William was an army man. Easy enough. He wore a camouflage jacket and a bandana on his head and carried plastic weapons. We burned a cork and rubbed it on his face, then added red paint as evidence of “action.”
Everett was a ninja. He didn’t settle on this until about 4:30 the day of, but it worked. Happily we found a black belt to go with his karate uniform (he has a white belt) and a black strip of cloth in which I cut two holes for his eyes. He looked very ninja-like, indeed.
And Emma Grace was a fairy. Or a fairy princess. Or a princess. About halfway through trick-or-treating she decided she didn’t want me to call her fairy anymore. Why she chose to take offense at this, I’ll never know, but I’ve never been much for predicting the inner workings of her agile mind. At any rate, she wore two tutus and pink wings and carried a wand and wore my make-up, which was my bribe to get her to to be a fairy instead of a unicorn.
I know, I know. A unicorn is a great costume. And any other October I’d like to say that I would have been happy to rig such a costume for her. But not this October. No. Maybe next year?
We went out together, all five of us, plus our friends Nic and Laura, Giuliana and Carlo. We hit our cul-de-sac and one across from us, and we got Plenty of Loot. Plenty.
Highlight 1: the elderly man who took a long time to come to the door and then stood there, white-haired, smiling at the children. He was hard of hearing but he delighted in their costumes, and held his candy out in front of him and made certain everyone got some and reminded me– in the way that all elderly men have the potential to do– of my dear Skipper, my grandfather. So I stood there in the dark and watched this dear man and missed my Skipper.
Highlight 2: the couple visiting from South Africa who were, presumably, staying with the woman whose doorbell we rang. This couple stood outside and waited for the trick-or-treaters, and the husband took his wife’s photo with every group of costumed children that came by. They believe Halloween to be a great holiday, but explained that they don’t have it South Africa because October 31st doesn’t fall at harvest time in the southern hemisphere. I resisted this opportunity to review a recent science unit with my children, and instead pointed out that costumes and candy really can happen whenever one wants them to. I think they saw the possibilities….
Highlight 3: the dialogue, some of which follows.
Everett: Mom, can you carry my candy bucket?
Me: Why?
E: Because it’s heavy.
Me (to Bill): Isn’t that the idea? (to E): No, son, you can carry it.
E: But Mom! (Total child of America, complaining because his bucket of candy is too heavy. His Bucket of Candy. Of Candy. We made him carry it.)
E: Mom, my knees hurt. I have growing pains in my knees.
Me: (silence and eye-rolling under cover of darkness)
E: Mom, I don’t want to wear my ninja mask anymore. My eyes are hot.
(His eyes were hot. His eyes were hot)
Emma Grace: I want to wear your mask.
E: No.
Emma Grace: Let me wear your mask. Everett, can I wear your mask?
E: No.
Emma Grace: My eyes are cold! I need your mask, Everett. My eyes are cold!
(Her eyes were cold. Cold.)
We arrived home to discover that our Outrageously Burgeoning bowl of candy had gone virtually untouched. Later we added to that bowl the fruit of the night’s labors, and let me just say that we have Way Too Much Candy at our house. Way Too Much. Way, Way.
I am going to hide it from Everyone. Especially me.
