Anticipating Halloween

Somehow, Halloween has turned into an almost-week-long event at our house this year, complete with scary-snack-making, pumpkin-carving, wearing costumes both inside and outside days before the actual holiday, wearing costumes to dance, creating new costumes out of various clothing items and hats, school parties, and, finally tonight, our block's annual Halloweenie Roast and trick-or-treating.

Weeks ago, our neighbor Kate knocked on our front door one afternoon, holding a sweet, fluffy, white bunny costume. She wondered if Jemma wanted to wear it this year. Did Jemma? Yes! She did! She wanted to wear it to walk Annie's playdate home. She wanted to wear it to sleep. She wanted to wear it to dance on Thursday when Annie was supposed to wear a costume. She wore it everywhere.

Then, mid-week this week, Jason (for reasons some of us cannot imagine) wondered aloud if Jemma might look cute as a ghost for Halloween. You know, old-school, with just a ghetto sheet with some eye holes cut out. And Yes! She does! Even though I attempted a heart-to-heart with her on the couch yesterday afternoon about how being a bunny would be so cute and fuzzy and warm, she woke up this morning 1. asking for Ghost Peeps and 2. wanting to be a ghost for tonight's trick-or-treating. So Jason spent part of today fashioning a ghost costume out of a sheet. It turned out pretty cute, actually.

Annie, on the other hand, has been firm in her conviction that she wants to be Sleeping Beauty for Halloween. It's her latest princess obsession, and we luckily have the dress, the shoes, and the crown from Annie's birthday weeks ago. She remained firm in her conviction, and wore Sleeping Beauty to dance on Thursday. Thursday night, however, as I was helping her pack her costume in her backpack for Friday morning's school party, she changed her tune.

"But I don't waaaaaaaaant to be Sleeping Beauty! I want to be CINDERELLA!" Luckily, we have that one, too, so she went as Cinderella at school yesterday, where I helped at the class party and remembered with instant clarity just why Halloween is a teacher's worst nightmare. Sugar! Candy! Costumes! Crappy weather! A zillion parents milling around snapping pictures in your face!

This morning, Annie decided she'd go back to being Sleeping Beauty for tonight's trick-or-treating. She got busy in the playroom, laying out each piece of the costume on the floor so it will be ready when she gets up from quiet time. Jemma saw her doing this. And guess what Jemma said? "I want to be a PRINCESS for Halloween!!!!!!" And started gathering a whole, new (this would be the third in 24 hours, for those of you playing along at home) costume for tonight's events.

At 5:00 p.m., we'll stroll down the street to eat hot dogs, popcorn, and ghost cupcakes (cute, if I do say so myself) with the neighbors. We'll take pictures and the adults will self-medicate with alcohol while the kids fuel up on sugar. Then, we'll go trick-or-treating. But who can say which costumes they'll have on. Not me.