The best part of Halloween for everyone is the costumes. Let the Dickson costume parade begin.
Jacob wanted to be Sir Raven Bowie, an alter ego of Mackelmore, a musician he saw in concert last month. Jacob sewed the cape himself! In the end, he didn't end up wearing his costume because he had no plans for Halloween. Anastaya says her favorite part is the muskrat collar. Sheri picked me up some muskrat pelts 10 years ago at a garage sale when I was a cub scout leader. I've still got a few left.
Isaac created his costume from some things we got at Value Village.
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Isaac as Flynn Rider (from the Disney movie Tangled). He's doing the "smolder".
Anastaya wanted to be Smurfette. She made her own costume, using a long white skirt and turning it into a jumper. She cut the neck off a turquoise turtleneck sweater and made her Smurf hat. I think she looks really cute.
Elizabeth wore a pirate costume I bought at Wal-Mart for $3 at the after Halloween sale last year. Janice took it to the next level by turning her into a ghost pirate.
transformation of her hands
Elizabeth and Janice
Being dressed as a dead pirate is no excuse for skipping piano practice!
Elizabeth won the award for "Most Unbelievable" at church because no one could recognize her. Love those black teeth!
William and I were astronauts. Outer Space is our day camp theme for 2013 so I thought I'd choose a costume I could get more than one night out of. I hesitated to dress the same as William but when I found the youth astronaut costume at Value Village for $3, I couldn't resist. I knew I would get extra credit mom points at William's school for dressing like twins and I was right. The principal, school nurse, and his teachers all made comments. It turns out someone was not pleased with our matching outfits. Miriam got quite upset that I never match her. Since this is the first time William and I have had matching costumes, I thought it was a silly argument and asked her if she wanted us to be matching princesses next year. I hope not! I don't know if I could pull off a Disney princess costume! When we went to the trunk or treat at church, one of the little girls wanted to know how and where I got my training. I told her it was an online course. She wanted to know where William got his training. I told her it was a two for one deal. I thought it was great that she was able to be so clever with her questions, and felt comfortable joking around with an adult. She's only about 10 years old.
I bought Miriam two costumes for Halloween, a Cinderella costume when they first showed up at Costco the beginning of September and a fairy costume she earned for swimming across Lake Pearrygin while on vacation. The costume she'd really wanted was the Brave "adventure dress" but when we went to the store to get it, they were sold out. All the other Brave dresses I could find anywhere were the Brave formal dress which Miriam vetoed since that's the one Brave's MOTHER picked out for her. She'd decided on the fairy costume as a replacement for the ideal Brave dress but in the end she ended up wearing neither costume, opting for two dresses she pulled out of the dress up clothes.
For Tuesday night, Snow White. She won the award for "Most Romantic" at the church party.
She was Sleeping Beauty on Halloween night.
Tuesday night was the trunk or treat at church. They had quite the party, starting with chili, snow cones and bouncy houses and finishing with trick or treating in the parking lot.
When there's a chili feed, Dode always signs up so he can bring Nalley chili and know that at least one chili is safe and edible! I opened the can and thought it smelled like dog food. The kittens think it tastes like cat food. They licked the empty #10 can clean!
Snow cones in the gym at church Tuesday night.
They encourage people to decorate their trunks. Dode takes advantage of the chance to create something. He turned our cargo trailer into a laser maze. The kids had to go in the back door of the trailer and work their way to the front door to get their candy. If they step through the laser instead of over it, an alarm goes off. The children enjoyed going through the laser maze again and again. He also brought his bottomless pit back for another year. Click here to read more about that.
Wednesday afternoon (Halloween day) I visited William in his classroom for his Halloween class party. We started out with a costume parade where the younger classes (Kindergarten, 1st grade and William's K-5 class) went to every classroom in the school. All the classrooms have a door that accesses outside and a door to an interior hall so we made our serpentine way through the school. William and I attracted a lot of attention in our matching astronaut costumes. Miriam was very excited to see me come through her classroom. She told me later that I was the only mom that dressed up. I asked her if that was a good or bad thing. She decided it was a good thing.
They had "Wrap your partner as a mummy" races. We learned that the quality of TP really affects how easy it is to wrap your mummy. You really need the 2-ply!
The children got to relax and watch a few short movies.
Since Halloween is all about sugar, they all brought something to share with their classmates. We brought apple juice.
There was a Harvest party at Stillaguamish Valley School to raise money for the Youth and Government class that Isaac and Anastaya are in. I had to make a big pot of chili, a pan of cornbread and a cake for the event. Then, I had to pay $3 each to attend the event and get to eat the chili I'd made. Dode told me not to worry about making him dinner since he was getting lunch at work for Halloween. He always treats work lunches as all you can eat feeds and doesn't need dinner on those nights. Well, it turns out the lunch for Dode was BBQ beef swimming in BBQ sauce (which Dode hates) and there wasn't even enough to feed 1/3 of the crowd. He considers himself to be unlucky to be in the 1/3 that got a little food before it ran out. So, he came home hungry but the dinner I made was at the school so he got stuck with PB and J.
We set off for trick or treating around 6:00 pm. For the first few houses it was a race between Miriam, William, and Elizabeth to see who could get to the doorbell first. We kept trying to placate the children with words of wisdom that everyone got candy, not just the one who was first to the door. Didn't work a bit! After only 30 minutes, Miriam hit the wall and wanted to go home. On the way home, she told me, "Halloween is a bust. First you run to all the houses and then you're too tired to keep going!" She spent the rest of her evening home with Jacob while I went to rejoin Dode, William, and Elizabeth. Isaac and Anastaya chose to spend the evening trick or treating with their friends, silly teenagers. We ended our night like we always do, with a trip to Great Grandma and Grandpa Dickson where the children (and the parents) got the ever coveted FULL SIZED candy bars. The children who stuck with their parents came home with the most candy. I caught Isaac going through William's bag the next day and I said, "Hey! You had your chance to get candy last night, leave his alone!"
The best part of Halloween? It rained all day but when it came time for trick or treating, the rain held off for a few hours to allow the children and parents to stay dry. Now that we've collected all the candy, it's time to consume it. I think if William eats one piece each day, he should have enough for at least six months!
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