Halloween Day (In Which I Almost Give Up Halloween For Good)

Had to include daytime photos of the pumpkins to keep everyone here, happy.

Samantha's

Peter's

Amelia's

Duffy's

Jonas's

And now for this year's costumes:

Shawn dressed as future Shawn-how he hopes to be in the year 2072.

 His costume is complete with name tag and all.

Next, we have Sheriff Woody.  The first thing Peter asked when he put his costume on for the first time was, "Where's my string?"  So Shawn attached a pull string to his back today.

Next, is the lovely Dorothy with her little dog Toto.  Duffy was, of course, most excited about her ruby slippers.

Amelia as a gypsy.  The best part about the 3 youngest is that they chose their costumes more than a month in advance and didn't change their minds!  And everything they chose was readily available and easy to find.  (This was not the case with all the children in the house.)

Amelia and her friend Hallee planned their costumes together, so we ended up with 2 gypsies on our front porch this morning.

And, just skipping ahead a little, we have the finely attired, disgruntled junior high student.  The costume was perfect - the baggy jeans and hoodie give it away.  There is no need to guess at what Jonas's costume is.  (And he fits the character perfectly.)

And finally, for Samantha's costume.  This costume was by far the most drama filled and emotionally exhausting costume to put together.  (Granted, her costumes generally require a bit more effort and thinking than the others, but this one had more crying than usual, too.)  Let's begin with the idea.  She decided she wanted to be Effie Trinket (from Hunger Games, for those of you who may not recognize the name.)  I have spent the last 3 months trying to change her mind on this one.  I argued that no one was going to know who she was.  I argued that the whole Hunger Games concept is disgusting and wrong and that she could maybe choose another, more noble character to be.  (I don't know what this says about all of the man-eating zombies and things out there, but still.)  I argued that there wasn't going to be any sort of Effie-type things in the stores.  (It turns out I was right.)  This is a problem because I have no sewing skills to speak of.  All of her friends were being princesses.  

I said, "Why can't you be a princess?"  

She said, "That would be too easy!"

I said, "Exactly!"

She said, "I don't want it to be easy!" 

 (As if I haven't figured that out over the past 11 and a half years.)  And granted, I can appreciate her desire for originality and her creativity, but you know, sometimes I like easy!

Anyway, I digress.  There was no changing her mind.  She had a very specific image in her mind and trying to match that image was no easy task.  She gave me this:

And as of October 30th, in the morning, (actually. long before the 30th) she had a dress and was ready to go.  I thought her costume was set. She asked me about pinning something up, but that was it.  But by the time school was out, apparently things had changed.  All of a sudden, the costume was no longer usable.  It wasn't Effie and there was no way it was going to work.  Oh, boy.  And she finally gave me this:  (with tears and yelling, at 9:00 the night before Halloween when time was pretty much running out and I clearly had not presented her with any viable options.)

After much, MUCH drama, a late night trip to a couple of stores, rummaging through all of the costumes in all of the boxes, and finally a little last minute, heaven granted inspiration this morning, this is how she headed off to school - complete with a smile on her face.  So, how did we do?  I thought it was pretty good considering our given obstacles.

So we all made it to the Halloween Parade in one piece (with no one being grounded from trick or treating for life -which may or may not have been threatened by one parent or another around here.)  There was not another Effie Trinket in sight.  And I have to say, I was so happy to make it to that point, I have never been so glad to have Halloween almost over before.  Thank goodness this is 6th grade.  Hopefully next year will involve less trauma.

And one more of Effie, in celebration of finally finding something that she could live with.  Phew!  And...."May the odds be ever in your favor!"