Princesses and the Pea

Once again, I have deemed myself officially insane. On top of having a brand new baby and a six year old in half body casts, I committed myself to once again, sewing Halloween costumes. This is a tradition I started when Paige was a baby and every year I end up swearing and crying the night before Halloween and vowing to never sew again! Yet somehow, when the cheesy, cheap looking yet quite expensive costumes come out, I head to JoAnn instead of conforming to the commercialism of Halloween. But this time I mean it...no more!

I had seen the idea of Princess and the Pea years ago in a scrapbook magazine and wanted to copy it forever, but never had a baby small enough to not move so that I could pull off the Pea. This year I thought it would be perfect...Bode made a great Pea and Paige the Princess could hold him in her "chariot". The girls took some talking into, Paige wanted to be the tooth fairy and Claire was dying to be a cat, but no, like an idiot I pushed my idea!! True to years past, I spent all day Thursday making Claire's costume and altering Paige and Bode's to somewhat fit. Why couldn't I have just been happy to let Bode wear his $3 ghost shirt? He looked cuter in it anyway!

We started out with our cousins at the County building and really cleaned up! The kids got so much candy, all without being in the dark and cold. Everyone asked about Paige's legs and she loved the attention! We tried to get her to come up with funny stories about them, but she wanted to be honest and tell them she had club feet. We stopped by to see Grandma Terry and by that time Paige had warmed up to the idea and told everyone there she had either crashed her bike or that karate kid Keaton had karate chopped her legs! By the time we got home, both girls wanted a nap, and poor Bode just wanted food! Steve was really disappointed, he had always wanted to take the kids trick-or-treating and now they were too pooped to go! After a short rest and promises of roasted pumpkin seeds upon their return, the girls loaded up and went on their way. It was really quite nice to stay home and pass out packets of hot chocolate to the kids, enjoying the smell of burning pumpkin from our front porch every time I opened the door.

So...despite the lack of sleep last night due to sugar high, the drama of homemade costumes and the burn of my biceps from lifting that wheelchair and Paige all around town, we had a great Halloween. But really...next year will be a totally different story!