You're a WHAT?

As an admitted Halloween skeptic, I tend not to get very excited about the holiday. In fact, I sort of dread it. That said, for the sake of my children (this is the mom-guilt insert for when they read this blog years from now) I tried to put forth a valiant effort this year - complete with house decorations, homemade cut-out cookies for them to ice and eat each night after dinner for the week leading up to the Big Day, and immersion into their school festivities.

This year the boys chose their costumes early - knowing exactly what they wanted to be.

Parker chose the Transformer Bumblebee. Why? Who the hell knows. As with most action figure-type characters he has NEVER seen the movie or this cartoon (is Transformers a cartoon?), and he knows nothing about the character other than that he thinks he looks cool. That's enough for a three year old, I guess.

Leading up to Halloween, people would ask Parker what he was going to be, and he would happily report back "Bumblebee!" This declaration would get a smile and an "oh, that will be so cute!" answer, thinking about an ACTUAL little stinging insect (really not so sure what's cute about a bee anyway.) I had to train him to be more clear and say "Bumblebee the Transformer," to which most people just nodded and said, "oh."

Brady's choice was of the Bakugan Battle Brawler, Dan. This choice received an even bigger host of blank stares, for unless you are a total anime geek or have a boy between the ages of 5 and 10, you probably have no idea who this character is... don't worry, I don't think you're missing much.

The best part of Brady's costume was his hair. After fighting that crazy mop every morning before school, it was actually fun to get to fill it with sticky product and spike it high.... too bad we had his hair cut a few weeks earlier or he would have been a deadringer for Dan!

Their school parties were excitedly crazy, chaotic and exhausting - everything you'd expect from school Halloween functions. Our "scary" Halloween adventure involved the totaling of Bill's car the night before Halloween, and Trick-or-Treating was cold, wet and wonderful.

Nana came to man the house while we embarked out on the other side of the neighborhood to gather candy with friends. When we had managed to get a respectable stash, we headed home for warm jammies, hot chocolate and PB&J sandwiches.

The boys parked themselves in our front hall and excitedly watched for the next hour as the older kids came through. They found even more joy in giving the candy away than they did in receiving it - always a nice attribute to see brought out in your children.

Maybe Halloween isn't so bad after all...