So, I've always dreamt of the day that we would have a child to dress in cute costumes and take trick-or-treating. My parents were VERY religious, and I was not permitted to trick-or-treat, except for one year. The year I was two, I got to dress up as smurfette (which consisted of a plastic mask, and a garbage bag with a smurf scene on it that draped over my body). That is the only year I got to go knock on doors and ask for candy. For some reason, after that, my mom decided Halloween was too evil, candy wasn't good for me, everyone wanted to hurt little kids on Halloween, and I needed to go to church that day every year.
Now, I have nothing against church at all. And, I don't delve into the "evil" aspects of Halloween... just the candy and costumes (okay, and a little home decor). But I always wished I could be trick or treating and dressing up in costumes. I remember a couple years that the church had a costume party for the kids on halloween. I was very happy to go to them, but I dressed up as stupid things like "little miss bible" where I just wore a white dress and carried a bible. But, I still loved getting into some "character." I think that's why I loved theater in high-school... but I digress. Back to Halloween.
So, because I wasn't allowed to do it, I always vowed that when I grew up, I was going to celebrate halloween and give candy to the kids, and by golly I WAS GOING TO DRESS UP! And I do - every year. And I will - every year, until I can't dress myself anymore. And hopefully at that point, Meerkat will dress me up in some cool costume.
Last year, I was an evil queen. The year before that, I was wonder woman. Before that, a masked wrestler (luchador). Luckily, I have a husband who is willing to go along with it and likes to dress up too. And now we have Meerkat! And she is going to wear the BEST costumes I can find, every year... until she tells me herself that she doesn't want to do it anymore.
So this year, because she's too little to eat candy, we just sat on the porch in our costumes and passed out candy to everyone who came by.
Sidenote: when did kids stop saying "trick or treat?" So many of the kids who came up to us just held their bags open and expected us to drop candy in them without saying a word. Of course we did, but it would have been nice to hear a "trick or treat" or "happy halloween." Aaaaaaannnnnnndddddd..... isn't there an age restriction for trick or treat? I mean, I'd happily give candy to an eighty year old, if she showed up dressed in costume... but we had fifteen and sixteen year olds walking onto our porch, in street clothes, with pillow cases, asking for candy. Ummm... get a costume, and maybe you can have some of my sweettarts. Otherwise, you're getting exactly one gumball.
Okay... sidenote over. Let me share some of our halloween experiences this year:
I mean, can you get any cuter than that???!!! If you couldn't guess, she's a shark.
A very chill, ferocious shark.
And, she's also the cutest daggone shark of them all.
Mommy was a last minute witch. I was looking for a costume that went along with the "shark" theme... but didn't have the time or money to go find one. So, today I slammed this outfit together. I think it turned out well, and surprisingly it's the first time I've ever done the witch costume, even though it's a classic.
Daddy was a zombie. A very cute zombie, if I do say so myself.
Meerkat didn't make it through trick-or-treat. She fell asleep about an hour in, and was out cold. She didn't wake up for anything, even our family portrait:
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!! We hope yours is/was as fun as ours.
Also, stay tuned. BIG things are happening around here in the next couple days. :)
