david and the lamb

I'm not really into Halloween. I've never been, and am pretty sure that I will never be. I don't like ugly things and to be quite frank, everything about Halloween is ugly (in my opinion) except the candy. Candy is pretty. I like it. In addition to the candy I steal from my children since I don't really allow them to eat many sweets, I enjoy one other major part of Halloween. Costumes. I like to get dressed up, and not just to look pretty. Having children enabled me to have two new bodies to embellish as I desire on Halloween. It sounds more cruel than it actually is. I allowed Parker to have some say in his get-up, but I don't think it's a three-year-old's duty to make all the decisions for his young life :). I'm the mom and I think I should get some privileges for carrying them 9 months and for being cut open twice. (Sorry if that seems a bit gory, but this is a Halloween post.)

When I first asked Parker who he wanted to be for Halloween, he said Lightning McQueen. I was overjoyed (written with the most sarcasm that the word overjoyed can contain). I looked for the Lightning outfit, and when I saw it, immediately decided that Parker would not get his first choice. It was ugly...and boring. I'm all about allowing my child to be an individual, but I feel guiding him to better decisions is part of my job as a parent. Being a boring little car for Halloween fits in the "wrong" decision category in my book. (I hope no one reading this is taking me too serious.) Anyway, I then asked him to think real hard about who else he liked and wanted to dress-up as. His response the second time, verbatim, was "David and Goliath." I felt as though I could work with that answer. Though slightly impossible to make my little man both a shepherd and a giant, I took creative liberty to DIY a variation of his desire to be the heroic Bible character combined with the scary foe. He would be David the shepherd boy. I have a fear of sewing outfits with sleeves, but I conquered that fear with this project that required me to follow a pattern with sleeves. I was proud of the outcome, but I'm sure that a real seamstress would have scolded my work. Parker loved it...that's what really matters.

Of course this meant that Graham had to be tortured with a sheep costume. It was a must. David couldn't be a shepherd without a sheep! I wish you could have seen Graham's reaction the first time we stuck him in his fuzzy ensemble. He was furious. He hated it. We laughed our heads off.

Parker is involved in a Wednesday night Awanas program at a local church and they wanted the children to dress as animals, so I picked up a lion outfit for $5.00 at Target. He was a cute lion and insisted on roaring the whole night. Normally I put an end to loud nonsense, but how could I tell him to stop when he was dressed as a lion? Exactly. I didn't. I allowed it...for one night only. That's all my patience could handle.

In addition to his Awanas dress up night and the city-wide trick-or-treat night, Parker's preschool had a trunk-or-treat parade for the kids to show-off their festive garments. I wasn't able to allow Parker to take his home-made sling shot or his brother for props at school, so I stuck a little stuffed lamb in his robe pocket. He loved it and repeatedly told his teachers that he had to protect the sheep from the dogs.??? Whatever.

Here are some pictures from our three days of fun. I apologize now for the barrage of pictures, but I'm feeling slightly indecisive tonight and I think they're all blog-worthy. You have the right to exit my page at any time when annoyed ;)