Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Orange You Glad It's Halloween?

Halloween... Ah, Halloween! As I love to say, it's the most wonderful time of the year. And I could hardly believe that it has been an entire year since we strutted our stuff as blue-haired punk rocker family. I'll admit that I went a little nuts last Halloween creating our ensembles, and I'd had big plans for our costumes this year. My original vision was that we'd be a glam-rock family - Benjamin would be David Boo-wie (get it? BOO-wie?), Calliope would be Baby Gaga, I would be Cher, and Vince would be a party pooper (he wasn't too keen on this theme). But now that I have two rugrats keeping me busy, I'm much shorter on time to devote towards creating a concrete manifestation of my worth as a mother-- I mean, I have much less time to spend designing and sewing costumes. So, I choose an easier vision to achieve - the nefarious Droogs from A Clockwork Orange.
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We had ample opportunity to wear our spiffy white costumes and black derbys. One of the first events was the Halloween celebration at the Boo's preschool. Most people "got" our costumes right away, and they absolutely loved it. I did have one mom comment that the costumes were "sick and wrong," but she was kidding. I think. In any case, I prefer to think that we dressed up as pop culture icons and not as serial killers.
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The next day was the neighborhood Autumn Festival. There were food vendors, face painters, and bounce houses. There was also a performance by aspiring ballerinas from my friend Tanya's So Fly Kids dance class. The little dancers wore puppy dog ears and adorable pink tutus. As I watched them, I wondered if I should done what any other normal mom would have done and chosen a more typically "girly" costume for Calliope. She didn't seem to have an opinion on the matter either way, so I guess it was fine. Besides, her brother probably would taken it from her anyway...
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...just like he's taken some of her other tutus. Suffice it to say, my son is in touch with his feminine side.
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In addition to parties and cross-dressing, what Halloween is complete without a visit to the pumpkin patch? Every year since Benjamin was just a baby, we'd gone to nearby Shawn's Pumpkin Patch. He seemed to enjoy himself the last two years, but this year, he became obsessed! Over the course of two weeks, we went to the pumpkin patch five times. FIVE TIMES! We went with...
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...Benjamin's preschool classmates and neighbors Maxwell and Novella...
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...best buddy Nolan...
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...and all by ourselves - not once...
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...but twice!
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We also made one final trip with Benjamin's school buddy James on the actual day of Halloween. I was a little worried that Benjamin wouldn't be able to handle the fact that the pumpkin patch would be gone until the following year. Luckily, there was trick or treating to take his mind off of this huge loss!
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That evening, the four of us donned our Droog outfits and headed to the park for a neighborhood costume parade.
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I was especially tickled by the sight of Daddy Droog and Little Droog walking hand in hand.
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And as though a family of cinematic serial killers wasn't enough of a spectacle, my best friend Deb joined us dressed as a giant yellow Teletubby.
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At the park, there seemed to be at least several hundred people milling about. We saw witches, superheros, princesses, and cartoon characters, but no other Droogs. In fact, a few people didn't even realize that we were Droogs. One person commented that she thought it was so cute that we were all dressed up as Charlie Chaplin. Hmmm. I guess that's what I get for dressing my kids up as random serial killers. Next time, I'll be sure to pick serial killers that most people are familiar with!
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

AWESOME Pictures! Love the costumes so much!! :-)