Halloween sneaked up on me. My kids play dress-up every week, so I sort of have Halloween happening in my house often. When the actual Halloween came along, my kids figured that they would wear whatever costume had captured their fancy that week. My boys had been playing detectives and gangsters as of late so I thought that's what they were all going to be. Well, Jefferson didn't like how the raincoat fit on him, so he changed his mind and decided to be a pilot. Charlton wasn't fancying the cap, so we tried on his knight costume, spider man, lion, army soldier, and in the end he liked the idea of being a cowboy. As soon as that was solved, I turned my attention to James who turned out to be the easiest: he still wanted to be a detective. Gillian had been asked by her brothers to be a rock star, so I looked through my clothes and found something that looked like a rock star would wear. We added to that a guitar in her hands, and voila! Gillian looked the role.
On the day of Halloween, all my kids' classes had parties and parades. I had made food for all of them, and after delivering it to all the classes, I tried to divide my time celebrating between them all. Charlton loved being with his siblings and visiting them at their school. He also loved the attention he was getting from everyone. Surprisingly enough, he was the only cowboy in the whole school. Most of the students wore scary outfits as opposed to just fun costumes. They gave me the creeps. I couldn't have been more grateful for having introduced my kids to books instead of T.V.
After school, we continued with our usual activities - piano, boy scouts, and chorus. At chorus, the kids had been told they could wear their costumes. James specifically asked me to take a picture of him with his friend Adri and the rest of his singing group. He sure looks handsome!
As soon as chorus was over, we headed home to pick up the other kids and Elijah. A few friends and I had decided to repeat our fun Halloween trick-or-treat experience of last year and take the kids to the same neighborhood. The kids divided themselves into two groups - the older kids and the younger ones. The older ones took off and were done trick-or-treating way ahead of the younger ones. They had then proceeded to partake of hot chocolate and snacks at our friend's house, whose neighborhood we were raiding. As for the younger ones, they took their time holding hands and knocking on each door and practicing saying "Happy Halloween." All of us moms enjoyed our little kiddos having fun on Halloween night. They are growing way too fast!
