Mud & Make-up; Puddles & Purses: November 2010

Halloween was so much fun this year.

Let me take a quick break right there. I realize that Halloween has various meanings for people, and it may be especially different for those of us with a Christian faith. But I cannot help but be incredibly irritated by the hideously scary outfits that some of these kids are wearing. For the most part, it's a children's "holiday" (I use the term loosely here). So, why so many bloody axe murderers and mummies and freaky masks? Eva had a few moments of extreme terror throughout the week and it really made me angry. Fear is real, and the intensity of it is real, especially for children. There are enough REAL things in life to be afraid of, right? Ok, I'm done. Back to why it was so much fun (except for the aforementioned...)

The 2 years prior, eh- not so much. Last year it rained and Eva was not really getting the concept of "trick-or-treating". She was walking into everyone's houses and taking huge amounts of candy from everyone's bowls. It was not a smart idea to take an 18 month old trick-or-treating, but we did because her cousins were going and we didn't want her to miss out on all the fun. Lesson learned. Sorry, Samuel.
Eva is a girly-girl in almost every respect. She loves painting her nails, putting on pretend make-up, and she is VERY in tune with her accessories (minor obsession with jewelry, shoes, and purses). And, one of her all-time favorite activities is dressing up- in anything. She's game for whatever- I'm not kidding.

This fall Mike bought her the new Tinkerbell movie, and another obsession was born (I think she is prone to these so I am going to have to keep my eye on this issue). So, when I explained what Halloween was- a day we get to dress up in a costume and get candy- and asked what she wanted to be, she had no hesitation. She would be Tinkerbell and THAT WAS THAT! I didn't really want her to be the actual Tinkerbell, so I bought a fairy costume at a consignment sale and told her, "it's a fairy, just like Tinkerbell!" and she was happy as a clam. My mom and I made her a headpiece that came out cute-enough, but her little face made the whole outfit PERFECT. She was adorable in every way and boy, did she get a lot of "oohs" and "aahs" :) We winterized it the best we could with leggings underneath the tights, a hat, sweater, and snow boots.

I think the funniest thing about Halloween this year was Eva's insistence that we were not going "trick-or-treating"; instead, we were going "tigger training". She also always had great affection for Tigger, but I had no idea she would be so excited at the prospect of training to be a Tigger? I explained very carefully what the whole idea was- "You go the neighbors houses and you knock on the door. When someone comes to the door, you say 'trick-or-treat!', and they will give you candy. If they let you choose candy, you only take 1 piece out of the bowl. Then, you say 'Thank you!'." I went over this a million times and when quizzed what you say when they open the door, "TIGGER TRAINING!!" came out every time, without fail. Clear as a bell. Oh well.

The pictures of the day mostly consist of Evangeline. She was the child I was assigned to, and I had the camera. Once again- sorry, Sam. Mike held Sam and he did pretty well, considering it was frigid and he was dressed in a frumpy costume and really just wanted to crawl around. Poor little guy- he has a lot of this kind of thing ahead of him, I'm afraid. But, I must say, he was adorable as a Tiger and fit perfectly with Eva's whole idea of Tigger-training. He was totally kissable and so I kissed him at least 15 dozen times. Sorry, Sam.

Here are the pics from the actual day: (At the bottom are pics we took of the kids in their costume's at Springton Manor farm a few weeks ago in case they didn't cooperate on the actual day)

Eva is ready to go. She has no idea what she is truly in for- notice the look of confusion.

Sam's look essentially says, "Seriously, guys? Why am I dressed like this? This is ridiculous."

These are the kids on my side of the family (Whitnah's), except for Nora, our 6 month old niece who was way over-stimulated and needed a nap badly. I can hardly believe that we will add 3 more to this picture by next year. A brother or sister for Sloane and 2 brothers for Judah!