It's not too late for Halloween photos, right? I figure it is not Thanksgiving yet so compared to where I usually am when they get posted, I'm actually kind of ahead of the game this year.
Elementary schools in our district don't let the kids dress up in costumes on Halloween, nor do they have a "Halloween" party. Instead they have fall-themed activities throughout the week (like one day, BVZ got to go to her class and carve pumpkins) and a parade where the kids can dress up as a character from a book. The parade happened the day before Halloween this year, and Norah went as a character from a Fancy Nancy book. I will admit that I waited too long to think about her costume and then Norah insisted she dress as a girl who wears glasses. That's trickier than you might think. She looked cute but I didn't manage to take a photo of her that morning. My sister who has done elementary school with two kids for several years now, makes the kids pick their trick-or-treating costume based on the character book parade costume and I am now realizing the true brilliance of that move. I actually am totally okay with them not getting an official Halloween celebration at school. The last thing I want is more work for the teachers and as a mom of a kid with severe dietary restrictions, I really don't want to create more work for myself. Plus, they get to eat plenty of crap at home.
So that's why on the actual Thursday of Halloween, Lou got to wear his costume and Norah just wore regular (albeit festive) school clothes.
This is Lou's BFF at school. Louie is one of the tallest kids in his class but weighs the least. Check out his high water pants. It was a one piece outfit and Amy decided he looked like a river dancer. He totally did.
After dinner Norah got back into her Izzy outfit. She was insistent that she couldn't possible be Izzy and wear glasses, so we let her take the night off.
Reid was, of course, Captain Hook. My friend A lent him the costume and man did he own it. All on their own they did some method acting in character.
Louie's favorite part of his costume was the sword.
Camilla was a fish. A very sweet and very cute fish that had no problem with the chaos erupting around her.
We were missing the big cousins a whole lot, but they wanted and needed to hang out with their own friends and seek out candy their hood.
Lou was VERY apprehensive about trick or treating at first. Norah led the charge and Reid was usually right behind her. They were both very cute and polite and got a lot of attention from people at the door. Lou warmed up pretty quickly once he realized people were putting actual real candy in his bucket and it was game-on. By about the 10th house we realized that Lou's bucket was twice as full as the other two. We watched him at the next house and discovered that when a nice person held out the bucket of candy he, like the other two, took one piece and then said thank you. But when that said nice person gave compliments to the kids or chatted up the adults, Lou would do a sneak arm reach and grab several more pieces. Sociopath.
There were a ton of kids out in force, including a guy dressed as the Stay-Puff Marshmallow man (which Louie did not appreciate). There were several neighborhood block parties, including the Hallo-Weenie, where a neighborhood fed everyone hot dogs in exchange for canned food donations for the local food bank. I am consistently impressed by the level of activism around here.
Back at home I went through the buckets and took out all of the "Gluten" candy, leaving each kid with about five pieces of candy. For the first time I was able to use it to my advantage and there were no arguments over what got dumped. What they don't know certainly won't hurt them.
It was a hilariously fun night. I am already looking forward to next year.
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