halloween

Choosing Halloween costumes for your young children is kind of a high pressure responsibility. You may think that sounds silly, but last year I chose a monkey for Jackson and a ladybug for Olivia. They were adorable, but Olivia had numerous meltdowns in the days before Halloween because SHE wanted to be the monkey. Well, I couldn't very well put Jackson in the ladybug costume, so I went back to Old Navy to exchange the ladybug for another monkey. Bummer...no more monkeys. She wore the ladybug, and she ended up being OK with it, but she still preferred the monkey costume. I vowed to buy two of the same costumes for them this year (and every year going forward, until they could be trusted to choose their own).

Then I saw a cow costume at a garage sale this summer. It was cute, cheap, and in perfect condition, so I bought it. My plan was to find a second cow costume for child #2. The one from the garage sale seemed to fit Jackson better, so it was his. Once that decision was made, Olivia insisted on being a pig. I don't know why, but there was no way she was going to be anything else (so much for my "everybody's going to be a cow" plan). Maybe she was stuck on the farm animal theme...maybe she likes pink...or maybe, as my sister Cole suggested, she thought of her favorite books about Olivia the pig (Ian Falconer), and wouldn't dream of being anything else. No matter what, once she's made up her mind, good luck changing it (wonder where that comes from?). Anyway, I had to bite the bullet and order a pig costume online (why couldn't Target just stock it so I could pick it up instead of having UPS deliver it to me?). And $36.57 later, we had a pig costume, and she was absolutely thrilled! We'll see what happens next year...Olivia has already announced that she is going to be a princess, and Jackson has every intention of being Thomas the Train. Halloween costumes are a racket, let me tell you.

For the 3rd year in a row, we spent Halloween with Jamie, Wendy, Josh and Julia. We were lucky enough to have Nik and Rod, and Connor and Jaci join us this year, too! We got together early to have pizza (and drinks, of course!), and then went out trick-or-treating as a group. It was such a beautiful night- no need for winter coats or mittens this year! We pulled the wagon along for Jackson, so that he could make it for the whole trip- he's still building up to marathon distances (but is well on his way!). Olivia took off with the big kids, and Jackson stayed with mom and dad so that he wouldn't get run over...kids on a candy mission don't often stop for a wee one who topples easily (not even his sister). They had so much fun running from house to house, squealing at the scary decorations and checking their candy buckets to see what they got.

When we got back to the house, there was the fully anticipated feeding frenzy- Jackson and Olivia tried Milk Duds for the first time, which was really funny. I think it took each of them about 10 minutes to get one down. The kids played for awhile, and when the sugar crash started, we put the girls to bed in Julia's room, and the boys in Josh's room...a segregated sleepover of sorts. Jackson was out within minutes, but the girls giggled and talked for quite awhile. Once they were all down, the adults busted out the Wii. We bowled, boxed, and played tennis. Nikki was the boxing champ, but I'd like a rematch once I can move my arms again! It was a great time, and we're so lucky to have such good friends to create memories with!