Halloween Past

I dropped Buzz Lightyear off to school this morning.

He was enthusiastically greeted by Spiderman, Batman, about 6 princesses and a zombie. 

Really?  A Zombie?  He's 3 years old for chrissake. 

The sad thing is, I KNOW the Zombie idea was not Caden's.  It was Caden's Daddy.  Or Caden's Mommy's Boyfriend.  Whatever. 

The thing is, I was feeling sorta sorry for myself as I loaded Buzz into the car this morning.

Not sorry -- that's not the right word.  Wistful maybe? 

What do you call it when you see your kids growing and making decisions on their own and not asking or wanting your opinion?  That's the feeling I had this morning.

He's only 3.  Shouldn't I still have SOME influence on his choice of costume?

OK -- we would definitely NOT do Zombies.  Or Vampires.  We still have Veto power.

But the truth is, the choice is his. 

He gets to decide what to be.

That's kinda hard on me.

Because I miss the puppy years.

This is #2 son, not Buzz Lightyear.  But all 3 have been this puppy. 

This Halloween

I hope I see a lot of Harry Potters this Halloween.  And Cinderellas.  And Storm Troopers. 

I hope to find a Barack Obama and maybe even a Nancy Pelosi.  (Scary!)

I hope to see bumblebees and fairy princesses.  I hope to see dinosaurs and pumpkins. 

Buzz.  Woody.  Jesse. 

Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker.

Snow White.  Maybe a witch.  A ghost or two would be good.

I can even stand Bella, Edward & Jacob, although I am not generally a fan.

Skeletons, vampires and even a devil.

That would be a great Halloween.

So far, however, I've seen some costumes I never want to see again.

Like 8 year olds dressed as bloody zombies and Freddy Kruger.

Or 13 year olds dressed as Stripper versions of Bo-Peep.

A tween dressed as a "hippie" wearing a micro-mini skirt, thigh high stockings and high heeled go go boots.  Hippies didn't dress like that.  I looked it up.

I am sick of Sexy Nurse costumes, sexy maid costumes, sexy anything.  Tired of bloody, violent, angry monsters and other nightmares. 

To me, those are costumes for grownups.

Not for kids who are barely in high school. 

Or younger.

Happy Halloween 

My Intervention

After a killer-owie Leadership Workout on Saturday, a couple of fellow sufferers joined me for breakfast.

We spent much of the time gloating about how well we did on our stats that morning.  Victor did a mid-challenge weigh in.  As a group we lost over 50 lbs!  That's as much as last year's group did FOR THE WHOLE CHALLENGE! 

We're a little excited about it.

Excited enough to go to breakfast.

Not excited enough to get french toast though.  My breakfast had spinach in it.  Yeah.  I still wanna win.

One of my companions complimented me on my journey.  She also gave to to me straight.

"You have to get rid of the skort". 

The other girls nodded silently in agreement. 

"But I love my skort!  I can exercise without looking as if I've peed my pants!"

"I know", she said gently.  "I know you like it.  But it doesn't look good on you.  It's time to let it go."

I wanted to scream and cry and tell her she was wrong! wrong! wrong! wrong!  There is nothing wrong with the skort!  I can put it away anytime I want to.

But in my heart, I knew she was right.

The skort was a crutch.

How can I criticise other people's unfortunate fashion choices if I am going to continue to wear the skort? 

I would be living a lie.

Thanks to my good friends Mary, Rachel & Megan, I got the courage I needed to put the skorts -- all three of them -- in the Goodwill bag.

Goodbye dear friend!  *Sniff!*

And thank you!

The skort saw me through tire tosses



Suicides.  And burpees.



70's day

I'll never forget the day we danced

One more Halloween post. . .

There has been a lot of talk on the bloggosphere about tween's costumes this year. 

Know why?  Tween slut costumes.  Read this post and this post.  I actually saw some of these for myself at the CATHOLIC School Carnival last week.  Scary! 

I don't have girls.  I don't have to worry about thigh high tights or push-up training bras.  At least not until  my boys hit puberty. . .and then I will worry for a different reason.   You know I wanna get all judgy about the moms of girls who let their daughters dress as Little Ho Peep or Slutty Red Riding Hood.  I wanna. 

Maybe I should just shuddup.

Becasue I have boys.

I worry about:

Weapons.

Bloody, gory, hurty weapons.

I have one kid who will be dressing up like Einstein.  No issues there.  One will be an Oompa Loompa.  How adorable is that going to be?????  One will be a seafaring thief/vandal/rapist/murderer -- I mean Pirate.

Pirate is a good costume, right?  Pirates are cute.   Jack Sparrow (played by my very-second-choice-for-a-husband, Johnny Depp) is downright sexy.  I know that Pirates II & III were really really sucky movies.  Johnny Depp was still dreamylishious.  Even though he looks like he'd smell.  He's still hot.  I'm getting all drooly.  Sorry. 

Why do we think pirates are cute?  Is it because they are from a bygone era?  Will kids in 2210 dress up like doe-eyed versions of Charles Manson? I shudder at the thought.

At any rate, a pirate he wants to be and a pirate he's going to be.  An adorable pirate.  With a sword.  And maybe a gun.

He wants to be a pirate because of the weapons.  I could dress him in a suit & tie and he wouldn't care as long as he got to carry the sword.  He LOVES weapons. And toy stores LOVE to sell weapons to little boys like him.

Here are some of our choices:

Be careful not to get that blood on your sister.

Because kids can't get enough of bloody chainsaws.

This looks less like a weapon and more like an instrument of torture. 

Elegant, yet effective!

My personal favorite.  This one is called "Sacrificial Dagger".  Just in case we run into any virgins. 

All sold at a Toys-R-us near you! 

So, moms of girls?

Tell Little Ho Peep to beware of Pirates. 

And the Winner is. . . .

Jana J!

Greg took Kathy's advice and used http://www.random.org/ to generate the winner. 

Jana's comment:

Best movie: Gone With The Wind

Worst: Son Of The Mask


Craziest costume: I was a man's worst nightmare...missing teeth, robe, slippers, curlers and big ol' preggo belly. One year I was broke so I bought a bag of purple balloons, fastened them to a hefty bag and was a bunch of grapes. It was actually very cute!



Jana

Congratulations Jana J!

I have to agree that Son of the Mask was 10 kinds of horrible!  And I bet the grapes costume was fun!

Enjoy your luxurious Starbucks gift card!  Suitable for re-gifting if you don't drink coffee!

More giveaways to come!

A Gift of Fat Giveaway -- Updating the rules!

I am such a comment whoooooooooore that in order to get more comments on my blog, I am going to GIVE AWAY something.

Probably should pick something decent.

I am giving away a Gift Card to Starbucks (because they are everywhere). 

All you have to do to win is:

1. Tell me your favorite movie OF ALL TIME
2. Tell me your LEAST favorite movie OF ALL TIME
3. Tell me your craziest Halloween Costume ever.

Updated rule 1: You must leave your comment HERE.  Not on Facebook, Twitter or Linked in.  E-mails don't count either.
Updated rule 2: If I gave birth to you, or I am married to you, you are not eligible.  All others are eligible.


I will announce the winner next week.

I will even let Greg pick the winner, so you don't have to worry about me maybe playing favorites.  Like to Nicki or Alexa O or Rae or Annabel Manners or other frequent commenters.  Because I would never do that.  Even though I love them best.

And since you are DYING to know my answers to these questions:

Favorite movie OF ALL TIME:  Sixteen Candles.  Or Seven Samurai.  Or Singing in the Rain.  Or Breakfast at Tiffany's.  This is a hard question.

Least favorite: Gorillas in the Mist.  This is an easy question.

Craziest Halloween Costume Ever:  When I was about 7 or 8, I dressed up as a pack of cigarettes.  Specifically I was a pack of Benson & Hedges Menthol Lights 100s.  Because that is the brand my mom smokes. 

Can you imagine an 8 year old dressing up as a pack of cigarettes today?  I didn't think so.

Can't wait to see your answers!!!!