Halloween, My favorite Time of the Year

Even though it just past, I still have Halloween on the brain. It is my favorite holiday after all. 

This year was an exhausting success. We did not host our Boo Bash, like in the recent years. We were happily the guests of someone else's party. And we finished the night trick or treating with close friends. 

The costume situation is always really stressful for me. With kids, at least mine, it's difficult to nail them down to one costume. Take this year for instance. In September, I began looking at the costume sites for some options (I am not the crafty Mom who can take things from our own closets and create incredible and creative costumes.). So I store buy most of ours. In September, Buddy wanted to be a minion (again). Rea wanted to be Evie, from Disney's Descendants. She thought I should be the Evil Queen, Evie's Mom. And we weren't totally sure about Stu. 

I waited though before purchasing. Past experience has taught me that what is exciting in September will be old hat by October. 

For the month of October, the kids changed their minds. They wanted us to be a family of vampires. I was very excited about this... figuring that even Stu would get in on the action. Mommy and Daddy love vampires. It was not really a shock when my 5 year old came up with the idea. So we began discussing costume options. Vampires are awesome because you can wear anything, then slap on some white face make up, fangs and blood. We had fun coming up with our characters' back stories. I was so excited about this. 

Then the week of Halloween came. I dragged my feet about going to the Halloween store. I had a feeling I would be leaving with much more than a family set of vampire fangs. 

​I was right. 

Take a stroll down memory lane with me... Check out our past Halloweens. 

As I predicted, Buddy decided that he did not want to be a vampire anymore... the rest of us could (his words). So after about 30 minutes of walking up and down every aisle Buddy decided on being a Ninja Turtle. It was money well spent. He wore this costume for two days straight. 

Rea was still planning to be a vampire. She had chosen clothes from her closet to wear. But she wanted real fangs. Not the cheap looking mouth pieces that kids get as party favors. I was happy to oblige thinking that her costume would only cost about $15. Not too bad. 

On Halloween, after karate, we stopped by a different Halloween store. I was not in love with the idea of my vampire costume. I just wanted to look around. And this time we had Stu with us. He could find something for himself. I found a modest Indian outfit which made me super happy. It seems like there are only two styles of women's costumes: SKANK or SWEAT YOUR BUTT OFF. It's Florida. We do not have a cool Halloween... the high for October 31 was 86! No way do I want to be a Cat in the Hat in full body felt! Yuck. 

When we began getting ready to go to the party, we had lots of trouble with Rea's fangs. They were simply way too large. And we could not get the wax to properly adhere to her tiny teeth. She was crying, which in turn ruined her face makeup. Which, of course, made her cry more because now a lot of makeup was going into her eyes. It was a disaster. 

Back to the costume shop. 

Finally, we made it to the party! And I think we looked pretty fantastic! 

The party was fabulous... my favorite part was the tiger! Yes, a six-week old baby bengal tiger. It was incredible. There was also a year old alligator and year old crocodile. They were feisty little monsters.