Just as I was starting to feel a little bit nostalgic on Halloween about the good old days when I could take a picture of all my kids together before we all headed out to Trick-or-Treat, they all miraculously happened to be home at the same time for five minutes.

Elle came home after getting all gussied up with her friends to be the Spice Girls (they came in dancing their hearts out to one of their songs all in character) right before Grace had to leave to meet up with her friends to transform themselves into vampires.

So there we go…happy Halloween from a spice girl, a little witch, Pocahontas, and a half-way-turned-into-a-vampire girl.

But let’s back up for a sec. to a couple nights before when we went to our neighborhood Fall Festival.  
The girls were so dang excited they got ready extra early.
A quick note on Claire’s outfit for those who were worried: Claire borrowed that my friend who made  it for her daughter a couple years ago.  After seeing Pocahontas in the play at Tuacahn this summer she thought it would be pretty fun to be her for Halloween.  She certainly meant no disrespect to the Native American culture.

Lucy really wanted to paint her face green, but figured she’d wait until the real Halloween for that.  She did try the glove for five minutes but wasn’t in love.

Here we are complete with the glasses.

Our neighborhood does this pretty great fall festival every year.

Then it was on to the actual Halloween and the green face paint.

When I was applying it Lucy decided she’d really rather not wear it, but I told her to go check herself out in the mirror before we washed it off.

All I could hear from the bathroom was her laughing her head off.  She thought she was pretty dang hilarious, but still wouldn’t let me smooth it out very well.

Complete that look with her orange glasses and she was quite a doozy of a witch!

Lucy wore her shoes on the wrong feet like that all night long.  She insisted that they were on the right feet.

My brother Josh, my neighbor and her kids and Lu and I cruised around the neighborhood to trick-or-treat while our husbands manned a little fire pit at the end of our cul-de-sac and handed out candy.  This is the only goofy picture I got of them when they were putting the fire away at the end of the night.

Dave’s parents dropped by for a little bit at the end…

These two trick-or-treaters were still pretty excited about their left-over candy after the dads negotiated with them to give away most of it.  Pure delight in those eyes.

I think Lucy’s eyebrows were exceptionally well highlighted with the remainder of the green face paint 😉

After we tucked that little witch into bed Grace and her vampire/strawberry friends needed a ride from one party to the next.
…and I found Claire and her friends across the street having the time of their lives cruising around in a huge pack.

One friend came home with her for the big “candy-count-and-trade-dump.”

And then Grace’s friends showed up for a little hot chocolate making:

….and Elle showed up right in the nick of time before curfew with a big smile after hopping from place to place with her friends all night.

And that’s a wrap until next year.

Hope it was a great one for everyone!

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10 Comments

  1. I love the costumes! How fun! About Claire dressing up like a Native American I prefer what Anne Shirley says, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." I think it is quite a sincere compliment!

    1. I know it was meant without disrespect and in the sense of liking a historical character enough to want to emulate her, but if you ask a Native American whether "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," the answer is likely to be "no."
      It's hard to have that conversation with your kiddo about why someone else's heritage and culture are not a costume, and particularly to talk about the brutality Native peoples in our country have suffered and the difficult socioeconomic circumstances they still face and that that's part of why it's not okay, but it's a conversation that's worth it. As a fledgling deliberate mother, those are both conversations I plan to have with my 18 month old daughter when she's older.
      Here's one Native mom's take on culture-as-costume:
      http://www.mommyish.com/2013/10/24/indian-themed-costumes-racist/

    2. However "innocent" the intent was, it is cultural appropriation. The story of Pocahontas is a myth and one used by white people to perpetuate the good Indian/bad Indian philosophy: Pocahontas was good because she saved the white man, John Smith, from being beaten by her father. The true story of Pocahontas involved her taken prisoner and then forced to marry John Rolfe as a condition of her release.

      If your daughter were truly trying to respect Native American culture, you could have worked with her to study their customs, traditional dress, and way of life and the REAL history of how they were/are treated in this country.

  2. I love how the kids have so many friends in the neighborhood. The girls all looked great for Haloween! By the way, we just put up our first thankful tree and my 2.5 year old is super into it. I am beyond excited to keep this tradition going each year. I am so thankful for the idea 🙂

  3. You're going to think I'm crazy, but where did Elle get her darling jacket in the first picture? I've been looking for one like that for a long time! Thanks! Everyone looks so cute!

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