I suspect this year is one of the last years -- if not the last year -- that I'll be able to persuade the boys to do themed costumes.* So we made the most of it with one of their favorite subjects: Mario Bros. Liam and (especially) Max love all things Mario. They know all the names of all the creatures, they discuss what happens at each level of the game (even when they're not playing it!), they draw pictures of the various levels. Their love affair with Mario dates back to last Christmas, when I got New Super Mario Bros. Wii as a gift. And even Henry loves it. Whenever we turn it on, as soon as he hears the first few bars of the music, he perks right up and starts making the excited noises that he usually reserves for cat sightings.
So this year we were beyond excited to find a Mario costume in Max's size. A couple weeks later, we went back, and they had a single Luigi costume -- in Liam's size! Perfect. The only thing left was to figure out Henry's costume since the only other pre-packaged Mario character costume was Princess Peach (we tried to talk Klaudia into getting that one, but she was having none of it). And then my mom came to the rescue again. We decided on the character Toad (a mushroom man who is a servant to Princess Peach and often assists Mario and Luigi) and I printed out some pictures. Then Marlene worked her magic, and a few days later, we had a wonderful little Toad hat and vest to go with his basic white shirt and light tan pants. Perfect!
Of course, when the big night came, it got pretty cold, so we had to rethink Toad for that part of the trip. Instead, Henry wore Max's old monkey costume, which was nice and warm and had a hood. We walked around trick-or-treating for about half an hour, then Max abruptly decided that he was done with all the walking and just wanted to sit at home and hand out candy to other kids. I was flying solo because Mike had a mandatory weekend work shift (boo!), but luckily I worked out a trade with Laura: Liam accompanied her, Kelsey, and Emma, while Max and Henry stayed home with me and cousins Jimmy and Gracie. And everyone was perfectly happy, except for poor Charlie,** who did not enjoy the comings and goings of so many strangers. After a while, Jan*** and the Holiday kids dropped by, and once the official trick-or-treat time ended, we headed to Grandpa's house for one last treat for the night.
On actual Halloween, we went trick-or-treating to Bethany's house, where the boys collected sweet bags full of toys and treats, and to my mom's house, where they got non-edible but fiercely coveted Kung Zhu pets. Whew!
*Full disclosure: Liam had two costumes. He went as Darth Vader to his school's fall festival, but went trick-or-treating as Luigi.
** Charlie was persuaded a few days earlier to wear a costume of his own. That post to come.
*** Janis had the best trick-or-treat strategy ever: Head to Laura's house, then sit down and enjoy a beverage and the Notre Dame game while her kids scoured the neighborhood. Then head to my house and repeat the routine, minus the beverage and football. Genius!
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