Halloween 2017

This year, Chris scored about 500 Parenting Points when he oh-so casually replied to a child's inquiry about when we were going to carve pumpkins: "Carving? Oh no, we're coloring them this year. Yeah, it's great." 

The child simply accepted this news as fun and novel, grabbed the Sharpie pens, and ran to the front porch to begin coloring.

Lug all the pumpkins to the newspaper-strewn kitchen table? Saw open pumpkins till one's forearms ache? Scrape out pumpkin guts--and who can ever get them all out anyway? It is not fun to have four or five kids simultaneously grabbing knives and risking losing a finger while this Mama races around trying to help everyone . . . and this year I was going to have an infant strapped onto me while performing this feat.

Soon other children heard that there were Sharpies on the front porch and they just all ran out there, colored their pumpkins cheerfully, and it was fabulous. A little tempera paint was added for vibrancy and the job was done, with nary a lick of work from the parents.

We went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. We assembled costumes from many pieces I had already sewn in years past, with additions and adjustments this year.

St. Sebastian 

 

The red cape was from an old costume. John, Margaret, and I all sewed the green Roman soldier "skirt" (what does one call that?), and John sewed his shin guards and wrist guards.

St. Juan Diego

An old costume I decided fit the two-year-old right before we walked out the door.

St. Joan of Arc

I sewed sparkly tulle directly onto a black shirt to look like a chain mail vest. The battle standard I sewed out of white cloth and sparkly ribbon, and used fabric paint for Joan's motto.

Queen Esther

I used the gown I sewed for a Shakespeare play several years ago with a $2 rhinestone circlet for her crown.

St. Michael the Archangel

I sewed sparkly tulle on grey fabric to make a chain mail tunic. I bought iridescent poster-board to create wings, which I attached with shimmery gray ribbon.

A Duck

The duck costume was my only purchased one--at the consignment store for $5.

He was an unhappy duck, wailing his heart out because we were going outside for trick-or-treating right at his bedtime.

He felt a whole lot more content when he fell asleep in my sling.

The Whole Gang of Saints

Keepin' it real: I almost lost my mind this last week trying to sew these costumes. I certainly lost my composure too often--and with all the serious problems in this world, it sure isn't very Christian of me to lose my peace over costumes. David at two-and-a-half months old is still in arms most of the time and this week decided that last week's wonderful progress at taking consolidated naps on the bed was 'old news,' and this week he is never going to sleep longer than 15 minutes unless he's in my arms.

When Chris and I were kids, Halloween meant going home straight after school to dig around in the bureau drawers for something like a hobo costume (oversized clothing, smudged makeup on face), grabbing a pillow case for loot, and scooting out the door to trick-or-treat in our small towns without parents even accompanying us beyond the very youngest of years. Now, I start planning a month ahead, and spend two weeks sewing in all my spare time (which really amounts only to a few hours cumulatively, but that's all the spare time I have), and this year I took this entire week off of homeschooling in order to prepare for (and recover from) the All Saints Party (tomorrow).

Next year, the kids may really have to assemble all of their own costumes!