Trick-or-Treat

Here they are: The Dead Medieval Maiden and Cleopatra. Bug was highly irked that many people were not able to guess who she was. Among the guesses: Cinderella (with black hair and a cobra headpiece?!), a "princess", Clea (?), and Isis (we awarded points for at least getting that she was Egyptian). Only a few people correctly labelled her as Cleopatra.Bear was supposed to be a Medieval Lady. We were planning to curl her hair into ringlets and weave a gold ribbon through it. She would wear pearls and dangly earrings. Once she discovered that all her friends were planning to be Goths, or vampires, and various other scary types, she decided that Medieval Lady was lame. She came to me worried and anxious four days before Halloween.

In a stellar parenting moment (that I plan to get much mileage out of), I suggested that since she ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY WAS GOING TO WEAR THE COSTUME THAT GRANDMA LOVINGLY SEWED HER, that perhaps she would like to be a Dead Medieval Lady.

She paused.

She considered.

Her eyes lit up.

She thought I was the coolest mom ever. (That's the part I plan to remind her of frequently).

This is what we came up with:

That's her actual hair with the addition of an entire can of hairspray, followed by a liberal application of baby powder and leaves from the yard. She had to stand in the shower for about ten minutes to rinse it all out before she could even shampoo. We really COMMIT to our Halloween costumes around these parts.

Here's our entire Halloween crew. Bug and Bear have trick-or-treated with their friends C.(gangsta) and M. (Goth) for the past five years. In between houses, they plan what their costumes will be next year. Then they change their minds about thirty-seven times before the next Halloween.

We went back to their house for pizza and tiramisu (What? they're both Italian) . After supper, the kids all dumped their candy in the living room and swapped candy back and forth like little commodities traders ("I gotta Three Musketeers! Who wants it? Whaddya got? Nope, I'm not taking candy corn. Ya gotta Snickers?")

But the highlight of Halloween this year was the arrival of Uncle Awesome and Aunt Fabulous that afternoon. Of course, we dragged them both to Bug's class Halloween party and out trick-or-treating with us. They were very good sports, especially when bribed with tiramisu and peanut butter cups.