Halloween & All Saints Costume Recap

I don't know when Halloween became a "thing" with the older kids.  I very much do not care about any aspect of the holiday aside from the free candy, because I have always been a rather candy-driven person (I know, I know, I'm 28 years old and still consume WAY more candy than a normal human being).  

But lo and behold, back in August Cecilia decided she was going to be a fairy for Halloween.  And she did NOT stray from her desire.  Andrew wasn't a huge fan, because he'd rather they just do Saint costumes and stick with those, but there is no convincing a 3-year-old.  And really, I found the perfect costume for the dress-up bin, so it all worked out.

I took Mary Claire and Elizabeth to the dollar store to finish up the big kids' costumes on Wednesday - Elizabeth picked out a heart wand for Cecilia ("Mom, WHY DID SHE NOT CHOOSE THE BUTTERFLY WAND???") and we got John Paul a dinosaur hat.  

Flexi clipped her hair, Tinkerbell-style.  Oh goodness she was the cutest!  And after every house she gleefully exclaimed, "Mom!!!  I got CANDY!!!"

The twins were given options from the dress up bins - Mary Claire chose a cow costume but it really barely fit on her, and we had just unearthed the cupcake hats Aunt Sister made for them last Christmas, so she was a...  Cupcake ballerina?  Well, she refused to wear the hat outside...  Actually, she refused to do much of anything.  Good thing she wasn't going to eat any of that candy anyway! 

John Paul wanted to be a dinosaur.  But NOT a green dinosaur (because, you know, we could have borrowed a costume for that and it would have been too easy...).  And no spikes, because, oh yeah, he wanted to be a Utahraptor.  A yellow one.  With brown spots.  And ONE brown spot on his tail.

Um, he kind of looked like Pikachu...  But I had all the fabric already, so it was easy enough.

Elizabeth has been obsessed with those pants since they made their way out of the hand-me-down bin.  And the hat - she wears it all day long.  She got HANDFULS of extra candy during trick or treating because she's so freaking adorable, even though she refused to look at half the people handing out candy because, hello, strangers!  Pretty young women got the full effect of her adorable-ness.  And the man in the blue afro wig.  Everybody else got a face buried in my skirt.

Blurry "Tinkerbell"

Cupcake twins

If there's one thing I've taught them well, it's how to pose for pictures!

Oh wait...

One more shot of the Utahraptor for good measure...

Anyway, we did minimal trick or treating with friends in our own neighborhood (there comes a point where the weak are separated from the strong - Mary Claire and Elizabeth just couldn't keep up with the super-fast 4 & 5-year-old crowd, and neither could I!), but still ended up with boatloads of candy because, duh, four kids.  

"You can each choose 10 pieces of candy to keep for your own dessert supply!"

"Mom, I'm just going to keep it all."

"No you're not."

"Well, just 10 of each."

"Nope."

They didn't even ask what we did with the rest...  Yeah, it's in the basement where Mom & Dad have full access.

Anyway, I've got mixed feelings on Halloween.  There's just so MUCH fuss about a really unimportant "holiday" and a lot of extra work if we're going to observe All Saints' Day properly...  So I told them that if they want to be something that doesn't work with a Saint costume next year, they're in charge of figuring that out on their own...  John Paul has already decided on "Superhero" which just means wearing a cape from the dress up bin.  

Today he was dressed as St. Benedict, although we never did quite make it into full costume...

And Cecilia has been wearing her St. Bernadette "costume" for months.  Mary Claire and Elizabeth were NOT having it, so next year maybe we'll plan better.  Or just not care and go low-key again...  

We were hoping to have a big All Saints party but Andrew had to sing an evening Mass and I was just too tired to plan anything...  And honestly, we spend so much time immersed in the lives of the saints that there wasn't much to do aside from a nice long family litany during bedtime prayers.  At which point somehow we got on the topic of the British Reformation and I had to explain "the bad king" who didn't want to obey the pope and decided to start his own church. (Is he still alive, Mom?  Um, no...)

And then Cecilia wanted to know if he had any kids, and what THEY did, and why did Elizabeth kill so many Catholics?  And we should probably pray for her.

Of course, the expert in British history (Andrew) was out of the house so there was a lot of, "Ask Dad tomorrow!  I don't know!!!" 

Let's just be glad they haven't started asking about Luther...

Enough of a photo dump for you?  This is what happens when I'm 39 weeks pregnant and hit with pregnancy insomnia!