Halloween is almost here!!

Halloween has snuck up on me this year. I figured we would be settled in our new house and I would be able to take some time figuring out costumes and such, but, if we are in by then, I doubt we will be what I consider "settled".

I generally try to make the guys costumes unless they insist on a GOOD store bought costume (not the kind where you have ripped the back open to reveal your undies by the end of trick-or-treating). We have done pirates, puppies, telephone men, and dinosaurs (my personal favorite). Austin really doesn't want to be much this year beside a "studio owner". He'll have to pick that costume. He is getting a little past the dress up point. Nicholas can't really pick and mommy doesn't have her sewing machine set up, so he is going to be an alligator because we have a costume that Nana bought on clearance one year. Jacob wanted to be a puppy. For weeks that is all he would say. I remember this being the age where Austin wanted to be a bear. He insisted on being a bear. That is all we heard. We found a bear hooded towel and attached arms to it and he was the cutest little bear with overalls.

We looked at puppy costumes on the internet (knowing that Austin's old puppy costume would be too big for Jacob). All of the ones we showed him were wrong because he wanted to be "Rico". That is the puppy name the boys call each other (?). Finally we landed on a dalmatian costume and he said "that's Rico". Well, I know my Jacob and, if I spend $40 bucks on a puppy costume he is going to refuse to put it on. He will say it's too hot and he will NOT put the hood over his head.

I decided to pull out the costume box from the shop where all of our stuff is stored. I almost got stuck getting it out and I was going to have to live in the shop until we started moving stuff into the house. Glad Ralphie was there.

Jacob was napping so I set out various things, hoping he would choose one. We set out the alligator, the bear (although Jacob is scared of overalls, so he would have to be a bear wearing jeans), a little construction vest and hat that Austin got from Legoland and the, too big, puppy costume. We figured if he picked the puppy we could somehow make it fit. Well, he didn't care for anything. He freaked when Nana tried to put the puppy head over him. He said it was too hot. AAAH HAAA. Money well-saved. He wouldn't try the bear. Mommy used her marketing skills to talk-up the construction vest. I told him that he could be "Construction Worker Dave" (a goofy guy from one of his DVDs). It worked, so Jacob is going to be a construction worker. Of course, people are going to ask him if he is Bob the Builder, just like they did when Austin was a telephone man, and he is going to get insulted and yell at them.

This Halloween stuff reminds me of a story. When Austin was about 4, I bought my first sewing machine. I sewed some throw pillows, but nothing much more complicated than that. Austin kept saying that he wanted to be a "light switch" for Halloween. We were at Lowe's one day, buying light switches and plugs and he tells the cashier, "I'm going to be a light switch for Halloween. My mom knows how to sew." Well, Ms. Personality, just kind of looked at him, and I sweetly told him "Honey, I only know how to sew pillows right now." He quickly looked back up at her and said, "I'm going to be a pillow for Halloween."

***NOTE***Austin was not actually a pillow for Halloween, but since I still only sew pillows, and the occasional valance or Christmas stocking, someone may get to be a pillow one year.