Halloween 2010 post mortem

Another holiday come and gone. 2010 disappeared right before my eyes!

The girls' costumes this year were pretty much all last minute decisions.

Fortunately for me, Sydney was content to recycle Elise's Cinderella costume from a few Halloween's past (the princess version, not the hobo version--this time):

The only thing I had to do for this costume was replace the brooch on the dress. Why are all Disney princess dresses made with a brooch featuring a picture of the princess? Who wears a brooch with a picture of themselves? It makes no sense. So I made a quick run to the craft store, and a piece of cardboard, some aluminum foil, duct tape, a safety pin and a few stick-on gems later, we had a quality piece of artisanship even the most discriminating 5 year old pretend princess would be proud to wear:

Elise was a little bit harder. She had her heart set on being Hobo Sleeping Beauty, which would be Sleeping Beauty in her non-princessy attire. I was not up for the Hobo Sleeping Beauty challenge, but after about a dozen costume ideas rejected, we finally settled on a magician.

I was originally going to construct her hat out of black posterboard (because we're ghetto like that---see aluminum foil princess brooch above), but after finding this authentic one (complete with bunny rabbit and secret disappearing compartment!) at the party store, I couldn't resist. I picked up the magic wand as well, but all the other elements we already had. Elise insisted that all magicians need a mustache. Originally, she wanted me to pick up a furry stick-on one in blonde because "it would look funny to have a black mustache with blonde hair!", but I talked her into penciling one on with black eyeliner. She looked adorable and she was so excited about her costume, which is kind of the point, I guess.

McKenzie was at a loss until I jokingly suggested Tyler's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume from like a decade ago. She was all over that idea. Obviously the green jumpsuit Tyler wore when he was four was not going to accommodate her 11 year old body, so I had to invest in a pair of green sweatpants. Everything else we already had, which is my favorite way to do costumes. I cannot begin to tell you how much I adore McKenzie's sense of humor and precocious sense of irony.

The girls wanted me to dress up for our church party, but shot down every suggestion I made until finally I said, "I guess I could be a witch." McKenzie said, "Yes! That's perfect!" I wasn't exactly sure how to take that.

All the girls before the church party:

Sydney's dance studio invited all the students to wear their costumes to class the week of Halloween. I didn't want to mess with the big Cinderella dress, so I had her dress in her usual ballet leotard and tutu and we added cat ears, a tail and whiskers. Sydney was a little put out that she would not be wearing her "real" costume to class and complained that everyone else would be fancier than she was. I figured there would be quite a few cat ears and painted on whiskers, but I was wrong. Pretty much every child was dressed to the hilt as princesses and fairies, strawberry shortcakes and rockstars. Everyone looked very sweet and very fancy, and I was feeling pretty guilty until I saw the 7 year old little darling with the bloody hockey mask, bloodied clothes and bloodied plastic butcher knife. The contrast was...startling.

Sydney as the feline ballerina:

Friday afternoon Nate returned home from a weeklong business, and we spent a good portion of the evening chasing down the elusive carving pumpkin. Note to self: do not wait until the weekend of Halloween to purchase your pumpkins. We finally found some at the third grocery store.

Sydney went with a Halloween classic, the cartoonized puppy, McKenzie stepped completely out of the box with a wacky face (she carved completely by herself), and Elise designed a cat silhouette that I promptly butchered, but she graciously proclaimed it her best jack-o-lantern ever.

So all in all, a successful holiday.

P.S. I just realized I forgot to mention my Halloween scare! Halloween morning I was coming down the stairs all ready for church with my heels on and carrying my 3-piece luggage set (it's really just an assortment of totes, but that's what it feels like---the amount of stuff I cart to church is just ridiculous), when about halfway down I tripped, and skidded the rest of the way on my shins. It was perhaps my scariest Halloween moment ever. And maybe for my kids, as well. There may have been some screaming, and dare I admit, sobbing. I managed to escape with a 3 inch long bruise on my left forearm and a much smaller bruise and rugburn on my right shin, though both shins burned all the way to church and intermittently throughout the day. The incident left me shaken for most of the day, and it made me feel really old. I just may have to invest in a life alert necklace.