-costume time minimal.  It turned out to be the year of double costumes for the kids.

Now for Nicholas … he wanted to be a ghost this year.  I loved that he wanted something different, something old school, something that was not the usual superhero-off-the-rack.  I loved even more that my mom is a whiz behind the sewing machine so she could hook him up.  But the problem?  Last week he needed a costume to wear at a Cub Scout meeting and the ghost wasn’t done yet.  We stopped at a Halloween store and he decided to go with Batman.  I got off easy with a bargain of $12.99.  Flash forward to Friday, and he was supposed to wear his costume to school.  The ghost proved to be a bit of a problem then since he couldn’t eat lunch with it on, and it’s not easy to see through the eye-holes, so it was Batman by day and Ghost by night, which worked out perfectly.  I am getting the distinct sense that this is going to be a new trend… The Girlfriend went to school as a princess, and then trick-or-treated at night as a ballerina.  As Nicholas is fond of saying (thanks to a favorite Uncle!), “What the…?!”

So it was the year of double costumes all around, but s’ok, the kids loved it and really, Halloween is all for them.  So Friday comes, it’s a Halloween parade, trunk-or-treating at school in the parking lot, and then trick-or-treating at night.  On Saturday night, after he had a chance to go through all his candy, he sorted it into two piles: want and don’t want.  The candy he didn’t want got left on the coffee table when he went to bed … for the Halloween Fairy.  See, the Halloween Fairy comes in the middle of the night and takes the candy you don’t like and leaves you with a non-candy treat or two.  Nicholas woke up to find a note from her, along with a reflective fire department tote bag and orange skeleton gloves.  Too fun.

Every year, my parents’ dog, Beauregard, dresses up in a wing-themed costume.  This year, much to his chagrin, his newest ensemble included a hot pink wing and deely-boppers:

Took Maddie to work in the morning, and she jumped right in answering calls:

The view from the front seat:

Katherine, The Newlywed Neighbors‘ daughter, and Madeline, ready for their first Halloween:

Katherine, close-up:

Nicholas, The Girlfriend and Madeline, on the same rock we pose them on every year:

Every year since the movie came out, The Husband dons his Scream mask. As one of our neighbors put it on Friday, “from the days when Neve Campbell was relevant.” (I just looked it up … 12 years and counting!)  I think Nicholas is trying to send a message … time for a new mask!

Cobweb Pizza for the kids:

The Halloween Fairy pays us a visit:

The end of the day for a tired little tiger:

I still need pictures of my niece, Sophie, who was dressed as a chicken… and our neighbor, Patrick, who was the cutest, fattest Winnie the Pooh. We’re going to redress the kids to get a snap together – how can we miss when they coincidentally turned up as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger?

Halloween 2007

Halloween 2006

Halloween 2005

So that was OUR Halloween … hope yours was just as fun!