Just think of a wonderful thought...

...any happy little thought! My happy thought is of these cute kids! We went to a Halloween party last Saturday night and had a blast! My friend Jennifer has a great red barn and a lot of land so she hosted her ward's Halloween party and we crashed (cool barn party trumps lame cultural hall shin-dig our ward was having). As many of you know I am a sucker for ensemble outfits (and was teased mercilessly in my last ward because of it---remember Easter 2006?) so I was very excited to have our entire family go as the cast from Peter Pan this Halloween. Unfortunately I could never find a good crocodile outfit for Tate and I was totally unwilling to break the bank for an adult Captain Hook costume for Justin, so one thing led to another once I saw that Disney costumes went on a half-price sale over a week ago at the Disney Store----Tate is now Captain Hook.

Tate's costume is a little big but it's hard to tell from these pictures. I think it's a great costume for him because at this current stage of life he is the villain of the family. I say that with love. Tate is just a very passionate child and knows exactly what he wants and thinks that the best way to get it is to act out. Actually, he has been getting better at controlling himself now that he is beginning to talk more. I can't imagine how frustrating it would be to live in a world where I knew exactly what I needed but couldn't communicate with the people around me, thus, I try to cut him some slack.

Anyway, when they were all in their costumes they were quite a sight to see!! Well, to their mom anyway. Everyone was definitely gushing over their own kids and had little time to ooh and ahh over other people's, especially at a party the week before Halloween when all of the mom's were trying to keep the costumes looking like new for the main event.

I had had to order Ruby's costume from Ebay because apparently the Disney Store pulled all of their infant-sized Tinkerbell costumes a few days after putting them out on the sales floor. According to the employee I spoke with at the Disney Store, Toys R Us was supposed to be the only retailer with tinkerbell costumes in baby sizes because they had offered to give a percentage of the proceeds of the sale of those costumes to the Pediatric AIDS foundation. While I definitely agree that that is a worthy cause I was extremely frustrated when I made the trek from the Disney Store at the mall over to Toys R Us only to find that their Tinkerbell costume was hideous and would have made my not-even-one-year-old look like a "street walker" (as my Dad would say). I opted to not purchase the offensive outfit and instead was willing to try my luck on Ebay.

A few smart women must have acted faster than the Disney Store because when I went online there were tons of the not-to-be-sold costumes being hocked. Luckily because of the abundance of supply I was able secure Ruby's costume for under $20 including shipping---what a steal! The only down side was that I had to wait for the costume to arrive and wasn't sure it would really fit my gorgeously plump little fairy.

Sadly, Ruby's costume did not arrive in time for the barn party so she had to wear Abbie's size 3 or 4 tinkerbell costume, which currently still fits her (Abbie), and is quite large on Ruby. The real costume did, however, arrive in time for the preschool parade. I decided to dress all four kids in their costumes because they look much better as the whole cast than had I only dressed the school-aged kids. Ruby spent the entire parade in her stroller fascinated by the tutu portion of her costume---brilliant! Tate on the other hand couldn't quite figure out why Bracken and Abbie got to parade around with other kids and sing spooky Halloween songs with choreographed moved while he had to hang back with mom. His solution was to inch forward ever so slowly until he was practically part of Bracken's class thinking, "if I am nonchalant about this no one will notice I am 2 and not 4...I'll just play along." It was quite entertaining.

At the barn party the kids had even more fun than I had anticipated. Each stall of the barn was staged with a different Halloween game with a guaranteed prize for each player at the end (perfect for uncoordinated preschoolers and toddlers). They had a great time fishing for prizes, throwing bean bags through the jack-o-lantern's mouth, tossing a ball at milk bottles, and doing the cupcake walk. All went well until we got to the bobbing for apples station and the Nazi Miamaid or Laurel who would just not bend the rules for my 3 and 4 year olds. Perhaps the missionaries should have manned that booth because Bracken (and his costume) was soaked by the end and walked away empty handed after not successfully being able to snag an apple. Needless to say, he and Abbie were both very disappointed. I almost stuck my face in the nasty kid snot water just to prove a point and get a prize for my babies...thankfully I was able to control myself and just walk away. Where was Heather when I needed her? [A reference to my cousin Heather who fought a fight Allie was unwilling to fight with Maddie's ballet teacher after her recital...let's just say that in the end Maddie did walk away with a prefect attendance trophy. If only we could all be more like Heather.]

Well, all in all it was a great Halloween. In fact, Bracken said that at least a dozen times last night, "this is the BEST night EVER mom!" They had all been so excited that they could hardly wait to get out and trick-or-treat. I even found Bracken's dinner (pasta) hidden this morning on the floor behind the trash can. When I asked him about it he said he had to get rid of it fast last night so they could get out to all of the houses before the people inside needed to go to sleep. I guess when you're 4 every piece of candy counts.

Also, I am including four things I learned last night:

1. Apparently "we don't do Halloween, we do fall festival" applies only to decorations not costumes; my lovely neighbor appeared at my door in thigh-high patent leather boots with a four inch heel and was dressed as quite a sexy batgirl...her husband was batman, their son Superman.

2. It is not easy to draw a curly Captain Hook mustache on a feisty two-year-old

3. Always be sure your camera battery is fully charged. We got in a few pictures before the battery died. I ran in and grabbed my cell phone but iphones do not have a zoom or flash so the phone camera was no help. Too sad.

4. Either commit to a costume or go completely as your normal self. I usually wear these great long orange and black striped gloves with feathers, etc. and some sparkly bat glasses, all of which goes great with a witches hat. Unfortunately, I didn't learn until I had put on exorbitant amounts of eyeliner and gold eye shadow AND teased my hair, that my go-to costume was nowhere to be found (darn my stupid movers and their concept of logical packing). Justin was already outside with the kids ready to go and I had no choice but to go out and meet all of my neighbors looking like I had just come from a West Virginia trailer park circa 1983. Oh well, hopefully I will have a chance to redeem myself in future days.

*****A special thank you to my mother-in-law who in one days time, after her own mother's funeral no less, was able to make Abbie's gorgeous Wendy costume. I really don't know what we would have done without her! What do people do who don't have mother's-in-law who sew? Allie and I often wonder since we are both blessed to have such talented in-laws. THANK YOU GINGER!!!!!*****[Ginger, Bracken loved the hat a little too much and wore it to a McDonald's playland during the week while Justin was out of town and somehow it didn't make it home with us. We went back for it the next morning and it was gone, we even made the manager crawl all through the playland to check---he was quite dedicated to the mission, and it was quite a sight to see! But alas, no hat! Sorry!!!]