A Halloween History....

Early to be talking about Halloween, you say? Well, I'm going to give you a little Buller family Halloween History. When my children were babies and toddlers I always made their costumes.

And they were cute. Darn cute! Dare I say, practically the cutest kids to don costumes. And I spent lots of time and energy on their little sweet outfits. The top two pictures are Annsley as a peapod on her first Halloween. The bottom two are Seth on his first Halloween (well, actually his second. His first was the day after he was born....but I digress.) Really, my crowning jewel was the lion costume. That was the year my kids were the lion and the lamb. (Come on everyone...."awwwwwe".) I made Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. I made a duck and a skunk. And I would proudly promenade them around our church's fall festival saying humbly, "Yes, I made it.....thanks."

And then, they got older. And I started homeschooling. And teaching. And they had opinions. They no longer wanted to match and be cute. They wanted to be batman and a princess. And I had no time to sew a costume that would cost me more to make than to buy.

So, I swung to the other extreme. "What do you want to be this year?" I would ask the week before Halloween. (All the "good" costumes were sold out by then.) "How about the batman in your dress-up box? Great!!" Let's face it. A seven year old batman doesn't hold a candle in terms of cuteness to a two year old skunk!!!

Why am I telling you all this today? We had a little extra time this afternoon and we drove past the 50% off card shop where they have tons of costumes and accessories. And we stopped. And we bought costumes....before they sold out of the good ones!! So, this year we will be proudly sporting a cheap (they even chose ones that were on sale) ninja, with sword and a Renaissance princess. And I didn't have to make them. And I no longer have to have the Halloween costume thing hanging over my head.

But, one of the best parts was that the kids were so thankful. You would have thought I had given them a solid gold sword and crown! I love it when my kids are thankful. It made me almost want to do something really nice for them.....like sew them a costume or something.