Maybe that's why his favorite fruit to this day is a banana.
Matt has been pretty easy to costume. He's been a monkey, a frog, that Plunger Headed Hero, Larry Boy (fans of the VeggieTales should know who I mean), and several Star Wars permutations: a Storm Trouper, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and Anakin. Sometimes creating the costume was a challenge (I used a pattern for the monkey and the frog, but Larry Boy was originally a pattern for a pumpkin, and the Anakin pattern was for a pirate). One year he was Spiderman. I bought a pair of spiderman pajamas. I felt like a cheater since I hadn't made the costume. But I did make coverings for his shoes and web-slingers for his arms, so it wasn't a total cheat. And a mask. Once he was Super Mario. There were 3 Super Marios at the Fall Festival that year, but our homemade costume was definitely the best.
Since she was able to talk, Brianna has always been more of a challenge. She was a ladybug (I used a turtle pattern to make the shell.) I still had that costume in the closet when we moved from Texas when she was going in to 6th grade. So cute! She was Bob the Tomato to Matt's Larry Boy.
And her "cheat year" she was a giraffe. I saw a really cute giraffe jacket at the store and I couldn't pass it up. I did make her some kind of lower-half outfit out of brown velour though, so again, not a total cheat. (Of course, I think it was 100 degrees that night in southeast Texas).
Then things started getting complicated. I feel like every single Halloween costume after that involved tears, many of them were mine, as costumes just didn't measure up. First was the year she told me she wanted to be a Disney Princess. Which one, I wanted to know? "That one" was, I think, the best she gave me. Wanting her Halloween to be perfect, and knowing I couldn't compete with Disney, I bought the costume, straight out. Snow White. Oh my gosh was she cute. Except, Snow White was not "that one." Looking back now, I think she might have meant Cinderella, but I'm still not sure. The best part of that night was after it was over and we were back home. Matt had been Darth that year, with a borrowed "helmet," and when we got home at the end of the night, she put it on with her Snow White costume. She was perfectly content to be Darth White.
She's been Cleopatra and Princess Leia. (she rocked the Princess Leia costume by the way, and I think that year we might have escaped tears)
One year she wanted to be Ariel (the Little Mermaid). I slaved on that fishy costume, and she loved it...right until the time came to go to the Fall Festival. Then suddenly she would only hide behind me. I figured once she was around her friends she would go and play, but nope, she hid behind me all night, and no one saw the cute costume, with the "shell" bag for collecting treats. So here she is.
Another year she wanted to be Hannah Montana, rock star. She loved Hannah's long, straight, blond hair. But the "mermaid wig" had been such a disaster, I didn't know how we would do it. She said we could just straighten her hair and then spray it blond. Nice thought, but for two things. We started early and we straightened it...yay, even if it would never be "long." I'm pretty sure it took more than an hour to straighten her curly locks. But then we sprayed it. First of all, blond spray on dark hair doesn't really turn it blond. Nope. Second, those sprays are moist. Think with me...what happens when you spray moisture on curly hair that's been straightened? If you guessed "curls" or "frizz" you would get a prize. Oh the tears...
By now I had pretty much given up on costumes that could never make her happy. It seems she always wanted to be something she wasn't. And she thought she'd get her perfect image from that costume. But the costume never measured up....And funny, the mask I was trying to wear didn't measure up for me, either.
You see, way back more than 20 years ago, I had the vision of being a perfect mom. And among the things a perfect mom does is make her children's Halloween costumes. (or at least a perfect mom who sews). Even before we had kids I found myself longing for the day when I was a mom and could make my kids' costumes. (It was one of the hazards of working in a fabric store...I saw all those perfect moms doing just that). It's hard when your standard of perfection is not what it should be. In fact, perfect mom-dom has nothing to do with Halloween costumes. And to be honest, there is no such thing as perfection in a mom's world.
Being a mom means loving your kids absolutely. Unconditionally. It means selfless giving too them, but also disciplining them. It means your heart will be broken...and so will theirs. It means you'll have epic fails, and occasional successes. You'll have to change plans at the last second. You'll have to watch your kids fail sometimes...and be there to scoop them up off the ground. It means you'll be jealous of those parents who appear to be doing it better...and all the while they are jealous of you. Sometimes they'll say "Thank you," but a lot of times they won't. Sometimes they'll say "I love you", but sometimes they'll shout "I hate you." (When they are teenagers, a lot of times they'll shout "I hate you"...if they are talking to you at all...) It's simultaneously less than I expected and more than I could have dreamed. But it's definitely not a costume you can put on. You wear it all day, every day. For 18 years (who am I kidding...I'm pretty sure once you put it on you can never take it off).
I am a mom...it's who I am. No costume disaster can diminish that. No epic fails can take that away. God will continue to use me to love and nurture my children despite my failures, because he's the one who made me a mother. "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6)
I haven't told you about the last costume I made for my daughter. She was a witch...a cute witch...a beautiful witch. And her costume was fantastic, if I do say so myself. That was the year my daughter opened the bag of dum-dums I intended to give out as treats. And ate every last one of them. I found the wrappers stuffed in the couch. And I said she couldn't go trick or treating because she'd already had all her treats. We compromised. She went out, early, in our neighborhood. Then she brought back the treats, put them in our treat bowl, and we handed them out to the next kids that came along. I'd call that a Halloween success!
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