Happy Halloweeeeen!

Happy Halloween!

I have always loved Halloween.  More so, as a child of course, but my love was rekindled once I had kids.  Watching their excitement grow as the date drew near was so much fun.

My kids are in high school now, so their Halloween outings no longer involve us. They are off doing things with their friends.

It usually is a nice night for my hubby and I to just hang out, hand out candy, and watch a scary movie or sit by the fire.

However, tonight, I am all alone.

The football team keeps wining, (go Rangers!) so, he is at the game with the pep band this evening.

He waited until this afternoon to tell me he needed to come up with a costume for tonight.  Oh, and it is going to be really cold out, so, "something for a tall, skinny guy, but it has to keep me warm."

No problem, honey.

He should have been an actor.  Or something.

E.T. is definitely going to find his way home tonight.

~

We live on a street with very little traffic, so there is rarely an overflow of trick or treaters.  This is okay, because I am pretty crafty in my candy buying.  I always make sure my favorites remain.

The other reason I love Halloween is because I can do this:

The pumpkin got loose a couple minutes ago when a princess came to my door. He chased after her dog (who was 4x his size.)  It was pretty funny.  It's not everyday you see a pumpkin in attack mode.

Or a pumpkin running down the street, for that matter.

~

I only have two vivid Halloween memories from my college days.  One year, Halloween fell on a weekend, so the band I was playing in was scheduled to perform at Brother's bar in La Crosse.  We were all going to dress up, of course, and I decided to go as a mermaid....because when you are in college, the objective is to look sexy on Halloween, right?  So, obviously, a mermaid was an excellent decision.

Excellent, until I got there and realized that the only way to get on the stage to play was to hoist yourself up onto it.  (There were no stairs....so it was the equivalent of stepping up about three stairs at once.)  Not a huge deal, unless you are dressed as a mermaid, your dress is so tight at the ankles you look ridiculous trying to even walk up ONE stair.  (I had to do the knees together, sideways walk thing). 

Needless to say, I had to have the guys lift me on and off the stage all night.  Watching a mermaid being lifted on and off a stage like an invalid quickly takes the "sexy" out of the whole thing pretty darn quickly.

  I must have looked like a fish out of water. (cue drums...ba dum bum.)

~

The other was the Halloween party of the century at one of the houses I lived in during college.  We hosted a rather large gathering, and of course, lots of theater majors were there.  If you invite theater students, you are going to have amazing costumes.  My friend Jeanine and I were the hostesses, so to speak, so we dressed as French Maids.  My favorite costumes were worn by my friends Anne and Andy, who, of course, came as Raggedy Ann and Andy.  And the very best, my friend Jeff (who had long hair at the time) came as Heidi from the Alps.  Complete with braids, his German dress (I can never remember what those are called) tights and character shoes, balloon boobs, and his stein, from which he drank all night.  It was outstanding.

The party itself was outstanding, until the police arrived....and the under 21 crowd started (literally) throwing themselves off the porch, into the bushes, and other inconspicuous actions such as that.

I have to believe the fact that two French Maids answering the door may have helped in us getting a warning rather than a ticket.  Or wait....maybe we did get a ticket?  It is all a blur.

~

My favorite Halloween with my kids was the year I bought them Tinkerbell and Captain Hook costumes.  They were probably 3 and 5 years old at the time.  I was so excited, and knew they would be adorable.  I never expected the reaction I got.

Lexie loved her costume, but when I went to put the Captain Hook costume on Sam, he lost it.  He was SO upset that she got to be Tinkerbell, and he didn't.  He refused to go out trick or treating that night.  

He did, however, wear that damn Tinkerbell costume every single day for the next several weeks.

~

(I searched for an hour for my old Halloween pics of the kids, specifically Tinkerbell....to no avail.  I am sure I will find them tomorrow.)
FOUND IT!

Tinkerbell.  

~

Needless to say, they have always been fond of playing dress up.

Sam and friends in tutus

Lexie (what is with that face?!) and Sam in his tutu (again)

A very serious belly dancer?

Sam..again in the tutu (no wonder he wanted to be Tinkerbell!) and Lexie

Sam the witch.  (Check out the mismatched "high heels" he is wearing.)

He did eventually outgrow his Tinkerbell/tutu phase (not that there's anything wrong with that.)  Although, he is still pretty ridiculous.

Here is tonight's costume:

He is "Brick" from Anchorman....ready to fight the battle of the networks. 

Good Lord.

And my daughter and her boyfriend:

Brad and Janet from "Rocky Horror".

And I decided to dress up like a lazy housewife.

Because that was a stretch for me. ;)

Okay....FIVE trick or treaters have stopped by in the time I have been writing this.  (And I have been putzing around the house while writing as well.)

I am closing up shop, turning the fireplace on, lighting some candles, opening a bottle of wine, and looking for a scary movie. :)

Happy Halloweeeeeeeeeenn!!