Ariel for a day

While in typical fashion, we are way behind on posting to the blog, I did want to make sure that I had a chance to go back and write about the fun Halloween season we had.  And I say "season" because Sonia has obsessed for so long about her costume (literally months and months of anticipation), and there were so many activities, it is hardly just one day at this point.

First off, we had to decorate the house (Sonia was quite insistent on this as she saw more and more neighbors get in the spirit of things).  After putting up our "Happy Halloween" sign on the door and our ghost lights, of course the critical missing ingredient was pumpkins.  Slight complicating factor was that Sameer was out of town on an epic European tour for work, so Sonia, Deven, and I hit the pumpkin patch without him.  Deven was a huge fan of the outing, Sonia enjoyed the bouncy house, and I was proud that I managed to wrangle two kids and a cart full of pumpkins without incident.

"I am smiling to distract you, then I will run off and see how fast you can chase me while not losing my sister or dumping all of the pumpkins on the ground.  Weeee..this is fun!"

After acquiring the pumpkins, of course it was required that we carve them.  Sameer was back at this point, but quickly declared himself to have no skills in this area, mostly because he seemed a bit squeamish about reaching into the pumpkin to scrape out all of the seeds and guts.  Cross reference his "inability" to carve a turkey at Thanksgiving.  In a fit of stupidity, I told Sonia that she could pick out the designs she wanted from the book that came with the pumpkin carving set.  Mind you, when we were kids, we cut out some triangles for eyes with some huge chef's knife and called it a day.  We were lucky to manage one snaggly tooth in the mouth.  Sonia instead elected for a cat pumpkin again ("because I still like cats"), and also the "castle" pumpkin (I think because somehow this could be princess related?).  By the time I finished both, I have to say that I felt like the Michelangelo of pumpkin carving, so wanted to make sure to preserve for posterity these masterpieces...

"Cat Pumpkin" makes an appearance for the second year running

That's right, be impressed, because it was a complete pain in the you-know-what to carve "Castle Pumpkin"

More important than pumpkins, of course, are costumes.  They are so important that a 4-year-old will talk for an entire year about what she wants to be for Halloween.  Sonia's latest obsession these days is Ariel the Mermaid, so despite my constant efforts to encourage other ideas, she was determined to be her for the day.  I ultimately relented, spent an hour (no exaggeration) going through every possible mermaid costume possibility online (holy cow are there lots of choices...trying to get to the right level of cute but not weirdly adult with spaghetti straps), and in another fit of stupidity (a trend?), acquired an Ariel wig at Target to complete the look.  Go ahead and judge, but Sonia was glowing with happiness as she was magically transformed into Ariel for the day, and happily endured the itchiness of the wig and her inability to take normal size steps (oh, the agony of the mermaid skirt) without complaint.

Ariel graces our doorstep...needless to say, the wig was a hit at preschool

Sonia and her friends during the preschool Halloween "parade"

Finally, Halloween itself arrived and it was time for trick-or-treating.  It was Sameer's turn to take the kids out (while I stayed home to hand out candy), so he was asked repeatedly by Sonia what his costume would be.  He finally relented to wear a set of ghost deely-boppers (?) and a glow necklace.  We also put Deven in his train conductor costume (given his obsession with "choo choos"), although he refused to wear the hat for more than two seconds. 

Off they went (with our neighbors who have two kids the same age), and Sonia was a pro this year at rapidly going to each house and acquiring candy.  Deven (in his rookie season) was a bit slower to pick up on the pattern.  At the first house he accepted the candy, but then tried to hand it back.  At another point he tried to give his entire pumpkin bag full of candy to the person who greeted him at the door.  But, eventually he got it, and seemed to really enjoy running up to new houses, ringing the doorbell (admittedly, a favorite pastime), and then accepting gifts from strangers.  Not sure why we are teaching him this is a good thing.  :-)

Sameer and his "costume"

The only photo we managed where Deven is wearing his hat

The whole family

Of course, the night ended with the ritual sorting of the candy.  Deven was asleep, so not there to complain when his big sister swiftly combined his candy with hers and declared it all one big collection from which she could choose her favorites.   I suspect the dynamic will be different next year.

Sorting through the bounty...Skittles were declared "my favorite"

Sonia was allowed to have a couple of pieces of candy right before going to bed, which turned out to be as smart of a decision as it sounds.  Oh well, once a year, sugar highs are allowed.  Sonia is already planning her costume for next year (current leading contender is Minnie Mouse...a return to old favorites!).  Only 11 months more of debating this topic to come...