By the time I came to my senses and realized I'd had fallen headfirst down a rabbit hole, the kids were dressed and ready to go out for this year's Halloween, despite the fact it was pouring rain. But I'll get to that, further on. Now without further ado, here is a look back over All Hallows Eve, gone past.
Halloween 2004
Because the babies were in the NICU and our first Halloween together was spent running back and forth to the hospital, worrying over William who was battling NEC, we don't have a picture of our first holiday together. But if I'd dressed them up that first year, I think the best costume would have been to put bows on their heads and made them gifts. Because that's what they were ... and still are to me 13 years later.
The best gifts we've ever received.
Halloween 2005
My three little pumpkins, with my Mom, Jimbo, and our dear friend Virginia. None of the children were walking on their own yet, so I'll always remember the sight of these three little pumpkins, rolling around on the floor.
Halloween 2006
My little chickens. It was right about this time I realized I was "on the nest" and we had another little chick on the way, who would be joining us in less than nine months time. Bok! Bok!
Halloween 2007
Crazy to believe this was 10 years ago. I remember the day like it was yesterday. My four little peeps … and my heart which couldn't be any more full.
Halloween 2008
William and his baby brother in matching Buzz Lightyear costumes and Elizabeth the princess. I'm not quite sure what we were going for here with Carolyn? Safe to say that she had reached the tender age of four where she knew she wanted to be something different than her sister.
Point taken, Zorro!
Halloween 2009
The Wizard of Oz meets Toy Story. Henry wore that costume for 2-3 years straight: not on Halloween, mind you, but all day, every day. I still have it, somewhere in our attic ... the tattered remnants of an incredibly precious time that I will never forget. I'll also never forget William and the silver paint on his face ... he wanted more, more, more - until I had sufficiently coated him and then, HE WANTED IT OFF! This photo was snapped a second before he said, "It's itchy!" (Can you not just see the words forming on his lips?!)
Halloween 2010
Our first year in Virginia. We recycled costumes, and convinced Henry to shed Buzz Lightyear for a few hours and join the crew on the Yellow Brick Road. I also wised up and ditched the face paint. We spent a long evening walking around the neighborhood with some new friends - and we absolutely FROZE. The highlight of the night, was going inside and warming ourselves beside the fire of another neighbor. Halloween in northern Virginia was considerably cooler than San Diego!
Halloween 2011
Had it not been for my blog post that I wrote following Halloween of 2011, I would have absolutely no recall that our children were two butterflies, one vampire, and Batman this year. What I do recall is that moments after I took this photo of Elizabeth carving her pumpkin, my mother and Jim, surprised us - after driving all the way from South Carolina to see the kids on Halloween. And what I also recall was that was the first year I dragged our fire pit to the front yard, because my mother and I were freezing as we sat outside waiting for trick-or-treaters. Since we had a fire, we may as well have s'mores and thus began a tradition that we still do to this very day.
Halloween 2012
One cowgirl, a cheerleader, a zombie guy and Spider-Man. Note the bonfire at the end of our driveway, we made this atmosphere a little more festive by offering water (in addition to the s'mores) to the trick-or-treaters.
Halloween 2013
A Hippie, an Indian Girl, Superman and a Ninja. Our setup at the end of the driveway has continued to improve; so too did our offerings: hot apple cider and Oktoberfest for the grown-ups. Word was catching on that our cul-de-sac was a good place to be on Halloween night and people began showing up with their own chairs and beverages to share.
Halloween 2014
What I recall from 2014 is the kids' birthday party was on the same day (a Friday) and many of the children that had descended on our house for the "Fall Festival" party, stuck around for trick-or-treating that night. I cannot remember their costumes what exactly they were….? See, an odd thing happened when the triplets turned 10 that has prevailed ever since. You look at the clock and it's 3:30 PM and you're making dinner thinking there's ample time to get them fed, dressed, and photograph ready. But suddenly it's 6:00 PM, your door bell is ringing and when you open it to hand out candy to tiny tots dressed adorably, and zoom - your own kids are in their costumes, taking off. You may not even know what they're dressed as … and if you yell out "Wait for a photograph of everyone together!" Well, you may have an easier time asking them to annotate their math book on Christmas morning.
Halloween 2015
This was our first year in Texas, and again ~ Halloween time warp! ~ I lack a picture of the children in their costumes. But what I do know is that we brought our fire pit tradition with us, and met several of our new neighbors, as we were camped out at the end of the driveway roasting s'mores. Elizabeth was a zombie bride, I think Carolyn, William and Henry were zombie-like creatures, too?
Halloween 2016
We've got a two zombies (Elizabeth and Carolyn), firefighter (Henry) and a vampire. We also had a great set up at the end of the driveway. Good times!
Halloween 2017
This year, because of my photographic adventure down the rabbit hole, I keenly realized that I am missing photos of prior year costumes, so forced the kids to wait. We had two Spider-Mans and two dinosaurs. The two Spider-Mans are intended to reflect Peter Parker of old (William in the handmade suit); and Peter Parker of new with his suit that he received from Tony Stark (a la Spiderman Homecoming). The kids picked out their own costumes, as they have virtually every year for the past seven years. Although Carolyn had a dinosaur costume too, she did not go trick-or-treating because she was at her Annie rehearsal from 6:00 to 11:00.
Despite the torrential rain this year, our children likely broke records for the amount of candy they collected in an abbreviated period of time. They were out for less than two hours, but each time they'd ring a doorbell, the candy provider would dump handfuls in to their cases because trick-or-treaters were sparse. Even our house, which normally gets >60 kids, had a mere 15. But those kids made out like bandits too, because I unloaded all of our purchased candy in to their bags. While we didn't have a fire pit this year, we did set up beneath our carport and entertained several neighbors - who forged streams of water running down our street - to come join us.
Nothing should stop good times spent with friends!
What I want to most remember about this year, is the 8th grade boy who recently moved in to our neighborhood and attends a different school, so doesn't know all the kids in the neighborhood particularly well. He had bought a costume but then thought he was too old to wear it out. According to Elizabeth who conveyed the story to me later (and his grateful parents who corroborated it) our pack of kids rang his doorbell, and when his parents opened the door, she could see this forlorn boy sitting on the steps. Liz yelled, "What are you DOING? Why aren't you DRESSED? Do you not realize it's HALLOWEEEEEEEEN?! Let's GO!" With that encouragement, he jumped up, hopped in to his sumo wrestling suit, and took off with his new friends, grinning from ear to ear.
As it should be.
Next up: I'm heading to the post office to ship this box of at least 1000 pieces of candy from several kids in the neighborhood (and our own!) to my nephew Tommy and his fellow Army soldiers at Fort Campbell. Just in time for Veteran's Day.
The mother in me, is also throwing in some toothpaste, dental floss, and toothbrushes. Don't forget to brush, Thomas John!
