A History of Halloween

In honor of this Halloween post that is 3 months late, I decided to do a little review of Halloween through the kids' years so far.  Somehow, I don't have any photos of Sam's first 2 Halloweens...I think I was still under the impression that I had to pretend like I didn't like Halloween at all in order to look like a good mom.  But the reality is, I love the dressing up and the candy and the community spirit of it (even though I've never enjoyed the gory parts or found the humor of celebrating death).  So Sam's first couple Halloween costumes were pretty low-key, and then you can see, well...we kind of get into it unabashedly now!

Year one, Sam was a frog, and year 2, I don't have any memory of or photo to show.  Here he is as an almost-three-year-old monkey (this hat has come in handy as so many other costumes for plays and skits since then!).  Evan is an orange kangaroo (a souvenir sweatshirt from one of Aunt Kendra's trips around the world).

Despite my careful separation of the "fun" parts of Halloween and the gory ones, moments like this always seem to happen anyway.  Here is our sweet little neighbor vampire girl holding my innocent little baby.

2008: Bob the builder jammies and me dressed as my mom when she was my age...

Sam's in a batman sweatshirt and homemade cape.  

2009: Hand-me-down frog costume, nothing for Evan, and Spiderman

2010:  Homemade darth vader (well, except for the mask), Evan's beloved Batman costume that he basically wore almost every day for 3 years, and a monkey (again).

Again, after all my separation of fun and gory, my kid comes home with a skeleton face-paint.  I just can't win.

2011:  Pirate (in a definitive "Arr!" stance), Superman, and a very excited cowgirl with her constant sippy-cup companion

2012:  We finally decided to claim Halloween for the "fun" side and had a cardboard carnival in the cul-de-sac in CA.  Sam was a buck-teethed Thor, I am wearing my old prom dress as some sort of princess (it's for the kids!), Evan is a ninja-power-ranger, and Annie is Rapunzel, complete with frying pan and chameleon.

2013:  Annie was Alice until she didn't make it to the bathroom in time...

...so then we had Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey, a cheerleader, and a raccoon.

We always hit the after-Halloween costume sales and Annie wore this $2 batgirl costume a lot throughout the year...

(as did the boys with their $2 costumes)

But 2014 had Little Orphan Annie, an old man, and a skeleton

And for 2015, can you figure out who they were?

Here's a close-up of Annie--she's not just a cowgirl, she's a very specific character.

Done guessing?  We were: Dale, Annie Oakley, Uncle Sam, and Rosie the Riveter

People get really into Halloween here...yes, the gory stuff.

Sam and his teacher, who is a big Nascar fan.

The kids had a pumpkin decorating contest for school.  I didn't realize the adults were actually competing using their kids' names, so we didn't have a chance.  But they were cute, anyway.

Here's some proof that the kids are making friends at their new school!

For the evening of Halloween, Annie changed to a rocker girl.  The cities, I mean villages, around here have set Trick-or-Treat hours, and they start in the afternoon and end in the early evening.  We spent the evening with our friends, going in and out into the rain, trick-or-treating in groups with neighborhood kids, exchanging candy, eating soup, and going back out to find fun houses (that weren't too scary) and tasty candy again.  

Except for the dismembered doll parts impaled on fence posts in people's front yards, I liked Halloween in Chicago!