Halloween

I bet you don't know this, but you're supposed to be thinking about Halloween about two weeks ago.

The proverbial ball has been dropped on my end.

L- wants to be Aslan the lion from Chronicles of Narnia. I have looked for lion costumes, and they are all ugly. Really, really ugly. So I have made it my goal to redirect her interests before mid-October hits and it becomes too late to find anything but Ariel and Woody costumes. (Sidenote: why don't kids want to be Ariel and Woody?? When I worked at the Disney Store there were ALWAYS tons of these still around on November 1st. No love for women fish and cowboys, I guess).

I don't think L- will be blonde for much longer, and so I'm kind of pushing for Alice in Wonderland. I thought it'd be fun to dress H- as a white rabbit. Her Alice days are so two years ago, however, and so I'm thinking I may have to let that dream float on by. Goodbye Cute Theme Outfit. I never knew ye.

For L-'s first Halloween, she was a chili pepper - a costume dug up from storage at the last minute by her Aunt. It was cute, but had nothing to do with her or her personality. The next year, she was a China Doll, which was just an excuse to put her in some silk pajamas my mom brought home from Chinatown. I had wanted to go with Pillsbury Dough Girl, but, at the time, I didn't know how to make a chef's hat, and I wasn't sure where I'd find a white sweatsuit.

By the time L- turned two, she was calling the shots. She wanted to be a pirate, and so we spent $60 on a Captain Hook costume at Disneyland. I will admit, she turned heads, and she was, by far, the cutest little pirate you ever did see in The Year of The Pirate (2006), but I think the white blouse, black yoga pants rolled up to the knee over white tights, black mary janes, and red belt sash with matching bandana were what made the costume, and it cost me NOTHING to pull that off. It was, needless to say, sixty bones down the drain, but at least the hook came in handy for the Arrested Development party we attended a year later.

Last year, she wanted to be Dorothy, and I was all about making that happen, so I fretted about sewing the costume myself, and then just purchased one through Craigslist. I thought for sure that this year would be hassle-free. I would have learned my lesson and just bought something at the store, like everyone else does.

Alas, I am a fool and a slave to my ego, because I am now CERTAIN I can pull something together in the way of a Wall-E costume or Lucy Pevensie dress for L- and a tiny Roman emperor getup for H-. Be prepared for a month of hand-wringing, nail-biting, and the eventual throwing-up-of-hands-in-surrender-and-self-loathing as I embark on a whole new adventure of making up for the childhood memories I never had.