My favorite time of the year has always been and still is Halloween. If I were a wealthy man I would have a huge display of grimace decorations illuminating the neighborhood( I don't mean that McDonald's character either). Unfortunately my fortune doesn't even come close to being wealthy or even poor, it's closer to destitute. Which makes me have to decorate on a budget. However, this year I am ashamed to say I didn't decorate at all. Not one solitaire decoration was up. Not even a Halloween cling on the window, but there was a plastic spider in one of Sally's flower pots left from last year. The time had gotten away from me and going back on chemo didn't help matters.
However, the kids were in the Halloween spirit. Or should I say Zach was in the spirit to dress up and get candy. He doesn't fair well with scary things. Kaity on the other hand, loves everything that comes with Halloween. In September Sally asked the kids what they wanted to be. Right off Zachary's tongue, without any hesitation, rolled out "a turtle". Not just any turtle but he wanted to be a Mary river turtle. Kaity blurted out she wanted to be a witch again( I guess dressing up like mommy once wasn't enough). Through out the weeks, Kaity was a typical female and kept changing her mind. From witch it turned into a ballroom dancer, super girl. Zachary's response to that was , Kaity could protect him since he will be a lonely old turtle. She finally decided she was going to be a butterfly and stuck to that. Zachary was determined to be a turtle. I laughed every time Sally asked Zachary if he was sure. Sally kept trying to get him to change his mind but he wouldn't budge. Devilish me was glad he didn't. I just wanted to see how Sally was going to pull this one off. Zachary had high hopes he would turn in to an exact replica of a turtle. That Sally was the Betsy Ross in costume turtle making. I expected it to look more like something Charlie Brown would wear.
What was also funny about costume situation is that for years Sally has been wanting to sew a costume. Every year Zachary has insisted he would rather have a costume bought from the store. This year though, now that she is going to school full time, he wanted her to make his costume. As Halloween approached, Zachary continued to talk about what he wanted his costume to look like. He even took out the turtle book to look through and show Sally which turtle he wanted to be specifically.I had to tell poor Zach that there wasn't any Merry river turtle in my book(obviously a over site). He should think of another turtle. Ok, Dad I will be A Mississippi Map turtle. I thought that Zach and I may have gone through the turtle book one to many times. Most kids who wanted to be made up after some sort of wild life animal would be happy just looking like a turtle ,bear,lion ect. Not Zach he wanted to be a specific turtle,a Mississippi Map Turtle. I was enjoying his persistence to be as close to looking like a turtle as he possible could be and the fear Sally had on her face every time Zach would discuss his costume with her. I looked in the book with Zach at the Map turtle he wanted to be. I mentioned to him that this turtle has a lot of intricacies in the face. Dad, what is intricacies,never mind, the face would be to hard. Do you have another turtle you want to be, Red Eared Slider Dad!!!! Ok Sally get to work , you heard the boy. I must admit when Sally showed me the costume I was impressed except she left out an important part of the costume, I had to rescue her. I was delegated to make the Plastron(turtles under shell). Sally did the Carapace(the turtles top shell) and it looked very close to a Red Eared Sliders carapace. Of course it's nothing near what you would see on tv but it did look like a turtle. Everyone could tell he was a turtle but they kept asking him if was a teenage mutant ninja turtle which annoyed him. Which really got me going after the hard work that was done making it. One time I had to say something. "Look lady it's obviously a Red Eared Slider costume. I guess you don't know your turtles. "She was just staring at us with her mouth wide open. That is probably when she realized yeahhhh, I see it now, A Red Eared Slider.
When it came to Kaity's costume, Sally had started making it this summer without ever realizing it. My wife through the years has bought many craft projects which she barely started and never finished. She has a sewing machine which has been rarely used. She did have a brain storm this past summer. She was going to start making and selling tutus and hair bows. They are in great demand along with all the beanie babies that are shoved away in totes throughout America and taking up my garage space. She did finish making one. Kaity was so proud of it. I told Sally she shouldn't bother going back to school because she can make millions if not billions selling tutus. I could just see all the Ballerinas lining up at our door, I want a red one, I want a blue, will you autograph mine? Sally just gave me the look and never made a tutu after that. The tutu did manage to reappear for Halloween. Kaity did have one demand for her attire. She wanted a butterfly on her face as well. For all the painting and house projects Sally has made me do over the years, I just felt the kids costumes this year was a tiny payback for all the grueling things she had made me do. When Sally showed me the butterfly wing and said she was going to pair it up with the tutu, I couldn't picture it working. However, Kaity looked really cute and she was proud of the way she looked. Her preschool teachers mentioned a couple of times how they loved her costumes.
Having home made costumes for my kids this year brought back a lot of memories from my youth. I took a lot of pride in my kids this year. Even though I was getting annoyed when Kaity was continually being asked if she was a princess or a fairy godmother. When I was a lad, it was rare to see someone wearing a store bought costume. Now it's rare to see a child in a home made costume. I think kids today's are missing out on a lot of fun. Part of the Halloween fun was making your costume. Now it seems like all the kids are wearing the same costumes. Kids have lost their individuality except for my kids. They didn't mind being unique and for that I loved that about them.
As for trick or treating there is a lot more to write about that. My fingers are getting tired and I am sure your eye balls are getting tired from reading my ramblings. So I will give us both a break and continue tomorrow.
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