i love candy

I have a love-hate relationship with Halloween. I love dressing up. I love making my kids costumes. And I love, love candy. But I don't really love scary things. And I don't love having candy in the house. Well, I do, but I know I shouldn't eat Butterfingers for breakfast and that's what I end up doing. 

My favorite part is making the costumes. I honestly get a lot of creative satisfaction out of it. Late September, Ana came home declaring that she wanted to be Darth Vader for Halloween. Up until this point, Jack had wanted to be Mario, but we convinced him to instead be Luke Skywalker and all we had to do was tell Katie she was a princess and she was sold.

A few weeks ago we watched Star Wars: the original trilogy with the kids. They loved it! The entire movie, every time Princess Leia came on Katie said "There I am." Or whenever a storm trooper got shot she said, "You died, Mom." It was kind of hilarious.

Truthfully, Charlie wasn't thrilled about wearing a hat. Usually he pulled it off right away. But if I gave me a cracker or something right after I put it on, he sometimes forgot about it long enough to take a picture.

He also got to eat a sucker for the first time and this made him happy. (Remember how Ana didn't have a sucker until she was 18 months old and I didn't let anyone give her candy? I guess that's the difference between your first and your 4th kid.)

Star Wars was a popular theme at the elementary school parade this year. Jack's friend in his class was also Princess Leia.

Dave and I decided to join in the costumes too. Ana really wanted someone else on that dark side, so I went with a storm trooper and  Dave went as Obi-Wan Kenobi

I spent most of the day on Halloween finishing up costumes. Jack wanted to carve pumpkins. He finally got impatient enough that he did his all on his own. Then when Dave got home he helped the girls with theirs. And then I couldn't find our tea lights so I used birthday candles and they smelled funny. But, hey, at least we carved pumpkins. And I sort of love that Jack did his by himself. He traced his pattern, cut off the top, scooped out the guts and everything.

The kids made out like bandits. We have so much candy in our house. Seriously, its ridiculous. Ana keeps asking me if I will buy all hers for $50 so she can buy a Kindle. (Um... no.) She did save her Reese's Pieces and Almond Joys for me and her Reese's PB cups and other good stuff for Dave. Gotta love that generosity.

So another Halloween is in the books. Next year Jack says he will be Mario for sure and he wants Charlie to be Luigi. We'll see if he stays with it.