Halloween Confessions

Our Little Pumpkin--Confessions of a Biased Photographer

I'm hanging my head a little as I post this. Honestly. In all truthfulness. I promise...I DO NOT love any one of my children above the other. You may think me a liar after seeing the imbalance of pictures. It's just that the Princess is at that age of discovery, and her discovery is so incredibly delightful to observe.

We began our Halloween Eve at Publix where the goodies were disappointingly not very plentiful. However, the kids all scored a cookie at the bakery (not that they don't always score a cookie at the Publix bakery). Then, in the refrigerated section, there was a mini-beanbag toss the children had to complete to earn their piece of candy. Clearly, the cookie was of utmost importance to Her Highness. She seemed a bit perturbed that we required her to pause her munching to participate in the toss. She was almost blatant in the way she kept chewing as she nonchalantly tossed the five beanbags.

When dark finally came, we were able to leave Publix behind and do some real trick-or-treating, which she enjoyed thoroughly. She darted from house to house, trying to keep up with her brothers and sister, her little pumpkin head bouncing merrily along. Her timid little "Twick-or-tweat" and "tank you" encouraged many candy-givers to chuckle.

When we had a few blocks under our belt, and the Princess' bucket was so heavy she had to relinquish it to us in between stops, we finally called it a night. Obviously, the night wasn't over, though. Although generally a very compliant child, she was quite cunning and snuck in at least two more pieces of candy over the limit we set on them. In addition, she participated in several candy trading negotiations.

Once negotiations had ended and she had been aptly scolded for eating too much candy, she settled herself down to play with the candy, taking out each piece, examining it, and then placing it in a line. When the line was complete, she dubbed it her Candy Road. And as I write this, our little pumpkin is seated on the couch talking to her candy and fingering each tasty, gooey building block of her divine road.

Rocks in Your Bucket--Confessions of a Cheapskate Mom

Every year I cry a little for Charlie Brown when he realizes that all the other kids got candy while he only got a rock in his sack. But then I kinda relate to the trickster who gave him the rock. I mean, it's so much more economical to dispense rocks than to divvy out bags of expensive candy. It would be an especially frugal way to go here in Georgia where our red clay is laden with rocks. Thankfully, we don't live in a traditional neighborhood and therefore don't give anything; we just go to my brother-in-law's neighborhood to get candy...you can just think of us as Democratic Trick-or-Treaters.

What always gets me every year are the costumes. Remember the good ol' days when Mom made your costume? Every year I resolve to do that, but just like New Year's Resolutions, the well-known Halloween Resolution is not really meant to be honored. If you'll remember, last year, I coerced the children into wearing a costume that went along with our studies; that justified the cost. This year, however, I left the whole costume project until the last minute and then had to go out and buy them. Alex mentioned long ago she wanted to be a witch, but because my principles don't support witches and all that, I said no. Then I got to the store. $30 for the fairies, $40 for the cheerleader (which doesn't rate that much higher for me over the witch), $25 for the witch. So, friends, I compromised my principles to save some dough. In my defense, this is a good witch, one who wears pink. Surely a pink witch cannot be evil, right?

As for the others, we had a ninja and a skeleton. Not first choices for the boys but the cheapest on the rack, and so after much wheeling and dealing, Ninja and Skeleton it was. As for the resident princess, I'm afraid she receives the trick end of the deal when it comes to costumes; she gets the hand-me-downs. She wanted to be Ariel, so I took her big sister's Ariel costume, which is at least a few sizes too big, and I pinned it. I don't think I pinned it well, however, because she kept saying "Ariel hurts." She happily settled for the hand-me-down pumpkin; someday she'll realize she's being duped. Until then I'll continue my resolve to make costumes next year...and always hope for Bottle Caps--my favorite--instead of rocks in the kids' buckets. Sadly, there were no Bottle Caps this year.