Halloween: A History

Five years ago we celebrated our family's inaugural Halloween by dressing our tiny little baby up in a banana costume.  She made an awesome banana. And we were basically as proud as parents can get.  I think we went to the trunk or treat, and, naturally, ate all of the candy we received ourselves.

The next year I bought Ella a cat costume, and forced her to wear it weeks before Halloween so she could practice meow-ing.  True story.

We also ate the vast majority of her candy that year.

Halloween of 2010 was marked by hours of sewing our own coordinating costumes.  I think it was in an effort to save money, since we were in grad school at the time.  I'm pretty sure that the saving money part was a major fail.  Major.  But we looked pretty cute as bugs and a bug-catcher.  (Ella-butterfly, Charlotte-bee, Jess-Ladybug, Paul-bug catcher... he's not big on dressing up, and walking around wearing khaki and carrying a net was the limit of his holiday spirit.)

The next year was really the low point of our Halloween careers. We accepted an adults only dinner invitation for the same night as the ward Trunk or Treat.  I was so overcome with guilt and inability to emotionally commit to the party that I failed to find a babysitter until the day of the party.  Our friends were kind enough to not only take our kids to the Trunk or Treat, but also to their (kids allowed) Halloween party.  The girls were dressed as matching ballerinas.  I don't remember why.  Probably because I already owned tutus.  That was a stellar year.

Last year was the first year our family actually went trick or treating.  (Ella was a dragon, Charlotte was a bear, Max was a dinosaur.)  When we got home, we let the girls eat as much of the candy as they wanted, and then put the rest in the trick or treating bowl, and stuck it on the porch with a sign that said, "Please take the candy".  Even though basically all that was left was the dregs (you know, colored tootsie rolls and bit o honeys) it was all gone by morning.  That was actually a pretty good strategy.  I think we will probably repeat it, or do some variation of it this year.

As you can see, we have a giraffe (Max) and a dancing pig (Charlotte) on the docket for this year.  Ella insisted on being a fairy.  Which is okay, I guess.  I was hoping for one more year of gender neutral costumes, which, in my opinion, are way more interesting (in general, at least).

So we're ready for the mountains of candy that will arrive beginning this weekend.  Bring it on.