Halloween FUN...FINALLY!

I must say that after several past year's Halloween fiascos & mishaps, this year definitely made up for all of that and more! It was just awesome - could not have been better!

We kicked off the season with a visit to the local pumpkin patch, which is actually more like a huge Halloween carnival down across from the Del Mar racetrack, complete with jumpies, rides and a petting zoo. Kelly had a blast riding on the little train and was doing the queen's wave at everyone as she zoomed by.

Kelly was truly my partner in crime this year when it came to decorating. I hauled my 3 Halloween boxes out of the garage and we both gleefully opened them up to see what we had! She helped carefully and strategically place every single decoration and couldn't wait to show them off to everyone who came in the door - "look over HEEEERE at this decoration! And over HEEEERE at this one too!"

In early October, I starting asking Kelly what she wanted to be for Halloween. She started with Dora, then a princess, then switched to Hello Kitty for a while. I thought that might be a tough one. And suddenly I was getting this bad feeling... this was starting to feel a little like last year... (see "The Halloween Costume" Blog from last year and you'll understand!)

But then a couple weeks before Halloween she said she wanted to be a butterfly. She kept on that for several days so we started looking at costumes online. I showed her pictures of pretty pink and purple butterfly costumes, but she quickly made a face at me and said firmly, "No, mommy. I want to be a MONARCH butterfly! You know...they are ORANGE and BLACK!". Gulp. Great. Where am I going to find such a specific type of butterfly costume? (and not have it cost a fortune?) Well... the Halloween Gods, er um, or ghouls, were smiling down on me this year because Target actually had one! Whew!

To try to help avoid what happened last year, I got her completely involved in the finding and purchasing of this costume. Problem was, they were sold out online, and when I started calling around to the stores, they were either completely out or out of her size or had only pieces left of her size...oops, would this backfire on me? Did I now set her up for major disappointment? Thankfully, I got a break...we found a store that had one, and I had them put it on hold for us. Kelly and I cheered and high-fived each other and jumped in the car to go and get that costume! I had her run up to the counter and ask the lady for it, and when she brought it out, we jumped for joy and high-fived again! She held on to it the whole way home and we talked endlessly about how lucky we were to find it! And arn't we just SOOOO excited to get home and try it on!?? (part 2 of why last year's costume didn't work out was waiting until day of to let her try it on, so I was going to do that different this year too!)

She couldn't wait to try it on, and when she did, I almost cried she looked so darn cute! (I know! this is how I set myself up, huh?) And to my great satisfaction, she looked at herself in the mirror, smiled, then turned to me and said, "mommy, I LOVE my Monarch butterfly costume!" So cool! (But yes, in the back of my mind, I was thinking... "you say that NOW, I hope you will say that on Halloween!")

I figured her pre-school would be doing dress-up and some sort of Halloween activities Friday, the day before Halloween. So I called the school and asked them a gazillion questions on exactly what they'd be doing and how it would be managed (again, this being driven by my bad experience from last year's catastrophe at daycare!). They calmed my fears and assured me to let her come in costume (as that was part of the fun, the "grand entrance"). They would have the parade first thing in the morning and then remove costumes for playtime on the playground and snack etc. Good. Yes. So I also gave explicit instructions to the teacher, and both assistants about hanging the costume back up, not stuffing it in her cubby etc. I know, I'm a freak and I'm sure the teachers think that too, but this year, I was determined for her to have that costume to wear on the actual day of Halloween!

Soooo... here she is Friday morning on our way out the door to pre-school. I told her to "fly like a butterfly!"Her pre-school has a Nanny Cam, so I of course kept my eye on them while I was at work to make sure all was well, and it was. Whew! Day before Halloween success! I was on a roll!

The day of Halloween, Nana, Papa and Gee-Gee-Vee (Great-Gma Verna) came down to watch Kelly's swim lesson, have Halloween lunch and see Kelly get ready in her costume for trick-or-treating. Kelly was very excited to show off her costume! Sigh...this was FUN FINALLY! Grandad also popped by during the day to say hi and visit before all the later evening kid festivities.

After the peeps left, and we were all dressed and ready, we met up with Kelly's friends, Krysta and Skye, and their parents and friends over at the Leucadia Oaks park to trick-or-treat in the nice neighborhood there where Aunty Lynda and Leif live. The whole neighborhood there - all the houses were decorated and almost everyone was home to greet us. In fact, Grand-dad was hanging out over at Auntie Lynda & Leif's, so that was an extra treat seeing him there too! The girls had a blast, giggling and scurrying around together, and shouting at the top of their lungs "TRICK-OR-TREAT!!!", and there were no costume malfunctions, no sugar-high melt downs, etc! Great fun!Here is our family Halloween portrait... "the Witch, the Bob, and the Butterfly"!Afterwards, we all came back to our place to party - the kids AND the parents!

We had SOOO much fun! And I finally had all my Halloween hopes and expectations fulfilled! Geez was it really going to be that difficult every year? After this year, I PROMISE, not to worry about it so much!