Halloween

This year we decided not to buy new costumes for Halloween but to instead work with what we had on hand.  Honestly, each kid has a bounty of costumes and dress-up gear making it easy to come up with something to wear for Halloween, something they’ve never even trick-or-treated in, but I guess they wanted their Halloween costumes to feel fresh and new.  I don’t blame them, so we worked together to try to come up with a creative idea, working with what we already had.  I knew Ella had a cheerleading outfit from being a basketball cheerleader last winter, so my mind went straight to zombie cheerleader.  I half-jokingly introduced the idea to my lovely, sweet darling of a daughter who has been Tinkerbell, a roller-skating car hop, and Alice in Wonderland in past years (then again, I guess she was a ninja last year)—she latched right on.  Didn’t take much to get Jack on board either, once he realized we’d do some scary makeup.  We shredded some old clothes for under their cheerleading and football gear, they practiced their zombie walks and “brains” chants, and I watched a few zombie makeup tutorials on Pinterest (unfortunately we never found the time for a practice run on the makeup).  Halloween night we brought it all together and I’m pretty proud of how it turned out, especially considering how inept I am at makeup applications—still haven’t figured out how to do my own eye makeup.  And, the kids had a blast being kind of scary this year.  Ella was particularly proud that a teenager who was handing out candy said that it was really cool that she was a zombie cheerleader.  I’m resigned to the fact that a teenager saying so definitely holds more weight than me telling them how fun and cool their costumes were.  At least they’re still taking my suggestions, right?  Hopefully next year they’ll be game for something creative, too.

{jonathan makes a great iceman in one of my dad’s old flight suits and combat boots…although i think a few people asked if he was goose.}