Halloween Past and Present

Halloween costumes are an area of great emotion for me. I still have nightmares (not really) of the time my mom dressed me as an "Old Lady Aerobics Instructor". My Mom's very creative, but I had other ideas for my costume that year. In her defense, one year she actually made me a homemade princess costume. It was beautiful. It was pink with a tall pointed hat that had fabric flowing from the top. I think it even had some ric rack trim on it. I can't remember all of the details since there aren't any pictures of that Halloween. Instead we have this picture from when I was in Kindergarten.

Do you see me? I'm the second one from the left on the bottom. That year I was an old lady. Just a wig and a dress, no glasses or makeup wrinkles on my face. You can tell from my body language that I wasn't happy. You see the girl to my left? The cute homemade cat? That made my costume look really bad. I would have even been happy with one of the plastic, store-bought, "Strawberry Shortcakes" on the top row. This all explains why I don't dress up as an adult.

I vowed that my kids would never be embarrassed by their Halloween costumes and would make all efforts possible to help them stand proud every October 31st. (Hi Mom, I'm just being dramatic.) This year I only had one kid who would consent to a homemade costume. My girls tend to take after me, and try to be as contrary to their mother as possible. Maybe that was the problem after all, I wouldn't take my Mom's suggestions either. As they say, "What goes around, comes around".

Here are a few pictures of the costumes my kids have worn.

This was the last year I made costumes for all of my kids. I was very proud of these costumes that I made without a pattern. The 1st Prize award from the Church party helped me to heal a little from my childhood trauma.

Yes, that's my mom. She was "supposed" to be Pippi Longstocking. I think it was closer to the "Wendy's" poster girl. (I sense my mom will be joining blogger soon to defend herself in the comments.)

I know this is really blurry but they were "Stick Figures" last year. It was a very clever idea that we saw on America's Funniest Home Videos.This is what they are going as tonight. The Hot Dog was tough since we couldn't find a pattern for it. There was a lot of trial and error in the process. The "Little Blue Monster" was in mid growl in this picture.

So the moral of this story is... Make sure your kids are happy with their costumes so they don't complain about it on their blogs someday.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Edit- I tease my Mom about this often. Everything I wrote, I knew she would read. I know you can't hear my tone, but I am kidding (mostly). My Mom's a good sport.