BUT! I still have pictures. They are worth a thousand words a piece, right?
We have a snow leopard, three dinosaurs, and Darth Vader. It was a great Halloween. I only had to sort-of make two of the costumes, and there was no actual sewing involved. The kids had a great time dressing up this year because our city hosts "beggar's night" when the kids get to go trick-or-treating the day before Halloween, and then we got to have a party at church on actual Halloween night.
Everett caught wind that someone we knew was generously lending out their Darth Vader costume, and he jumped on the opportunity. Even though he doesn't talk too much (meaning, as obsessively) about Star Wars these days, he had a lot of fun being Darth Vader. It was his first year as a villain.
Everett had fun trick-or-treating with his best friend from down the street. He really collected a lot of candy, much to his delight.
Ashley talked for months about wanting to be a snow leopard. I tried not to cringe--how on earth was I going to make a costume like that? Then, magically, Walmart started selling cheap fleece sets in the girls' department. A little paint later, a glued-on fuzzy belly, and some eyeliner on her face, and Ashley was a real, live (as far as she was concerned) wild cat. Wearing the costume didn't (and doesn't--she still puts it on frequently) increase her cat antics, but it sure heightens her enjoyment of them.
William wanted to be a parasauralophus (duckbill--I have to write the real name because William uses it). I had no idea how I was going to do that, but we figured it out. William loved how the costume turned out so that is all that mattered. He still loves dinosaurs and occasionally wears his costume.
William was so excited to go trick-or-treating. He stayed out for about an hour. He also loved our church's Halloween party. He loved it so much that when he waited, and waited, and waited to go to the bathroom and finally decided to make a run for it, he didn't quite get there in time. One of our friends found him by the mens' room door. "I peed in my costume," William said to him sadly.
Joel and I didn't complain. I was partially in charge of helping with the activity so that meant we were able to get home without helping more with the clean-up.
James was thrilled to wear William's costume from last year. He is in a major dinosaur phase right now too, thanks to his older brother. James was almost three years old by the time halloween rolled around, so he eagerly anticipated the night of free candy. He practiced his "Trick or Treat!" with much enthusiasm.
He walked around with Joel for an hour and even went to the neighborhood haunted house. He talked at length about the skeletons in that haunted house. "The skeletons were scary," he'd say, "But don't worry Mommy. The skeletons aren't real."
James's favorite part of Halloween was amassing suckers.
At one point on Halloween night he had four suckers in his mouth at once. We finally wrestled them from his grasp and sent him to bed with the other kids.
When I thought I was in the clear, I began to dig into the candy stash (the kids all gave me their almond joys, but I was looking for a little variety). James happened to creep down at the moment I had a few candies in my hand. He was horrified. "Mommy! Why are you eating our candy?!"
Explaining the "parent tax" works well for the other kids but not for James. I tried to change the subject (to no avail) and just sent him back to bed.
Charlie was a delight in his (borrowed) dinosaur costume. He did not go trick-or-treating, and he did not eat any candy, and he did not stay in his costume for more than a few minutes for pictures, but he sure looked cute while he was wearing it.
I put Charlie to bed and enjoyed a quiet house while Joel took the kids trick-or-treating. This was the first year I have stayed home by myself since being a Mom. It was pretty nice to have a little solitude.
Usually I just let the kids gorge themselves for a day or two until they get bored with the candy and we can get rid of it all, but with four kids going out this year, we had way too much candy for shenanigans like that. I hid it and our determined little James didn't ever rest until he discovered where it was.
We started a new tradition this year of making milkshakes with candy from the halloween stash. We did it a couple of nights after halloween, which was good timing because almost all the good candy was gone by then.
I think it went over really well.
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