Halloween

We started back in August talking about the kids wanted to be for Halloween. Oliver quickly settled on being a ninja and Soren Darth Vader. Kiera didn't have any ideas, so to promote girl power in a family of lots of brothers, I suggested we create a superhero persona for her. Matteo was adamant that he wanted to be a police officer, but Oliver's costume from last year was way too big. Grandma Nan, the family's costume seamstress, came up with an idea for an M&M costume and once Matteo saw the prototype, he was sold. "M" is his favorite letter after all. 

Halloween

Because Halloween fell on a Saturday this year, we got two days straight of the holiday with the school celebrations on Friday and then trick-or-treating the next night. Kiera, Soren and Matteo had their Halloween party at preschool on Friday morning and then parents were invited to Oliver's school at the end of the day for their Halloween parade.  Oliver and I finished the evening with a party at a fellow host family's house.  The back staircase of the their three-story home was turned into a haunted house.  We kept climbing up and up through the darkened staircase where there was a surprise for us around every twist and turn.  It was quite phenomenal. 

On Saturday afternoon I took the kids up to their grandparent's house to show off the costumes.  Grandma and Grandpa made an appropriate fuss over them.

It rained on and off much of the afternoon and I kept checking the forecast in hopes it would clear up in time because I had four kids bouncing off the walls desperate for it to be time to go trick-or-treating.  We held them off until darkness fell, it quit raining and out the door we went!

I wasn't sure how much Matteo and Kiera would like Halloween since there's  a lot that can scare a little kid, and Oliver and Soren didn't necessarily get caught up in the hype at that age, but they really enjoyed themselves.  Although they really couldn't say "trick or treat," they did understand that if they held out their bags, someone would drop candy in them and of course they liked that!  And then they were off tailing their brothers to the next house.

We continued down our street and back up the other side and visited some of our favorite neighbors along the way.  The boys eventually got tired and wanted to go back home to count their loot, so Kiera, Celina and I continued on with our next-door-neighbors to check out the crazy Halloween decorations some of the houses in our neighborhood have up.  The weather I had been so worried about ended up providing the perfect backdrop to Halloween with a mist that shrouded the neighborhood.  

Chris' bat and Dracula pumpkins flanked Celina's Tinkerbell.

Halloween - a Trip Down Memory Lane

I first met Chris' parents at their house for dinner where we had gathered for his brother Andy's birthday.  They entertained me with stories from Chris' and Andy's childhoods, which quickly lead to the story of the year Nan dressed the boys as matching daisies.  After dinner was over, Dan paged through some old photo albums until he found the photographic proof.  This picture possibly explains why Andy (and to a lesser extent Chris) do not think dressing siblings in matching outfits is cute. (Unfortunately for them, their wives agree with their mother and think this is ADORABLE.)

Andy and Chris as daisies, circa 1986

The year of the bumblebee was not as emasculating, but still just as hilarious.

Sadly, Nan didn't get much say in Halloween costumes past 1986.  The boys eventually wanted to be cowboys or football or baseball players and Nan's sewing machine didn't get much use every October.

A couple grandchildren changed all that though. Long before I was even thinking about Halloween, Nan was picking out patterns for Halloween costumes and announced one day that she was making a mouse costume for Kiera.  And then there was suddenly a Dalmatian costume for Soren and a cow costume for Matteo. Multiple costume fittings were involved, which Nan undertook while at our house for speech therapy appointments.

Dress rehearsal for the year of the cow, Dalmatian and mouse, circa 2015

Even Uncle Andy reluctantly admitted they were pretty darn cute, but only because they weren't dressed in matching outfits.

Happy Halloween!

I've always liked Halloween even though I don't like dressing up.  But I do like chocolate, fall, apples, carving pumpkins and everything else associated with the holiday.  And now that I have children, I've let go of the pressure to feel like I have to dress up or go to Halloween parties and instead use my kids as an excuse to let it be "their holiday."  It was extra fun this year now that we have an au pair and can share this quintessentially American holiday and all its traditions with him. 

Soren chose to be a fire fighter and I was thrilled that a co-worker happened to have costume from the previous year.  It fit him perfectly!

Oliver wanted to be a vampire, but after going back and forth about whether he wanted face make-up and to do his hair, it proved to be too much for him.  He admitted he wanted to be a "good-looking" vampire, so that's what he was! 

I wasn't sure whether Marcel was going to dress up or not, but I think he got some pressure from the other au pairs.  A couple of them went to Target earlier this week and he found this Superman costume on the clearance rack.  Since it was so cold, he liked the costume because he could fit his normal clothes underneath the costume to keep warm.  I told him that with Superman, the order of clothing is actually the other way around.

Whether he was into dressing up or not, I think Marcel got a kick out of trick-or-treating.  He loved seeing everyone in their costumes and walking around the neighborhood and seeing how some people go all out with decorating.  We came to one house, which had what looked like a haunted house set up in their backyard.  Oliver was too terrified to even go near the house, but I insisted Marcel had to go in, you know, in the name of cultural experience.  I think he was actually pretty nervous. 

He emerged unscathed.  In reality this haunted house served up no tricks, just treats.  The homeowners were handing out their candy inside, which lead to a humorous moment when Marcel received his candy and the homeowner looked at him and said, "You're a little big for trick-or-treating."

After that house, we headed back home where everyone gorged on candy and watched Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin.  Then the kids, overstimulated from sugar and the excitement of the evening, melted down and needed to go to bed.  And our kid who's too big for trick-or-treating, headed out with friends to find some adult Halloween parties and enjoy this American holiday with people his own age. 

Happy Halloween

The kids got really into trick-or-treating this year!  I wasn't sure what to expect since we went out after dinner - prime melt-down time - and Soren is so afraid of costumed people and spooky Halloween decorations that one run-in with a mask-clad kid could have ended trick-or-treating on the spot.  Instead, we were able to visit most of the houses on our block and the neighbors loved seeing the kids.  Chris's brother and girlfriend joined us too, so Soren always had his uncle's arms to retreat to if the scene got too overwhelming.  We still had to coach them through saying trick-or-treat and thank-you, but Oliver otherwise understood what to do and Soren got bolder about approaching houses with the other kids. 

Oliver went as the much-anticipated chicken.

 Soren recycled Oliver's old Charlie Brown costume. 

 

Uncle Andy dressed as Burt Macklin, the alter ego of Parks and Rec character Andy Dwyer.

Oliver's Chicken Costume

Oliver is at an age where he could pick his own Halloween costume.  For weeks we've been asking him what he wants to dress up as.  At first he said a "scary moose."  I researched moose costumes and had figured out a basic, but doable, moose costume I could make for him.  I was just about to start collecting the pieces to his costume when he suddenly changed his mind.  He wanted to be a chicken.  I have no idea where that idea came from! 

Nothing was going to change his mind, because trust me, I tried.  I had suggested ideas that were more practical for him to wear, cheaper to make (given he was going to wear it for a max of an hour), and easier for me, a person with no sewing skills, to construct. But he stuck to his dream to go as a chicken, so I spent the next weeks stalking blogs on Google for directions on how to make a chicken costume and worrying that I wasn't going to pull it off.  The costume design I thought was the most doable involved what I learned was going to be about $30 in boas.  And the investment in the boas wasn't even going to guarantee that Oliver would actually look like a chicken and not, well, a kid with a bunch of boas wrapped around him. 

Meanwhile, I still hung to hope that Oliver would change his mind and suddenly Halloween was a week and a half away and I hadn't even started on his costume.

A co-worker with a son a year older than Oliver heard about the chicken costume dilemma and had two pieces of advice for me.  First, make the chicken costume happen, she told me.  Second, forget the DIY.  Just buy the costume and pay for the express shipping if I have to. Her reasoning was that there are only so many years where kids get so excited about Halloween, so if Oliver wants to be a chicken, make it happen for him. 

A half an hour later, I ordered the costume, and yes, even paid for the express shipping.  Oliver was one happy little chicken and I learned my lesson.  Next year there'll be no second-guessing about a store-bought costume. 

Happy Halloween!

Following in the footsteps of my mother-in-law, my boys went in matching costumes for Halloween, but instead of matching daisies, I went with something that will be most likely less talked about over the next three decades - train conductors.  My tactic every year has been to find a costume that is easy for me to put together myself (so I feel like I "made" the costume) and wouldn't feel like a costume to the kids. Chris had to talk Oliver into wearing his costume both times, first by having a heart-to-heart with him about how wearing the costume and posing for a picture would mean a lot to Mom, and then tonight by telling him he had to wear his costume if he wanted to get candy.  So simple is good!  Plus, I think my kids look adorable in overalls. 

The best picture I could take of the two kids  together in their costumes.

The Halloween festivities started on Sunday when a friend from my hospital group hosted a Halloween party for all the kiddos.  Many of the parents remembered how Soren was only two weeks old when he attended last year's party.  This year he was in costume like the big kids and enjoyed sitting at the table with them while they painted pumpkins.  The kids also played a version of musical chairs and then everyone shared in a potluck dinner. 

My nanny sent me a picture at work today of Oliver gleefully scooping seeds from a giant pumpkin.  In her couple of years in this country, she had yet to carve a pumpkin, so I was surprised that she gave it a shot with the kids.  It turns out that at the weekly story time they attend, the librarian read a book that teaches kids how to make a jack-o-lantern, and it inspired her.  The nanny's well-executed jack-o-lantern in turn inspired Chris to carve the other two pumpkins displayed by our front door.  I made a last-minute run to the store to buy tea lights and by the time dusk approached, three jack-o-lanterns sat ablaze on our stoop. 

Soren was so tired this evening that he happily went to bed super early and missed out on trick-or-treating.  Oliver was really excited about getting candy, so we headed next door to the neighbor's house.  He can talk so much more compared with last year and had his lines memorized.  Our neighbor's daughter came out in costume to greet Oliver and the kids posed for some pictures and compared their loot and I thought we were off to a good start.  Then a group of kids approached, Oliver caught a glimpse of the lead kid's scary mask and he screamed.  I haven't seen him that scared since he was a baby.  The boy with the mask felt so bad that he'd scared Oliver that much and immediately whipped his mask off to show him it was just pretend.  Unfortunately, that experience killed Oliver's enthusiasm for trick-or-treating.  We coaxed him into going to two other houses, but then he wanted to sit on the front step, eat his treats and watch the other trick-or-treaters roam the street. 

Halloween

For Halloweens of our childhood, my brother and I were dressed in whatever costumes my mom could come up with.  She didn't care about cute or impressing other playgroup moms.  No, she just needed something costume-like for us trick-or-treat in, which is how my brother had to wear Lederhosen for a few years in a row.  Despite my disinterest in dressing up in costumes, whether for Halloween or a costume party, (I'm admittedly the party-pooper who shows up at Halloween parties in my regular clothes) I thought I'd go all out for Halloween once I had kids.  Oliver is only two and I think Halloween is just going to serve as a reminder of how uncreative and unmotivated I can be.   

Oliver was a lion last year because I happened to be able to borrow a costume.  I was going to use having a new baby as an excuse to not dress Oliver up this year, especially since he doesn't get Halloween yet and wouldn't care one way or another, but peer pressure got to me again.  First all my friends were talking excitedly about what their kids were dressing up as and then Oliver got an invitation to his first Halloween party with his toddler friends.  Wanting my kid to fit in, I found myself on Ebay looking for a costume.  Chris and I had decided to dress Oliver as Charlie Brown since the costume wouldn't require anything Oliver just might refuse to wear, like a hat, mask, boots or props.  Those same friends who had all the cool costumes for their kids discovered that two is a difficult year for dressing up.  One-year-olds have no clue what's going on and go along with anything, while three-year-olds actually get excited for Halloween and want to wear their costumes.  Two-year-olds on the other hand have to fight everything, particularly putting on a potentially uncomfortable costume for a holiday they have little understanding of.  I decided we had the perfect two-year-old-friendly costume when I found a cute, authentic-looking toddler size Charlie Brown shirt on Ebay. 

Oliver still didn't get Halloween this year.  He liked coloring the pumpkins at the Halloween party and although he reluctantly followed us over to our neighbors with his plastic jack-o-lantern candy pail, he was excited when he got a box of raisins. 

Happy Halloween

Some of us parents from last semester's early childhood education class met up on Friday evening. And on a rare night away from our kids and the mundane tasks associated with taking care of babies, we well, talked about babies. And Halloween. With our kids ranging in age between 12 and 15 months, they just don't get Halloween yet. Heck, most can't even walk, mine included, and candy is pretty-much off limits for them, so the best part about Halloween, trick or treating, isn't a baby-friendly activity. Yet we all clearly felt a parental responsibility to do something for Halloween, but weren't sure if we were doing enough. Who had taken them to Boo Bash on Grand Avenue? What were our trick or treating plans? Did we buy a new costume just for the occasion or borrow one? But when we passed around photos of our kids in costumes and awwed at our adorable they all were, I realized that simply by dressing them up, we had fulfilled our Halloween duties as parents. As long as we had pictures documenting how darn cute they were in that duck outfit, we'll look back at previous Halloweens with fond memories.

Most early-childhood milestones are about the photo ops. The one-year-old smashing a piece of birthday cake. The child sitting on Santa's lap. And cute little babies dressed up as ladybugs, pumpkins and various cuddly-looking animals. Oliver didn't go to any Halloween parties this year (they occurred during nap time) or take part in Halloween-related festivities, (how did I know the kids were supposed to dress up for the baby story time the week of Halloween?) but Chris and I did dress him up in a lion costume we borrowed from a friend and took him to his Grandma Nan and Grandpa Dan's house for his very first round of trick or treating, followed up by visits to some neighbors.

When Halloween rolls around next year, Oliver probably still won't get it. But just as Chris's mom did when he brought home a new girlfriend and she hauled out albums containing pictures from early Halloweens, (Chris and his brother made cute dandelions!) we took tons of pictures for future generations.