So, Halloween is finally over. Can I just say, I am always glad when Nov 1 rolls around. Ever since the end of August, I have tried my best to ignore all the trappings. The thing is, I HATE this stupid "holiday". Back when I was little, I loved it just like all the other kids. No, I wasn't too terribly taken with the gory, gruesome stuff, but most people's decorations and costumes were cute, and free candy was always a good thing. These days, however, it seems like all the adds for costumes have the same themes: for girls, anything making your daughter (ages 6 & up) look slutty - there is no way she needs to dress as a Playboy bunny (OK, that costume was for the teenage girls, but no joke, there was a French maid costume in Katie's size); and for boys, anything scary and/or gory. As a child, my costumes were always either cheapy one piece outfits with plastic masks, or homemade from stuff we had in the house. NEVER would my mother have considered spending almost $50 on some stupid outfit we'd never wear again. So far, we have gotten away with nice costumes for our kids, but each year it gets harder - my son, thank God, honestly couldn't care less about what he dresses as, but this year my daughter wanted to know why I wouldn't let her buy the costume for Vampiretta, [slinky, sultry] queen of the night. What on earth am I going to do when she's a teenager???
But my real beef with Halloween is the thrill we are all supposed to get from scary stuff. When my kids were toddlers, I hated going to the mall in the fall, because I was sure all the realistic skeletons and blood-drenched monsters would give them nightmares. One of the houses in our area puts up a complete cemetery in their front yard, complete with corpses hanging from the trees, etc.. Now, I just roll my eyes at most of this stuff, but the worst is all the ads for horror movies on tv. Not just on the appropriate channels at the appropriate times, but for instance, for Saw III on another cable channel, on TLC while we are watching a home decorating show. Of course, inappropriate content on tv is another rant entirely. The point is, I hate what appears to me to be the embracing and celebrating of all things evil. I just don't get into it.
That said, here are my kids this year. Katie is a 1940's Silver Screen actress, and Danny is Indiana Jones. We were very proud of Dan's costume, because we put it together ourselves. The hat is from his cousin, we got his bull whip (completely fake, btw) from ebay, and the leather bomber jacket we got at an outlet store and will be his winter coat this year. The cargo pants and t-shirt he already had; the holster for his pistol was from my dad's ancient cowboy set and the pistol was an orange water gun painted black; the treasure bag was dh's dad's from WWII (strapped on using the dog's leash, lol!). He even had a skull (McD's Pirates toy painted gold) inside the bag! He was so awesome. Katie looked great too, but she's so into dressing up all the time anyway. Her costume was store-bought, but she already had the silver shoes that match the dress, and I curled her hair (why, I don't know; it was pretty windy that night and didn't last long) and applied liberal amounts of eye shadow and lipstick. What do you think?
"I hate snakes!"
The kid's school has a fall carnival, and there is a costume contest. Here is Katie - she won for her grade! I think it was the face painting, which she had done there at the carnival, lol! We
didn't want her wearing her actress costume b/c we didn't want it damaged before trick-or-treating. Danny was Indy, but he didn't win - I think if he would have let them paint some beard stubble on his face, he would have won too.
DH and I thought this spider (a beanie baby from McDs many years ago, lol!) was the perfect touch, but Dan has suddenly developed an aversion to spiders and refused to leave it on his back.
